Deborah Jennifer Yarchun was shocked when her friend swiped left on Benjamin Ernest Parr.
“Why would you do that?” she asked of her friend’s rejection of Mr. Parr on the League, a dating app for ambitious people.
She had been drawn to his photo. “He just looked so happy and kind,” Ms. Yarchun said.
A few weeks later, Ms. Yarchun came across Mr. Parr on the same app. She quickly swiped right.
On Feb. 3, 2018, Ms. Yarchun wore a red turtleneck sweater to their first date, at Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels, a wine bar in SoHo. When she admitted she had been inspired by Mr. Parr’s 2015 book, “Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention” — a woman wearing red on a date is likely to prompt a man to sit closer, Mr. Parr had written — Mr. Parr’s eyes lit up.
The six-hour date flew by. So did their second date, when they walked into a Chelsea bar that happened to be hosting a burlesque show. On their third date — Valentine’s Day — Ms. Yarchun and Mr. Parr officially became a couple.
“I kept thinking, ‘What’s the catch?’” said Ms. Yarchun, 38. “It turned out there was no catch. He was the catch.”
They bonded over their shared love for writing. Ms. Yarchun’s 2019 play, “Drive,” won Dartmouth’s Neukom Institute Literary Award for Playwriting, and she has taught playwriting at the University of Iowa and Indiana University. Ms. Yarchun graduated from Drexel University with a bachelor’s degree in screenwriting and playwriting, and then earned her M.F.A. in playwriting from the University of Iowa. She grew up in New Jersey and Germany before her family settled down in Austin, Texas.
