Woman Is Sure Her Husband Died until She Comes across His New Tinder Profile – Story of the Day

When Maria finally puts aside her grief after losing her husband, she comes across his Tinder profile. Shocked doesn't begin to cover her reaction. She decides to meet him, unable to comprehend whether she is angry, devastated, or hurt. Or has she mourned every feeling off him?

Maria sat in bed, sipping her tea and thinking of the time she, Lola, and Steven went away to the little cabin up North for the weekend. Lola had been only a few months old at the time, and it was Maria's and Steven's second Christmas together for the festive holidays.

Maria sighed. Things had become very different since her husband went missing two years ago. "Missing, presumed dead," Steven's friend from the local police station came over and told her. Steven was there, and then he just wasn't.

Neither she nor Lola had gotten any answers in those early months, where they continued to hold onto hope beyond any reasoning. But as the months bled on and Steven didn't show up at the front door, Maria was forced to believe he had died.

She just wished she could have held a funeral to give Steven a final send-off and bring a sense of closure, especially for Lola.

Maria decided to phone Lola; she was away at University and would only be home after three months for the break.

"Hi honey," she said when Lola answered the phone. Maria could hear music in the background and imagined Lola and her roommates having a little dance party or whatever the kids did these days.

"Hey, Mom!" Lola said. "Please tell me that you're out and doing things! And not calling from bed after you remembered some happy family memory?" she laughed into the phone. Her daughter's laugh always made Maria smile.

"Guilty as charged, Lo," she said. "But in my defense, it's chilly here tonight. The weather called for tea and a laze in bed."

"Yeah, yeah," Lola said. "You know, Abi's dad set up a Tinder profile a few weeks ago. He's been out on a few good dates. It's just to get back out there, Mom. To live again. I think Dad would want you to do that."

"Dad would want me on Tinder?" Maria laughed.

"Just do it. Or think about it! It will be good to see who and what is out there!"

"Fine, I'll think about it."

After the phone call, Maria lay in bed and contemplated everything Lola had said. A few months ago, she would never have given it a second thought, but she still had quite a few good years in her – she didn't have to become a hermit and watch life pass her by.

And worse, she didn't want to become someone who lived through their child, micromanaging their every life choice as though it was their own.

"No," she said to herself. "That girl has been through too much, especially losing her father. I can't add to it."

Maria surprised herself by what she did next. She downloaded Tinder, and without thinking, she made her profile.

She needed to get back some of her "Spanish flair for life, mija!" – thinking of the statement that her mother used countless times.

Maria sat at the kitchen counter the following day while her coffee was brewing. She loved slow Saturdays since childhood, eating cereal and watching television at her grandmother's house.

She looked through her Tinder profile again, looking at her photos specifically – if she looked at herself from another pair of eyes, she would see a lonely woman finally ready to change.

This was her chance to 'play the field,' something that she had never done, having had her heart settle on Steven before she met anyone else.

Maria texted her best friend, Sierra, to meet for lunch at a café. She wanted to tell her all about her conversation with Lola and how she wanted to become this new feisty woman, swiping right on men on dating sites.

She knew Sierra would be too ready to drop everything and meet her. Sierra's husband was away at a business event and had left her alone with his older spinster of a sister, who fought with her about running the house in their ways.

Maria would have found the situation highly entertaining if she didn't see its effect on Sierra, constantly trying to soothe her sister-in-law or face her husband's demanding questions.

Maria arrived at the café first. She took a photo and sent it to Lola with the caption: "See? I'm doing things!" and smiled when her daughter replied with a series of smiling faces and hearts.

Sierra walked in, hugged Maria, and sat beside her.

"I'm so glad you texted!" Sierra said. "I needed to get out of the house!"

"I had a feeling you might," Maria said. "And Lola has been on my case about being home too much. So, I needed it just as much."

"Lola is a smart young woman," Sierra said, ordering drinks for them both. "She definitely knows what she's talking about, Mari."

