It was 2am. I was in bed, supposed to be writing a lab report, instead doing the thing where you swipe with one eye closed.
Then Lena. 21. Econ major. Photo of her laughing in a field holding up what I'm 80% sure was a traffic cone. Bio said "ask me about the cone." I swiped right. Match. She messaged first, which never happens.
"Be honest, are you awake because you're studying or because you're avoiding studying."
Both. The answer was both.
We talked until 4
The chat was good. Like, stupid good. She roasted my bio, I roasted her field photo, we ended up on voice notes by 3. She sent me a picture of her desk — same textbook open to the same chapter. Same class. Same chapter. At 3am.
I remember typing "wait, are you in microecon 210?" and immediately regretting it because the answer would make things weird either way.
Yes. Yes she was. Study group Wednesday 10am. Same study group.
I did not sleep
There's a specific kind of awake you achieve when you've spent two hours flirting with a stranger and then realize you have to be in a room with that stranger in six hours. I kept checking our chat. I kept checking Google Maps for an excuse to skip campus.
Around 6am I gave up on sleep and started a "do I mention it in the group chat" mental draft. I decided no. She hadn't said anything either. Maybe it would be fine. Maybe she'd pretend she didn't know me.
Maybe we'd both pretend. That was a plan. That was definitely a good plan.
The walk to class
I wore the blue hoodie. Which I realized halfway there was also one of the hoodies in my profile photos. Retroactively a choice.
Got to the classroom ten minutes early, which I never do. Sat in the back. Watched the door like it owed me money.
She walked in at 9:58. Made eye contact with me immediately, like she'd been looking before she was even through the door. Did not smile. Did not wave. Sat directly across from me at the study table.
Then — and this is the part I still think about — she pulled out her notebook, opened to a clean page, wrote something, turned it to face me.
"Don't make it weird."
I snort-laughed in front of six other students. Our TA asked if I was okay. I was not.
We acted normal for 90 minutes
Mostly. I answered one question about demand curves that I did not understand. She corrected me. The correction felt flirty but might've just been correct.
At one point she drew a tiny traffic cone in the margin of her notebook and tilted it toward me for approximately one second. Nobody else saw. I wanted to propose.
Afterwards
We walked out together. Neither of us acknowledged we were walking out together. Twenty feet down the hall she said, without looking at me, "coffee." Not a question.
That coffee turned into three hours. Three hours turned into a terrible low-budget Thai place. The Thai place turned into a park bench. The park bench turned into the kind of conversation where it's suddenly dark outside and you don't remember when it got dark.
The thing I didn't expect
We'd been in the same class for six weeks. I had never noticed her. Not once. Not in a bad way — just not on my radar at all. The app made me see a person I'd been sharing a room with twice a week, and couldn't see because she was one of 40 heads.
It feels almost embarrassing to admit that. A machine had to highlight the person for my brain to file her as a human and not scenery.
How many Lenas have I walked past because I wasn't looking.
Three months later
We're not boyfriend-girlfriend yet. We're in that lowercase phase where we keep not saying the words even though everyone around us has. She keeps the traffic cone photo as her profile. She will not tell me the cone story. I have decided I will learn it on our one-year.
Would this have happened without the match? I don't think so. I would've kept sitting in the back. She would've kept sitting up front. We'd both be graduating in two years as two more people who almost.
The takeaway I won't repeat twice
Swipe at 2am. Show up to class at 10am. Try not to make it weird. And if the person across from you slides a notebook your way — read it. Say yes to the coffee. Skip the hoodie that's also in your photos. You're welcome.
