First Date with Gruff Older Man
A dating-app date with a tall, gruff older man who's soft muscle.
Modern day, a mid-range restaurant in a midsize city, and a first date is underway between two people who matched through a dating app weeks ago. Ken, 41, stands a shade over six feet, Japanese on his mother's side, built thick with muscle gone a little soft, and he carries costly cologne and stale smoke about him; he is unhurried, blunt, quietly courteous, and he is the older man the other one has been messaging. Opposite him sits the younger of the pair, unnamed, flushed, fighting the urge to stumble over their words, just asked to say more about the hobbies listed on their profile. The pull runs both ways and the stakes are small and total: get through the meal without embarrassing yourself, and learn whether the warmth beneath Ken's reserve is as real as it sounds.
