As part of his work on sexual selection, Darwin

said women must be “available”, and men

will compete for attention. But in the age of

unsolicited dick pics, dating apps, and ghosting,

those words don’t seem true. quarantine lockdowns

 

loom and a worldwide pandemic grows, but

in the middle of lockdown, an Irish guy

I know sent me a zoom link and I’d barely

talked to him in three years, and I assumed

he sent it to the wrong person and I almost

 

didn’t respond but he said he wanted to

“catch up” and I’m used to a certain creepiness

in American men, who use every conversation as

a reason to see some flesh and disappear, the too

cool attitude has never been for me. But I forgot

 

about the timid nature of Irish men, drastically

different from their American counterparts and

he was in Dubai and I was in Texas and when he

called, we talked for two hours, and then silence again

 

not unfamiliar territory but a continuous cycle of

when will I hear backs mumbled to friends. But his

picture still pops up telling me he’s seen every story

on facebook, on instagram, on snapchat and that’s a lot

of views for someone who doesn’t care enough to respond.