by T. S. Ryder
The site itself looked somewhat shady compared to the other ones. Those had been crisp and clean, with lots of white space and light colors. This site lived up to its name. It was wild in reds and blacks. The sidebars were images of claw marks and the logo had a paw print. This was apparently where all the bad boys went to find love. This might be her ideal site. She loved bad boys. Motorcycles, tattoos and leather jackets, someone who could handle himself in a fight and wouldn’t hesitate to defend her. Someone who was just as much an animal in the bedroom as she was. And the best part? The site was free.
Destiny clicked on “Create a Profile” and was faced with another dark page. At the top, in bright red letters, there was a warning: “Finding a match on this site means your life will never be the same. Only those who are ready for a thrill and a bit of danger should proceed. You’ll find only the wildest hearts here.”
A grin spread across her face. A little danger? She glanced around the bland office. The cream colored walls and soft tan chairs of the waiting area. The predictable wooden table with a selection of newspapers. Even the carpet was a dull brown. You’d think a place called Greene and Greene would have some color to it. But only their names were colorful. Two Greenes, a Brown, and a White worked there. The staff was a crayon box, but the office was a burlap sack.
She wondered why she hadn’t noticed before how she blended right in. Her dark brown skin, her creamy top, her chocolate-colored pants. She was just another part of the decor around here. Something had to change. And this site might be just the thing she needed to make her feel alive again.
Chapter Two
Writing her profile took hours. Luckily, she had them to spare. Today was even slower than usual. The mailman had brought the mail, which took her a handful of minutes to sort, and there’d been only five or six phone calls. She took her time, making sure every detail of her profile was perfect. She wanted to be attractive to these men so that she’d have her pick of the top profiles.
First, she worked on the description in the “About me” section. She wrote: “Curvy African American woman looking to spice up a boring life and find some hot action.” But she was horrified as she reread it. It sounded like all she was after was sex. Sure, that’d be part of it, but that wasn’t her primary focus. She wanted someone to love, not just someone to sleep with.
She thought for a while and changed her description to: “Curvy African American woman looking for new adventures in love. I’m ready to settle down with someone I can stay wild with.”
There. That got across what she was hoping to portray. She didn’t want to settle into a boring home life or a boring marriage, but she wanted to be secure in a relationship with someone that would rock her world daily. That sort of settled was the only kind she was interested in.
Next, there was a section on hobbies. Well, if she was honest, she didn’t do much besides shopping and going out with her girls and cleaning her house and her mother’s. But those things sounded boring. Not something an adventurous guy would be into. She needed to sound just as interesting as the men she hoped to find. She didn’t want to go too far and lie, but an exaggeration would be required.
Well, partying could be dangerous and exciting, so maybe her nights out with the girls could be talked up a bit. They usually had drinks and dinner, but if she just said they partied, no one had to know it was a rather tame party of three. She couldn’t see any way to make shopping sound better, and cleaning? Not something most people considered a hobby. She always wanted to get more into motorcycles, though. And maybe learn how to shoot a gun or throw a punch. But since she didn’t do these things already, she said, “Interested in motorcycles and weapons.” It was truthful, at least.
The last thing she needed was some photos. This would be the hardest part. While Destiny loved every one of her curves, she also knew not all men did. She needed to find the pics that focused on her positive aspects. She scrolled through the photos on her phone. There was a good one from a recent night out, but it had two other people in the photo, and the website said her profile photo could only have her. She uploaded the photo to her collection, but would still need a profile pic. One or two weren’t bad, but when she got home tonight, she’d have to put on something hot and take a new photo. Something tight and low cut to show the men exactly what they would be getting with her.
Once she had a temporary profile photo in place, she was done. She hit save and looked it over one last time to make sure it was error free. Then, she hovered her mouse over the link that said: “Find Matches.” She took a deep breath and clicked.
A screen of photos cascaded in front of her. Rows and rows of little squares. She felt like a child playing a card game. If she flipped over the cards, it would tell her secrets and she would have to search through them all to find the one she was looking for. Could he really be here? Her future boyfriend, listed here among so many other hopefuls?
Starting with the first row, she inspected each face until she found one that she considered very attractive. She clicked it and was presented with his profile. More photos, a section about him, his list of hobbies. At first, she felt disappointed. This site was like any of the other dating sites she’d looked at. What was so special about Wild Hearts? Where was all the intrigue and danger? Or did they just mean to say that online dating in general was risky?
Destiny went back to the main page. As she looked over the photos, she noticed that they seemed to have one thing in common. All the men here were thick with muscles. Maybe the bad boy theme of this site attracted a certain type and that was what made it different. Realizing this gave her renewed excitement. These men were exactly her type and the large majority was quite hot. From what she’d seen when her girl Francesca did the online thing, finding a lot of good looking men online was not the norm.
One by one, she clicked the profiles. This time, she paid more attention to the hobbies section. Whatever they were into was probably what they would want to do with her. So the guy who loved fishing and hiking was a no. She was not going to sit in the heat near a fly-ridden lake and wait for a fish to chomp on her worm. No way. But if they listed motorcycles, that caught her attention. She loved the feeling of that motor with all its power between her legs.
