Times have changed, it doesn't matter at all, not these days

'Met anyone nice recently?'

Ah, there we go; the brief tug backwards, like a few strands of hair caught in a hand on the tube.

It's deceptive, too: a casual, diluted version of a hot topic. Part question, part appetite for news.

Well, I think, there’s a load of really nice new colleagues at my new job. There's the tall, interesting man who joined my old work as I was leaving, who I bonded with over skiing and music and travel, but not over the boredom and futility of dating apps, because that's how he'd just met his new girlfriend.

There’s the 50 year old woman I ate dinner with every night for three days while I was away. And the 32 year old stranger I sat next to on a beach and paddled in the water with for eight hours straight; through flashes of heavy rain followed by stretches of sun, talking non-stop about life, equality, work, and the stories we had from the places we’d been. We’re still in touch now, actually, she was great.

There’s the man the two of us talked to over instant noodles after too many glasses of sake, the one with the beautiful eyes, surprisingly good English and politely attractive way, who we both agreed was hot as we crept back into our dorm beds on the eve of my last day. 

There’s the people I shook hands with in the main room of the nightclub three floors beneath London on Friday night, introducing ourselves over the blast of house, but I don’t remember why we got talking, or their names.

I also liked the woman I exchanged a few words of solidarity with at the tube doors, when a man walked past us and took the space that should have been ours.

All these people flash through my mind on a grid labelled Nice People I’ve Met Recently, but I know that's not where this conversation is headed, that isn't what is meant.

So what I say out loud is

No, no one, I haven’t met anyone, not since February really, nothing since then, no dates, nothing, all this year.

And I'm not sure what I'm more tired of having: the question or the answer, or the inevitable discussion about why that follows, over and over again.