A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 28

This is the 9th year in a row I’ve run this series in April.

Today’s story: A Match.com glitch reactivated a bunch of old profiles.

On a recent Sunday, creative director Jason Debiak was having breakfast with his family in New Jersey, when something strange happened.

“I was having an adorable breakfast with my family, my 2-year-old daughter and my wife,” he says. “Something came up [on my phone] and I usually try not to check my email, but I checked my email and it said, ‘You have 10 new matches on Match.com.’ I was like… what?”

Debiak’s long-forgotten — and, he assumed, long-deleted — dating profile from over a decade ago had suddenly been reactivated. “I log in, and there I am, from 15 years prior, with less gray hair,” he said. “And my whole profile is there, everything.” Judging by the messages he received, Debiak says it seemed like the account had been reopened for about a week.

“I contacted customer service, and they said, ‘Oh, we’re sorry you got email notifications. We’ll turn off email notifications,’” Debiak said. “And I was like, ‘No, you don’t understand. Not only do I not want email notifications — I don’t want to be on your website, ever.’”

Ex-user Katie Storms also saw her account, which she deactivated in 2014, pop up again this month. She’s concerned about data privacy, but also the more immediate impact that a new dating profile could have on her current relationship. “Thankfully I am married to an incredible man who, I immediately told him, ‘Hey, this happened, and I’m concerned about it,’ and we walked through it together,” she says. “I can’t imagine… not that I want to be married to anyone who wouldn’t be understanding about it, but what if you were?”

Jason Debiak also told his wife about the rogue profile immediately, but he later found out that some of her friends had seen it, and thought it was evidence of something more sinister. “That would’ve caused quite an issue if I hadn’t seen those emails,” he says.

This strikes my funny bone, so I going with comedy on this one. Thirty four year-old Josh has been happily married to thirty two year-old Adrian for all of eight months. They had a whirlwind romance and got engaged after only four months dating. Much of the decision to get married was influenced by their respective ticking biological clocks as both have known pretty much all their lives they’ve wanted to be parents.

However, as much sex as they are having, timed with Adrian’s ovulation cycles, they have yet to succeed in getting pregnant. They make light of the situation figuring it’s only a matter of time, yet there is an unstated pressure on them along with the usual issues which arise with a newly married couple in terms of habits, finances, and learning more of each other’s private lives.

One morning after a ‘have to’ intercourse session the night before — her peak ovulation — going through the motions with zero passion and lots of anxiety, Josh is awakened by a series of pings on his computer. Opening his laptop, he is shocked to see a string of notifications for potential dates via a long deceased ‘zombie’ dating app. Five… ten… a dozen women reaching out to him, some with rather lascivious come-ons.

It’s bad enough Josh can barely process what’s going on through his early morning haze when Adrian, peering over his shoulder, sees the bevy of beauties with ‘fuck me’ eyes making overtures to Josh on his computer.

An argument ensues. She suspects him of cheating. His excuse: For a few years, he was a member of MinglingSingles.com, a site catering to “liberated spirits, liberated bodies”, but he quit it years ago. This is definitely news to Adrian as Josh claims to have only had two previous girlfriends. When he defends himself — “None of these were girlfriends, I just slept with ‘em” — that makes matters worse.

For a day or so, Adrian holds the high moral ground while Josh occupies the living room couch for sleeping purposes. Then one morning, Josh hears Adrian’s phone chirping like mad on the kitchen counter. Hands fumbling for the braying electronic device to shut it off, his bleary eyes squint to see dozens of notifications from a website: FriskyWhiskeys.com.

Roused from sleep, Adrian is forced to admit that she, too, had been a member of a dating service, this one focusing on individuals who enjoyed exploring sexuality while indulging in fine Scotch whiskey.

Well, this is all news to Josh because Adrian not only claims she doesn’t drink and her tactics in bed are… shall we say… rather puritanical, far from frisky.

Now the marriage scoreboard is even, both members having lied to each other about their respective pasts.

Where to go with this setup? I see each of them deciding they’re going to check out some of the new dating possibilities. Maybe it starts out as a kind of “We need to check it out to make sure we belong together”, then as mutual jealousies emerge, each of them more seriously consider the possibility of terminating the marriage. Capped off by that night where the couple go out on computer orchestrated dates, but end up at the same restaurant… that pretty much sucks.

Divorce looks like the only option, especially since Adrian has found an interesting guy and Josh has discovered a promising girl, but then…

Adrian discovers she is pregnant.

And I leave you with this cliffhanger!

There you go, my twenty-eighth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!

Here are links for all the previous posts in this year’s series:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27

Each day this month, I invite you to click on RESPONSES and join me to do some further brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when you play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.

See you in comments. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.