Every woman my father dated seemed excited about seeing him again, only to disappear before morning. When my best friend agreed to help me discover why, one terrifying message proved it was never random.
My father lost my mother twelve years ago.
I was old enough to understand what death meant, but far too young to understand what it could do to the person left behind.
After the funeral, he became a different man.
Before Mom passed away, he brought life into every room.
He sang while making coffee.
He told awful jokes at dinner and laughed before reaching the punch line.
There was always music playing somewhere in the house.
After she was gone, silence settled over everything.
For years, he refused to date.
Family members encouraged him to meet someone.
Friends invited him to dinners where a single woman always seemed to be seated beside him.
He declined every invitation.
One day I told him Mom would never have wanted him to spend the rest of his life alone.
He looked at me with an expression I have never forgotten.
“I am not alone, Lola,” he said. “I have you.”
That answer hurt more than I let him know.
Then, almost without warning, something changed.
He signed up for dating apps.
I discovered it one Saturday afternoon when I stopped by his house.
He sat at the kitchen table holding his phone with both hands.
His reading glasses rested low on his nose, and he was smiling at the screen.
I hadn’t seen that smile in years.
“What are you looking at?” I asked.
He quickly locked the phone.
“Nothing.”
I raised an eyebrow.
He lasted less than ten seconds before giving up.
“I made a profile.”
“A dating profile?”
He nodded, suddenly looking self-conscious.
Before he could explain, I wrapped him in a hug.
At first he stood stiffly, then hugged me back.
“I think Mom would approve,” I told him.
“I hope so,” he murmured.
Soon afterward, he began meeting wonderful women.
Before every date, he told me about them.
One worked in a library.
Another owned a neighborhood bakery.
A third spent weekends volunteering at an animal shelter.
Every time, he seemed genuinely hopeful.
Yet none of them ever stayed.
At first, I assumed they simply weren’t the right match.
Dating was complicated.
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