Beware the ones who only look at
their own faces the whole time.
By GABI CONTII video
vetted
my dating-app
m a t c h e s a n d i t w a s
a wild ride
was high-
key
excited
when I
matched
w it h M ike*. H e l o o ke d
just like Prince Eric
from The Little Mer-
maid (hmm, I should
probs discuss my
attraction to animated
characters with my
therapist), and his
location was only five
miles away. Ofc I
swiped right.
But the second we
sat down for our first
date, I could tell that
not even the two rosés
I was about to order
could elicit a spark (or
eve n a “ U u p? ” t ex t )
between us. So right
after saying our good-
byes, I thumbed back
into Bumble—and got
a notification about a
new feature: I could
now video-chat with
my matches.
Weird, I thought.
But also maybe kinda
genius? I mean, it had
jus t t a ke n m e a n h o u r
of getting ready to
f in d o u t w it hin 30 s e c -
onds that a guy wasn’t
for me. (Almost every-
one else can tell right
a wa y t o o: 78 p e rc e n t
of singles know within
the first five minutes
of physically meeting
someone if they’re
going to have a con-
nection.) If video-
calling potential baes
could spare me lots
o f l a m e ni g h t s o u t,
pssh, count me in.
Here’s my saga.i
CanhetellI’m
not
we
ar
in
g
pa
stn
?nrVideo date #1VICTORAfter connecting with
a Brazilian actor, we
shot a few messages
back and forth before
I suggested we video-
chat. And he actually
agreed!
I put on a decent
shirt and some lip
gloss (no mascara,
tyvm) and sat in my
home office waiting
for his call. Let’s just
say the first two
minutes were more
awkward than acci-
dentally Liking your
frenemy’s transaction
on Venmo. I basically
word-vomited that I
wasn’t wearing any
makeup, forcing Vic-
tor to say I looked
great. But once I got
over the initial shock
of using FT with some-
one other than my
mom, the conversation
was pretty cute. We
talked for precisely 19
minutes and 52 sec-
onds about his fresh
new ’do (which gave
Shawn Mendes a run
for his money) and our
prior dating horror
stories (bonding at its
finest!).Then we
agreed to meet for
happy-hour drinks that
weekend.
At the bar, the
chemistry we’d felt
over video-chat was
def still there. Even
though it was our first
o f f i c i a l d a t e, it f e l t a
lot like our second.
We skipped right over
blah pleasantries andPHONE:^DANI
ELLE^ DAL
Y.^
MAN,
PAPE
R:^
GETTYIMAGES
.lust
86 Cosmopolitan November 2019