Better Together

Minh: From her profile pictures, she was absolutely gorgeous and had a great smile. When we actually matched, I was excited and nervous at the same time. How could I set myself apart from everyone else? Luckily, my self-effacing jokes kept her interested long enough for me to shoot my shot. I didn’t expect to land a date with her, but she said yes! We met up at Kitchen Story in San Francisco on Cinco de Mayo. The place was packed with thirsty millennials, rowdy from their bottomless mimosas and tequila shots. Despite being hungover from a friend's wedding the day before in San Luis Obispo, I still wanted to give her my best effort and my jokes. Convinced that the noisy environment was why my jokes weren’t landing, I went to plan B! She agreed to continue our date at a barcade where I could really showcase my skills. We shot some hoops and played arcade games, where she didn’t win a single round. It was an absolutely legendary run! After about an hour of setting historic high scores, I could tell she was thoroughly impressed! I capped off the date by reading her some of my best original poems, and she’s been hooked ever since! Sam: I was having lunch with my co-workers when I got a notification about a new match on Coffee Meets Bagel. From his profile, he was a 10 and an engineer—but was he funny? (He was). Something that stuck out to me was how often he used “lol” and “haha” when talking about himself. We messaged for a couple of days before he asked me out on a brunch date for Cinco de Mayo. I already had a separate first date scheduled with another guy that day, but I knew I didn’t need to see him anymore. When I arrived, I had the driver drop me off a block away to make sure he wasn’t catfishing me. He was standing outside and looked like he hadn’t slept, trying his best to hide a hangover. There was a little bit of awkwardness as he kept trying to make jokes without getting a single laugh from me. His jokes were funny, but I couldn’t let him know that. I had to make him work for it. After brunch, we moved the date to a barcade, where he took the opportunity to beat me in every game. Where things got interesting was when he shared his passion for writing and read me some of his poems. But it wasn’t enough for me, so I made him write me a poem on the spot. He looked like he had a stroke when I asked him to do it, but he delivered. At the end of the night, I wasn’t sure if he would ask for a second date. I was worried I didn’t show enough interest. Clearly, I was wrong, because that man is about to be my husband.