“Excuse me?”
You blink, then turn to the sound of the voice.
Looks like the girl from earlier is addressing you.
“Oh, hey,” you murmur, and stir from your people-watching mood. “Sorry, can I help you?”
The girl nods, a little meekly. You get a better picture of who she is by how she's dressed; black dress, a soft, ropey choker and sneakers. She looks like an adult, but based on her soft voice and reserved attitude, it's hard to tell how old. Her hair is cut to about medium height, with a single green stripe running through her bangs. She nervously snaps a colorful rubber wristband around her wrist as she speaks.
“I don't mean to bother you,” she mutters. “Have you seen someone pass by, about my age? They said they'd meet me here by this boardwalk half an hour ago.”
You shake your head no, indicating that you haven't, or at least can't recall.
She quivers a little, looking deflated. “Ah... Well... So much for Embyr...”
You furrow your brow. “Embyr? What's that?”
“Oh... You don't know?” she shuffles a bit anxiously. “It's this new dating app that came out. I was told I was supposed to meet my really cute date here... But I guess they ghosted me...”
As she stews with her revelation, you start to feel for her. Dating apps tend to get a pretty bad rep, but especially now it seems like it might have let down another would-be couple. You'd think with all of the data-collection technology employed across the internet, people would get matched up more efficiently these days. Hmmm...
Trying to help her, you try to wrack your head to remember who else might have been around half an hour ago.
“Maybe you could tell me what this person looked like?” you suggest. “Do you have pictures? Or texts?”
The girl chews her lip for a moment, looks back and forth, and then shows you her phone.
The Embyr app interface seems pretty simple, but there's a built in, laggy chat feature like they all tend to be. After scrolling for a bit, she finds the chat with their date, and scrolls down to it...
You squint.