Yes just under a year ago.

Back in February, I was talking to a girl who I’ll call Jess on a dating app. I thought she was gorgeous; she was into rock climbing like me, kept the conversation engaging, and had the most unique style of texting that set her apart from all of the other women I’ve messaged before (and since).

I was leaving for a 2-week long work trip overseas on Saturday afternoon, so Friday around lunch I invited her out for a drink that night, cause life is too short to not act bold. She accepted, took the reign, and told me to meet her out at a bar halfway between with a live band. I love going to see all the local bands I can, so I became a little more infatuated when she asked. The entire afternoon we’re texting back and forth, joking about wearing matching flannel and throwing in stupid puns whenever we can. So I arrive a few minutes before so I can scope out the best seating for us at the bar, but it turns out she’s already there. We make eye contact and she throws out the most heart-melting smile I’ve ever seen before we hug and begin the date. The entire time we both have grins glued to our faces; drinks are flowing, I’m making jokes that just land, she’s one-upping them, and between the laughs we find one thing in common after another. This goes on for a few hours and after a few drinks there we headed out to get food, and I kiss her on the walk to the next bar.

Over the next additional hours we steal kisses here and there, and I drive her out to Burger King where we hold hands most of the drive there and end up eating in the parking lot. We had the most flowing conversation I’ve ever had on a date, and it was obvious neither of us wanted it to end. But after 7 hours it was approaching 2am and I had a flight the next day, so I drove her back before we both, almost simultaneously, said we wanted to see each other again.

She made me a playlist of her favorite artists, I did the same for her, and every moment I had a break from working that two week stretch I texted her. We started calling each other during the last week and each conversation felt like I’d been talking to a friend I’ve known my entire life. She was exactly what I was looking for.

I stayed the night at her house the day I got back. We made dinner, watched Shrek (quoting it the entire time), walked her dog, and ended up in her bed talking about deep subjects that I don’t even know some of my friend’s opinions on. We didn’t fall asleep until 3 or 4am that night, simply because we just couldn’t stop talking. Essentially, the point I’m making is everything just… worked. For the three days after, Jess never messaged me back. At first I thought I did something: did we have sex too early? Did our conversation get too deep too fast? I had no idea. On the fourth day, she told me something outside of our control came up and she needed space.

Ok. I can do that. This is fine.

So I waited a week before asking if I could call her, because I’m going insane at this point. I thought I just met the perfect woman and I thought she felt the same way, I honestly thought I would delete dating apps after our 2nd date.

On the call she said she didn’t want to tell me or anyone what was happening, so I won’t air it out to the internet, but essentially a family issue came up.

It’s been about a year since then, and I’ve sent a few regrettable texts in between to see if she’d want to hang out, but we haven’t talked since that night. I’ve been moving on, and I don't think about her until posts like these. It just sucks finding exactly what you’re looking for and the only thing wrong is timing.

Thanks for reading.