Chapter Text
It was Santos’ idea. That should have been Mel’s first red flag. They had a lovely time at karaoke. It was a sort of tradition between the two of them. If one of them had a bad day, the other would suggest they go out. Mel enjoyed her time with Trinity, especially outside of the ED. Trinity was more whimsical than she let on, and Mel loved getting to see it in the wild.
“It’s free, and if anything it will be practice.” Santos rattled off trying to convince her to download the dating app she suggested. Mel had made the mistake of letting it slip to Trinity that she couldn't remember the last date she'd been on. It was well before she moved to Pittsburg. Maybe, in medical school. The truth was, Mel didn't date. She didn't like it. It was meeting new people and going to new places and it was all a bit much.
“Practice?”
“Yeah, it doesn’t have to mean anything. You don’t have to meet anyone. You just talk, and practice flirting.”
“I don’t know. Isn’t it a little desperate?” Mel played with her drink, spinning the straw around.
“No, it’s like a game. Besides, you’ll probably just get a ton of messages from guys telling you how beautiful you are.” Mel looked up wide eyed. “Give me your phone, we can set up the profile together.”
Mel knew better than to argue with Santos. She took her phone from her bag and handed it to the grinning woman. Then, Mel slid over to Trinity’s side of the booth.
The sign up process was fairly simple, thanks to Santos. Trinity picked the photos Mel should use, the first one was one Becca had taken on their birthday. Mel was smiling nicely in it. The second was a photo Trinity had taken the first time they’d come to karaoke. It was a selfie of the two of them just after getting off stage, Mel’s hair wild from flinging it around. Then lastly a photo of her at the Zoo, another one Becca had taken. Then it was time to fill out the information. Trinity let Mel see what she was writing but didn’t get much input from her. That was fine by Mel, she wouldn’t know what to put in a box that said ‘tell us about yourself’.
Within all of 15 minutes, Trinity gave Mel her phone back and showed her how to swipe through and view people’s profiles.
“Think of it as a game. If you think someone is cute or like the sound of their profile, swipe right. If you’re not interested, swipe left. If you both swipe right on each other it will say that you’ve matched. At that point you can start a conversation with them.”
“I have to start the conversation?” Mel panicked.
“I doubt you will need to start any, I think most men would do that. But I’ve never been on a dating app with men so I can’t say for certain. Let’s make a goal that for every 10 conversations you have, you start one yourself.”
“How will I keep track?”
Trinity laughed, “it doesn’t have to be an exact science, Dr. King.”
Mel looked down at the phone in her hands, a cute guy with a dog in his photo looked back at her. She didn’t even look at his profile, she swiped right. Then a message appeared ‘you’ve matched with Garrett’.
Mel’s eyes went wide and she put her phone away, she’d play around with it later.
~~~
It had been a rough day at work. A steady rough. A rough that seeped into your bones. Mel had drawn herself a nice bath, with bubbles and epsom salts. Then she read her book. It wasn't long after she started her bath, that she heard her phone buzz. Becca was at Adam’s, so Mel reached for her phone instantly, but it wasn’t Becca. No, it was that stupid dating app. The notification read ‘you’ve got new matches waiting for you’. Mel rolled her eyes and put the phone down.
That stupid app and the stupid notifications. She should delete it, she didn’t even use it after that first night. Then she felt bad, she’d told Trinity she would give it a fair try. Mel put her book down and opened up the app hidden on the last page of her phone screen.
The app opened to a photo of a smiling man, but he didn’t have kind eyes so Mel swiped left. She spent time going through profiles and looking at photos. She started seeing patterns, even in her own behaviour. She liked men that had dogs in their photos. She liked men who made jokes in their profiles. She liked men with darker hair. She liked when men had normal photos and not bathroom selfies. Before long, Mel was having fun. Maybe it was just like a game.
Mel was swiping faster now, taking less time to judge people’s profile. She was getting some matches. No one had messaged her yet, she’d worry about that later.
Just as she was ready to call it a day, and swipe her last swipe. She stopped, and stared at the photo in front of her. It wasn't a photo she’d seen, but it was a face she knew well. Frank Langdon smiled up at her from her phone. His eyes looked particularly blue in the photo.
Mel clicked into his profile. Frank, 32. His bio read, ‘my therapist says I’m doing great.’ She looked over his preferences, and the app showed that he’s a dad. He doesn’t drink, but it said he smoked occasionally, which Mel didn’t love. She scrolled more, he had a few more photos than she did. She scrolled through them, one of him at the Zoo. His kids backs to the camera, which Mel appreciated. Another photo from Frank at a hockey game. He was wearing a jersey and a huge smile. It felt like Mel was peering behind the curtain. She didn't know this version of Dr. Langdon.
Mel knew that Langdon and Abby were separated. They’d tried for a long time for the kids. It was about a month after Langdon came back to work that he stopped wearing his wedding ring. It wasn’t a shock that Langdon might be dating or using these types of apps, it was a shock that he had appeared on Mel’s phone.
If Mel was being honest with herself, she would admit that she had a little tiny work crush on Dr. Langdon. She liked working with him. She liked learning from him. She liked when she got to work and she saw that he was also working. Work crushes happened all the time, it wasn't anything worth stewing over.
After staring at the profile for nearly 10 minutes, her bath had gone cold. Mel had a decision to make. How should she swipe on Dr. Langdon?
If she swiped no, that would be the end of it. That was the logical solution. That was the correct path. However, there was a tiny part in the back of her brain that said, but then you’ll never know how he swiped on you!
Maybe the heat from the bath had gone to her brain, or maybe she was bolder than she thought but before she could chicken out she swiped right. It was an agonizing full second, then the text appeared, ‘you’ve matched with Frank.’