The Wild Hearts site had a feature that let you click on a paw print shaped button and send a “growl” to someone to show interest. She “growled” at several men, the excitement in her belly rising. If any of them responded, she’d be happy.
A message window popped up as she was surfing. There was a note from a guy named “bigguns87.” A smile crept across her face and she clicked to open it. “Hey there, hot stuff. If you like my big guns, message me back. Maybe we can workout sometime.”
Workout? Was that his opening line? Her thrill started to fade, but she clicked on his photo to view his profile anyway. His photos were all attractive. He clearly worked out and now she saw that his “big guns” were a reference to his huge biceps, not his firearms. In the hobby section, he had listed lifting weights, working out, and spending time with pretty ladies. She rolled her eyes. What a line.
He didn’t seem that interesting. But she wanted to be fair, so she read his description. “Hey there. I like to hit the gym and sweat hard. If you want to come sweat with me, message me and we’ll see if we can work out.”
So, he thought he was being clever? She let out a long sigh. Bigguns87 did not seem like her type at all.
The office phone rang and Destiny picked it up. As she listened to the man talk, his voice deep and smooth, she wondered what he looked like. If he was a bad boy looking for love, too. Maybe he was on this dating site too, there were thousands of people on it. Surely, she’d run across one in real life now and then. She was tempted to keep his name and number for herself, to maybe Google him later, but then he said that he needed Mr. Caleb Greene to call him because he needed to be defended on a sexual assault charge. She thanked him for calling and hung up after taking his message. There would be no keeping that
name and number.
Back to the site. She had another message waiting for her. “Hi. You seem fun. I like to party, too. Want to party together?” This profile seemed much more interesting. He did list working out. She’d have to get used to that, she supposed. These guys weren’t just huge by accident. But exercise wasn’t her thing. If they didn’t have other interests, she’d have nothing to talk about with them. This guy, “looking4luv9133,” also listed shooting, kayaking and motorcycles. Now that sounded like fun. Unfortunately, his photos weren’t the best, though. He looked a little short, a little awkward, and she just didn’t find him too attractive.
She spent the next hour looking through profiles and sending “growls” where she thought the guy was a suitable match. By the end of the day, though, her hopes were low. This seemed doomed to fail like so many of her other relationships. Either she couldn’t keep the men she wanted or the ones who wanted her, she didn’t want back. She’d gone on a few awful dates and then had to carefully tell them she wasn’t interested. She’d gone on a few great dates and was left wondering why they stopped returning her texts. Nothing seemed to be going right when it came to her love life.
There was a good chance she was opening herself up for failure with this endeavor, but the hope, dampened as it might be at the moment, was still there. The longing was still there. So when she got home at the end of the day, she made dinner and sat down with her laptop to read the messages that had come in.
Chapter Three
Destiny had six messages waiting for her when she logged on. One, she immediately deleted. The guy wasn’t very attractive and his message was awful. Though she was by no means a grammar snob, she had her limits, and this guy crossed them with, “i climb, riding, and shooting guns. I have bike, degree, house. i was hoping we could be good friends. maybe i take you for ride sometime.” The message barely made sense and she wondered exactly what sort of degree didn’t require someone to use proper punctuation.
The next one was better. He could at least use the English language well and while he wasn’t a knockout, he was cute enough. He said, “Hey there! Looks like we have some things in common. Would you be interested in chatting and seeing where it takes us?” Simple and to the point. She read his profile. He had listed motorcycles and knife throwing with his hobbies. The idea of throwing knives both intrigued and scared her. Perfect.
She wrote back, “Knife throwing, huh? Sounds dangerous. I like it ;)” She read her response a few times. Was it long enough? She hit send with an uneasy feeling. This was all new to her. What was the protocol for these sorts of things? Were there “rules” like there were in the dating world? Like not sleeping with someone until the third date. Did you not give out your number until the third message? How did any of this work?
With a sigh, she went onto the next message. Whoa. This guy was hot. She held her breath and clicked to open his message, but quickly breathed a sigh of relief. Even if his username was a bit cheesy, makeUpurrr left a good message: “Hiya. Love your pics and profile. I’d love to take you for a ride on my bike sometime. What kind of weapons are you into?” He’d asked her a question, obviously read her profile and wasn’t creepy. This could be her perfect man.
She responded back eagerly. “Love your profile, too, cutey! A motorcycle ride sounds perfect. I don’t own any weapons yet, but I’d love to learn more about guns and knives. Do you shoot?”
She felt good about this one. He was smoking hot. His thick muscles and deep brown hair cut short were the perfect backdrop for his glowing green eyes and chiseled jaw. One of his profile photos showed him on his bike and the image alone turned her on. Maybe this online thing would work out after all.
