Fishing for a Prince

Roman would be lying if he said that vulnerability that came with being a hopeless romantic caused everything that happened to happen. However, if it meant he would end up with the same outcome all over again, he would be willing to go through the stream of events that led up to it.

When he's not giving piano lessons, Roman was looking on his phone for possible matches on a dating app. He was hoping to do anything he could to find a Prince Charming of his own and those close to him knew it. His cousin, Damien, and his friends were all aware of it and thought it would be a good idea if they had some fun with Roman's vulnerability.

Damien and his friends found some pictures of a professional-looking guy and were able to put together a fake profile on the app as well as on other websites in case Roman asked questions. From that evening on, Roman had been chatting on the app with "Jonathan", a 27-year-old photographer in the modeling industry just looking for someone willing to treat him like a person. It wasn't too difficult since Damien's friends improvised on ways to keep conversations going and he was skilled at dressing himself as the man in the pictures in case Roman was skeptical enough to ask for more pictures.

After weeks turned into months, Roman eagerly asked "Jonathan" to meet up with him. He wanted what they had to go somewhere and he figured meeting in person would be the next logical step. When Roman suggested they meet up at the local conservatory while it was still busy, Damien mentally applauded him for playing it safe in case something were to happen to him.

They agreed to meet up at 10am on Wednesday and Roman was wandering around admiring the plant life within the conservatory while waiting. He found himself singing the song from the beginning of the Cyanide and Happiness short, "Princess", due to his excitement. His eager smile turned into a face of confusion when he saw his cousin chatting it up with his friends.

"Damien?" Roman called out as he approached the group.

The group looked at the approaching Roman and giggled amongst themselves.

"What did you do this time?" Roman asked his cousin with the knowledge that they were laughing in a way that implied mischief courtesy of Damien.

Damien pulled out his phone and slammed it in Roman's face with a sinister grin.

"Still waiting for Jonathan, cousin?" Damien declared.

It took a while for Roman to comprehend what was going on, but once he finally did, he rushed to a bathroom with the laughter from the group getting fainter after each inch. As he was trying to wash the tears off his face, Roman felt relieved that he decided against wearing eye makeup for the "meeting". He was, eventually, able to dry himself off, but that didn't stop him from crying. He sat on a bench slightly dreading that it wasn't near closing since he didn't feel like being seen by anyone.

Roman kept to himself and scrolled on his phone for a while before looking up to make sure his cousin wasn't close by. However, instead of the group, he was surprised to see a man that looked exactly like the man in the pictures. The man was sitting next to a display of blue bells and was seemingly reading "Frankenstein". Roman wanted to believe the guy was genuine, but he didn't want to risk being duped again. Instead of introducing himself like royalty just as he imagined, Roman pulled up the fake profile and approached the man.

"Excuse me!" he called out once he got closer to the man.

The man looked up from his book and tilted his head as he saw Roman.

"Can I help you?" he asked while evidently gritting his teeth.

"What can you tell me about this profile? What would you correct?" Roman asked while handing over the phone.

Roman hid his phone not knowing what to expect. Would the man think he's weird? Would his fibbing cousin lead him on again for his own amusement? Would he have to avoid the dating scene altogether?

"Well, the sexuality is correct, but I go by Logan, I'm a teacher, not a photographer, and I'm 29, not 27. Is it safe to assume you're using this as a pickup line?" the man told Roman.

Roman looked at the dashing smirk on the man's face, but not even his blushing cheeks could pull a smile on his face.

"Sorry about that. I got catfished by my cousin and I just need closure and honesty right now," Roman explained.

The man known as Logan sighed as he heard Roman's situation. He didn't consider himself an expert on social or emotional comfort, but he wanted to help the man whom he saw as objectively extra and objectively good-looking. He decided to walk around the conservatory with Roman and talk about the research and stories attached to various forms of plant life. They would sometimes get off topic and talk about each other. By the end of the day, the two had each other's phone numbers and Roman had plenty more to think about. Maybe he enjoyed Logan's company. Maybe things might go slow between them. And maybe, just maybe, something might actually happen between them.