2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
His ‘First and Only Date' with a Man Led to Forever
When Michael Allan Kaye and Parker Steven Simoni matched on Tinder in June 2014, it was the first time that Mr. Kaye had attempted to date another man.
He had just graduated from the State University of New York at Albany and was living in an apartment in Nyack, N.Y.
Mr. Simoni, a rising senior at the State University of New York at Cortland, was staying with his family for the summer about an hour away from Nyack in Pleasant Valley, N.Y., where he was raised.
Mr. Kaye had only recently learned of Tinder, which was founded in 2012: 'I was still closeted,' he said. In fact, he was just about to delete the app when he matched with Mr. Simoni. The two ended up messaging each other in the app before exchanging numbers and texting all night.
They made plans to meet that Sunday, the only time Mr. Simoni had because he was leaving the next day to return to school for a month to prepare to be an assistant for new student orientation. 'But then I got a message saying, 'I'm sick. I can't meet up,'' Mr. Simoni recalled.
Mr. Kaye was not sick. 'I was just too nervous,' he said. 'I apologized a few hours later and said I was in the closet. He said he would be patient with me and go at my pace.'
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