She was thinking that maybe she shouldn’t even bother with the other messages since makeUpurrr sounded so good, but then she saw a glimpse of the photo of another man who messaged her. He was just as yummy as makeUpurrr. She clicked on his message: “Hiya. First messages are always so awkward, so I’ll just say hey. If you look at my profile and like what you see, message me back and we can get to know each other.” She smiled at the simple message and clicked on his profile.
Every one of wildman28’s photos showed him smiling. He looked so happy, she wondered if he had any bad boy in him. Maybe he ended up on this site by accident. His hobbies included fighting and painting. The painting made sense. He seemed peaceful enough to stand in front of an easel for hours making art. But fighting? Obviously, she couldn’t tell by the photos alone, but he looked too much like a pacifist to be a serious fighter. But his message had been nice and he was so cute, she couldn’t pass up the chance to at least message him once or twice.
As she was typing a response, a message popped up in the instant chat window. She didn’t even know what it was at first, but then she saw that rider9843 had said to her: “Hey, I sent you a message.”
Destiny hadn’t gotten to read it yet. “Thanks!”
“Is that all you have to say?”
She frowned. What was the deal with this guy? “Well, I haven’t read your message yet.”
“Why not?”
She took in a sharp breath and clenched her teeth. “Because I’m answering other messages.”
“Oh, I see. I’m not good enough for you or what?”
Okay, this was enough. “With that attitude, nope. Goodbye!”
She deleted his waiting message without reading it and clicked to close the chat window. But before she could even get to the next message, the window popped back up.
Rider9843 had said simply, “Bitch.”
Then, under his username, it said: “This user has blocked you.”
She blinked at the screen in shock. What in the world? She scrolled back up to read through the chat. What had she done to deserve that? He was rude from the start. She wasn’t going to let him get away with that. Well, good riddance to him. Guess if you want to play with bad boys, there’s always the chance they actually are the jerk they often pretend to be.
She read the next message, but she was so distracted, she couldn’t focus. She closed her computer and went into the kitchen to wash the one dish sitting in the sink. It wasn’t enough. She went into the bathroom and started scrubbing the floor, trying not to replay that awful chat in her mind.
Did this sort of thing happen all the time with online dating sites? If that was the case, she didn’t need it. Better to stay single than to deal with this sort of ridiculous, uncalled for belligerence. Her phone buzzed a few times with notifications from the site, but she ignored them.
When the bathroom was clean, she dressed for bed and brushed her teeth in her shining bathroom. Then she climbed into bed to read after putting her phone on “Do not disturb.” Maybe tomorrow she’d just delete her profile and be done with it.
Chapter Four
In the morning, Destiny was feeling better about her chat incident the night before. It had lost some intensity in her mind during the night and when she reached for her phone, she smiled to see that she had eight waiting messages. Over her morning coffee, she opened the app and looked at the list. Nothing from that jerk rider9843. But there was one from makeUpurrr and one from wildman28. Her heart jumped at the sight of their names.
She read all eight messages and they fell into categories in her mind. Two of the men, she was not interested in at all. Three, she was highly interested in, and the rest fell into a place where she would keep messaging them, but if they didn’t get more interesting, she’d stop. The top runners at the moment were makeUpurrr, wildman28, and a new man who’d messaged her for the first time, hazzard666. The newest guy was a car buff. He explained his name had something to do with the car in Dukes of Hazzard. The fact that he often raced these cars was what intrigued her.
She’d only had time to read the messages, not respond. After she got to work, listened to the voicemails that had come after hours, responded to and forwarded emails, and got the coffee made, she had some time to get on Wild Hearts.
She started with the guys wh
o seemed less interesting. One was outdoorsy, which she didn’t like, but he made weapons and was kinda cute, so that made her continue to message him. There was another gun guy with a photo showing off his display of gun racks. And a biker. But when she got to her top three, she found herself spending much more time answering those messages.
She kept the Wild Hearts site open in a tab in her browser and checked on it throughout the day. After making copies for Caleb Greene, she checked it. After pointing Michelle White, the paralegal, to the fresh paperclips, she checked it. After lunch and after one particularly annoying phone call in which a man thought it was a law that any lawyer had to represent him for free, and therefore was demanding free counsel, she checked her inbox on the site.
Messages would come through one or two an hour. Like the morning, if it was a new guy, she’d check his profile and decide if she was interested, then respond accordingly by either hitting delete or sending them a message back. She noticed, though, that when something came through from one of her top three, her heart leaped and a smile stretched across her face as she read. And those were always the ones she responded to the fastest and longest.
By the end of the day, she had exchanged too many messages to count, and several each with her top three. That night, she stopped on her way home to get dinner. She wanted to spend as much time as possible messaging these guys. That meant no time for cooking or doing the dishes tonight. She sat down at her kitchen table with her laptop, a glass of wine and a huge grin.
After sharing so much with these men, she started to wonder, what was the next step with this online thing? In person, it was easy. Give a guy your number, you start texting, you go out. But weren’t they doing something like texting already? Did that mean that these men asking her out was the next step, or asking for her number was?