"I'm not sure about that, but she is convincing, alright," Maria said. "She convinced me to download Tinder last night!"

"What?! Show me!" Sierra screeched with excitement.

Maria gave her the phone and allowed her friend to pick through her profile, approving the biography and the photos attached.

"This is giving 'hot mama,'" Sierra said, showing Maria the photo of herself in her favorite red dress. "So, have you swiped on anyone yet?"

"No, that's why you're here. To help me figure it out. What if I do the wrong thing?"

"It's easy. Remember, I met my husband on this thing," Sierra laughed.

Their cake and coffee orders arrived, and the two women enjoyed swiping either to the left or right as they looked.

Maria took a sip of her coffee when Sierra gasped loudly.

"What? Please tell me you didn't stumble on one of my nephews?" Maria laughed.

Sierra slid the phone across the table to Maria.

When Maria looked down, she was staring into the face of Steven, her "missing, presumed dead" husband.

"It must be a catfish situation, you know?" Sierra said. "Or! Or maybe it was a profile that he had before? Which, sorry to speak ill of the dead and all that, but that's ridiculous. Sleazy, really."

"Nope," Maria said. "This isn't an old profile. This is a current profile. Look at his face. Look at his features; he looks more mature and has aged well. He looks like he would right now."

"Maybe it's a twin? Switched at birth and all that?" Sierra said.

Maria appreciated that she was trying to be cute and trying to lighten the moment as well – but the sinking feeling that Maria felt in her chest was too dark to be lightened at that time.

Maria went home feeling deflated. She had been on such a high that morning, feeling renewed and full of life in a way that made her feel hopeful for herself – something she hadn't done for a long time.

Seeing Steven's profile had set her back into those first few days after he was truly declared missing. But this time, she also felt an anger that burned through her body.

She went into the kitchen and decided to cook – an activity that always calmed her down. Maria had to remain faithful to her promise to Lola that she would cook at least one meal a day. She chopped vegetables, and with each chop, she dissipated some of her anger.

When Maria was in bed later that evening, she went onto the dating app and completely changed her details. She changed the name, the biography, and the photographs – taking stock images of a slightly younger woman from the internet. Suddenly, she was Rosa, a thirty-six-year-old woman who loved traveling, baking banana bread, and interior design.

Then, she swiped until she landed on Steven's profile and promptly swiped right.

She switched off her notifications and muted her phone. Then, she went to bed.

A few days went by, and Maria continued as usual. She went to work and did her job. She kept her promise and cooked dinner every evening. She phoned Lola before bed.

And then, one evening, her phone chimed with a message.

"Hi, I'm Steven, and I think you're beautiful."

*

Maria messaged Steven back and forth, learning things about her husband that she already knew, and as they messaged, pieces of a puzzle slowly emerged. She knew without a doubt that it was Steven – from the way he spoke to the jokes he made. It was Steven.

Maria waited a few days before asking Steven to meet her – Rosa – at one of the new popular restaurants along the beach. Her curiosity got the better of her despite her anger, and she needed answers.

She wore her favorite red dress, which made her feel confident and sexy. She knew that Steven loved seeing her in red, too.

"It makes your skin glow," he said the evening he proposed to her.

When Maria arrived at the restaurant, she saw him seated in the corner, already nursing a beer bottle. Maria looked at him as though looking at a ghost. It was familiar and terrifying at the same time. This man was supposed to be "missing, presumed dead" – the lines repeated for years in her mind.

Maria walked up to the table, where she sat down before she could change her mind.

"Hello, Steven," she said.

"Maria," he said, genuinely shocked.

"You're alive and well, I see," she said.

"I can explain, I promise," he told her, drinking from the bottle.

"Go ahead, Rosa isn't coming," she said.

Maria could barely believe her ears. Once Steven started talking, her heart pounded in a steady beat.

