A 3-year-long Tinder conversation

Photo via JESHOOTS/Pixabay Wes_03/Twitter Remix by Samantha Grasso

The internet is pulling for a couple who has been Tinder chatting for 3 straight years

This Tinder match sure took its time to catch fire.

 

Samantha Grasso

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 12, 2017   Updated on May 23, 2021, 12:10 am CDT

Good things come to those who (pretend to) procrastinate. Just look at Michelle Arendas and Josh Avsec, two seniors at Ohio’s Kent State University who matched on Tinder nearly three years ago.

Last week, 22-year-old Avsec shared screenshots of his Tinder conversation with Arendas, a slew of belated messages spanning the years since they first matched on Sept. 20, 2014. “One day I’m going to meet this girl and it’s going to be epic,” Avsec tweeted. “Look at the dates of our Tinder texts.”

“Hey sorry my phone died!” Arendas replies more than two months after Avsec’s original message.

“Sorry Michelle I have made a horrible fist impression, [I’m] really caught up with finals,” Avsec replies six months later after a couple more exchanges.

While Avsec told BuzzFeed News that he had sent Arendas a simple message because she stood out to him, she, a serial deleter and re-download-er of the app, often missed messages or noticed them later on.

“I wasn’t too serious about messaging — that’s why I messaged him something funny,” Arendas told BuzzFeed News.

Neither of them expected the other to play along for the years that followed, but their chat became a long game for the ages, one that quickly resonated with other would-be romantics who hoped the couple would meet IRL.

Within hours of Avsec’s post, Arendas had been tagged in someone’s reply, and spun out a typical response true to their Tinder chat: “Sorry I’d reply but I need to give it a few months!”

Avsec said he felt embarrassed when he saw Arendas’ reply, but the pair DM’d each other and exchanged numbers.

“I thought it would be interesting to meet up with him but I didn’t want to be the one that gave in and broke the joke. But I was interested,” Arendas said.

Even Tinder caught onto the pairs years-long antics and offered them the date of a lifetime: one trip for the both of them to anywhere they pleased.

Avsec said Tinder is in the process of coordinating plans for him and Arendas to go to Maui, Hawaii, of all places. And though they’ve still yet to meet, they’re in the process of getting some IRL face-time before the big trip.

“Everything is going great and I love talking with her, but I don’t want to rush anything,” Avsec said. “Conversation has been so easy with her.”

H/T BuzzFeed News

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*First Published: Jul 12, 2017, 8:46 am CDT