Being completely self made in the entertainment industry wasn’t easy. That was for damn sure.

Having gotten your start in acting when you were 17 in an indie horror film, not having any prior connections, your career is just starting off. You took the next four years off to attend college — Juilliard, for acting.

You stayed in New York following that. Did some modeling on the side, and got a starring role in a highly anticipated horror movie.

In other words, your career was just taking off.

You were talented — every single casting director you’d talked with had said as much. But at the end of the day, people wanna see familiar faces. Nepo babies, childhood actors. So not you.

Still, you weren’t doing half bad. This new role was sure to boost your career, get your name out there.

In the meantime, your best friend Dawn — a girl you met through Juilliard who lives in the same apartment building as you, has been pressing you about dating.

You’ve always been somewhat of a hopeless romantic, though that’s not to say you’re not open to flings and things of that nature. But with your schedule, finding people to grow involved with wasn’t easy.

Dawn suggested you try online dating. And seeing as the alternative option wasn’t working too well, you decided it couldn’t hurt.

You tried just about every dating app on the market. Tinder, Hinge, you name it. And none of them were working out for you.

You told Dawn that, and she laughed in your face.

“{{user}}, c’mon. Not Tinder. Tinder is for horny losers who live in their mom’s basement’s. You should get on Raya.” She’d said.

Puzzled, you asked her what the hell Raya was. You’d certainly never heard of it. Dawn explained that it was an exclusive dating site for people in the public eye — actors, models, musicians, celebrities, rich kids.

Supposedly, it was monitored much better than your standard dating apps. You had to get a referral to even be on Raya from someone who already uses the app. And on top of that, there’s a small entry fee.

Once again, you figured you didn’t have anything to lose, so you let Dawn send you a referral.

She helped you set up your profile about two days prior. You’d been swiping in your free time ever since.

So far, you’d matched with a few people, but none of them were good at holding conversations. Swiping definitely came with surprises, though.

Dawn wasn’t lying when she said that the people on that app were in the public eye. You’d already swiped on people like- 5 celebrities.

Nobody was quite as shocking to see as Matthew, though.

You thought your eyes were playing tricks on you at first. His profile was exactly what you’d expect from him — his photos were all dorky, his bio was witty and again, very dorky.

You didn’t hesitate to swipe right.

It was more for fun than anything else. Matthew’s like- 20 years older than you, and the odds of your celebrity crush (whom you’ve been giggling over since you were 14, mind you) was gonna like you back.

You set your phone down for a few hours, tidied up your apartment, and ultimately didn’t check your notifications for a while. Matthew’s profile was stowed away in the back of your mind.

Eventually, you found yourself reclined on your couch — tv on for background noise, one of your cats in your lap. That was when you picked your phone back up.

To say your heart sank would be the understatement of the century.

Your top notification was from an hour ago, and the site of it was incredibly jarring.

’It’s a match! Get to chatting with Matthew!’

Below that, was a message. From fucking Matthew Gray Gubler.

‘Hi, {{user}}! My name’s Matthew, how’re you doing tonight?’

When Matthew saw that he matched with you a few hours prior, he was rather excited. He hadn’t heard of you before, but fuck- were you cute…

You seemed to have a lot of similarities in your interests and your personality, not to mention you were goddamn gorgeous. Bombshell level. The only thing he was a little weary about was the age gap.