"I just couldn't be a husband and father. I struggled with that right from the moment Lola was born. I loved you and that baby with everything I had, but something always felt wrong. Felt off. Like love just wasn't enough for me. I'm sorry. I don't mean to hurt you, but I need to be honest," he said.

Maria nodded. She had nothing she needed to say yet. She left him to speak.

"So, I asked Drew to come to you, it was unofficial, but he helped me out. He had the means to do so. I didn't want to be caught up in a marriage, but I didn't want to be selfish and ask for a divorce. I didn't want Lola to be in a broken home, and I didn't want you two to have money issues. If I were to be missing or declared deceased, you would have had access to everything. So that was it."

Maria sighed. Everything made sense, but at the same time, it made no sense at all. She knew that Steven was not cut out to be a father. She saw the struggle begin the day that Lola was born. But she had no idea he had it in him to do this. To pull this type of calculated plan.

"How have you survived without any money?" she asked him.

"I started moving some money around when Lola was born. It was my way of coping, to plan an escape," he said. He looked at her with solemn eyes.

Maria knew that despite feeling everything she was feeling, she believed him.

"The account was in my father's name, so it wasn't a problem. And he knew about it the whole time," Steven continued. "Honestly, I didn't intend ever to see you again. Or Lola. I hoped that I didn't. I knew that I caused you both a pain that cannot be justified, but at the same time, I knew that my absence from your lives was the best gift I could have given either of you."

Maria got angry, then. She believed everything he said, but it did not excuse that he had willingly left his child. She could understand a break in marriage but not why a person would willingly leave a child that shared their blood.

After Steven's confession, Maria left, saying she would contact him once she had digested everything properly.

At home, she drew herself a bubble bath. She needed to soak in the hot water, allowing her emotions to dissolve with the bubbles.

If anything, Maria was grateful that Lola was away at University. She knew that if her child were home, she would have been swiping left and right with her. Maria couldn't imagine Lola's reaction if she had found her father's profile instead of Sierra.

She imagined Lola would break again, just as she did when they discovered Steven was gone. But the curious thing was that although Maria was angry, astounded even, she was not devastated or overcome with grief.

"It was because you mourned a man that stopped being present," she told herself in the bathroom mirror. "You mourned him until he became a memory. And all you have are memories and a man you discovered on Tinder."

The following day, Maria logged onto the app and messaged Steven. She asked him to come over that evening. She needed to settle a few more details if they would conclude their entire chapter together.

Maria cooked dinner and decided that one last meal with the 'found' Steven would be enough for her.

When he walked through the door, she saw that he struggled with returning to the house. She wanted to justify many things: for herself, him, and even Lola. But there was no time. And there was no need; after that night, Steven would truly be gone.

"I have a few things that I need you to do," she told him when they were seated at the table.

"Anything, I'll do anything," he said.

"Leave. Leave this town. Lola is away at University, and I cannot risk her finding out that you are alive. It makes no sense to devastate her once again. I don't think I could put her through any of this."

"I'll do it. I don't want to put either of you through anything. I'll leave, and I'll stay gone. I only came back a few months ago, anyway. I can leave again," he said.

Maria could hear the finality in his voice, and he was done with all of this. She knew he would leave.

"And if there's anything I can do, just contact me," he said.

"No. Thank you, but no. We're good. We've managed, and we'll continue to do so. I also won't contact you again – but you need to promise that it will be forever when you walk out of that door. Neither Lola nor I will ever stumble upon you again. Do you understand?" she said.

"I do. And I agree," he said.

"We mourned you, Steven. We won't do it again."

Maria did the dishes and got into bed after Steven left. She felt hollow but whole simultaneously – there was a sense of relief, too. She was free of Steven, and he was free of a life that he despised, even if he tried to love it at one point. She logged onto the app and changed all her details back to normal.

She was going to try and live her life again. She owed it to herself.

When she awoke the next morning, there were messages from a few men she had swiped right for.

Maria smiled. Things were looking up already.

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