If a year ago someone had told me that I’d be living in a nice apartment with a dog, a cat and an amazing woman I probably wouldn’t have believed it. First of all, I don’t even like cats and, even more disconcerting than that, a year ago I was convinced that I wasn’t into women either. But life moves forward in unexpected ways and sometimes the wildest turns start with the simplest of finger movements.
After one failed relationship after the other I thought I was quite ready to die alone. Nothing like coming home after a night of partying in which a married man was hitting on me (again), to accept that perhaps parties, clubs and men were not precisely what I needed in my life. That morning of hangover and resignation I decided to spend the rest of the day binging series until I forgot the night before, and the one before that, and, if possible, the past six months.
Source: Instagram @_Hipocampo
When asked if I was still watching, I took a break to go get my third round of ice cream. Upon exiting full screen mode, I found an add that seemed to have appeared specifically for me: Lya, an App designed to finding inspiring people and meeting with them, without previous conversations that never come to nothing, without dilly dallying, without any waste of time.
Sometimes I wonder what my life would have become if instead of downloading the App I had ignored it and continued on my way to the kitchen. I don’t know if I would have found another way to exit that loop of loneliness and boredom, but had I continued in it, I definitely would not have been as happy as I am now, nor any thinner.
Source: Instagram @_hipocampo
“You pick the time, Lya chooses the place”, the App description said. Convinced that I could not be around worse prospects than I had already found, I completed my profile, pastimes, tastes, age…suddenly, an App showed more interest in me than my last partners had. Once my profile was completed, Lya asked me with whom I wanted to meet: men or women. I chose both, one thing was certain, whoever was on the other side of the App was also willing to find new people, agree on meeting in person and whatever might come with that.
Lya showed me many pictures of people compatible with my profile, and five minutes later I had forgotten about my TV marathon. Among the profiles, I found a girl with an age and career similar to mine, although I found her very pretty, it wasn’t her slightly wavy hair, nor her almond eyes, or her lips that looked ever ready to recite poetry which awakened my curiosity, but rather, the beauty and simplicity of her description: “I draw and I like ice cream”. After doubting for a few second I pressed “yes”, never suspecting that that tiniest of movements would change the structure of everything I assumed about myself. It was a yes that came with many other questions and just one answer.
Source: Instagram @_hipocampo
Lya suggested a coffee shop and I accepted. Company and caffeine were precisely what my body needed. The date was that very night and I spent the rest of the day picturing how that moment might be, when I appeared before a stranger I agreed to meet through an App, as if blind dating women was something I did every day, or, more precisely, something I had ever done.
From that day when I showed up at that coffee shop and saw her reading my favorite book while she waited from me, onwards, my life has been a constant succession of “yes”. Yes, I also love that show, yes, I do want another coffee, yes, let’s get some ice cream; yes, I’d like a second date, and a third, and a fourth. Yes, I want to find out how a relationship built between two women feels. Yes, I want us to move in together; yes, you can bring your dog.
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The cat came later. We found him on the roof and again I said yes even though I knew I didn’t like cats. Unlike the change of mind I had regarding girls, cats are still not my thing, but I love that his existence represents in my life: a shared decision, the search for surprises and everything that can happen after I dared to say yes.