The Apoka Collective

The Hand Job

by Rip Peterson

Table of Contents

Bars weren’t working. I was pretty out of what was going on. I no longer did shots. Anything more than two beers and I would have the worst hangover ever the next day. So I turned to my only other option.

Yes.

You’re right.

Online dating.

I only went on two dates with women I met on Plenty of Fish. That’s a dumb name by the way.

I’m only going to tell you about one of them.

Her name was Kimberly.

And yes, she did look like her photos. Luckily, she wasn’t lying about that.

She wanted to meet right away.

Like within two days of messaging, she wanted to meet up. I was a little bit more standoffish. I wasn’t divorced yet. Neither my wife nor I had actually filed for divorce yet. For me, I was probably still hoping she would come back. I know I said I accepted that she probably wasn’t but there’ll always be that small hope that she will. And she probably didn’t file for divorce because she knew that I would have that small hope and then she would come back in a year or two, whack me off and then split again.

She’s a bitch, right?

Anyway, Kimberly.

She was a couple years younger than me. From our messages, I could tell she wasn’t crazy or at least sane enough to hide that she was. That’s a