From Just Friends to Girlfriends: Hinge Couple Isabella and Rebecca On Taking Emotional Risks

Real Hinge couple, left, Isabella (she/her), 28, and right, Rebecca (she/her), 30, talk love, risk, and what came next.

Three years ago, Isabella ended things with Rebecca after their fifth date, unsure she felt the certainty she thought she was supposed to. Rebecca suggested they try being friends instead. A week later, at a music festival, everything changed.

Their story, "The Week We Were Friends," is part of Hinge's No Ordinary Love campaign, which follows the brave, honest conversations that mark the start of a relationship. We sat down with real Hinge couple Isabella and Rebecca to hear about their first impressions on Hinge, the emotional risk that paid off, and what dating has taught them about themselves since.

1. Take us back to the beginning. What was your headspace when you matched on Hinge?

Isabella: "I'd gone through waves of feeling burnt out on dating apps. At that point I was trying not to put pressure on it, like, 'okay, whatever it is, it is.' I wasn't trying to figure out if someone was 'the one' on the first date anymore. I just let things happen more naturally."

Rebecca: "I'd recently started going on dates with women, so there was a lot of curiosity, a little nervousness, but mostly excitement. It was a new time of exploration for me, which was really fun. We'd actually matched a year before, and our paths crossed again on the app. I thought, ‘Let me get this off the app immediately.’"

2. What stood out to you on each other's profiles?

Rebecca: "There's one picture where she's dressed as Velma for Halloween, with her dog as Scooby Doo — and all her pictures were just so fun. I think sometimes people do too much on dating apps, where it's like, okay, we get it, you look hot, but I want to see a smile. She had the perfect combination."

Isabella: "We texted for about a week before our first date, and Rebecca is a big voice note person — I wasn't, at all. At first she'd send me a voice note, and I'd just respond with text. But eventually I started sending them back too, and we were going back and forth with voice notes the whole week. It's kind of like talking on the phone. I got more comfortable with it, even though it wasn't really my normal thing."

3. Your story for No Ordinary Love talks about you two pressing pause on your romantic connection after a few dates to focus on becoming friends, and then changing your mind. What was it like to take those emotional risks? 

Isabella: "Pressing pause was a relief, honestly. It took off the pressure, and we could just hang out. I wasn't hyper-fixating on 'what's happening here' anymore — things calmed down, and we could be more authentic."

Rebecca: "It felt like a breath of fresh air. We didn't have to worry about how many dates it had been or whether we were hitting some milestone. I think it set the tone for our whole relationship — we do what works for us."

Isabella: "But then we ended up at a music festival together, and we'd been holding hands the entire day. I remember thinking, ‘This is a little too flirty.’ My feelings were completely back. I just told her — ‘I don't think I want to only be friends.’"

Rebecca: "I had no idea what was happening. But honestly, she caught me at the perfect time. I was open. I was like, let's do it, let's try again."

4. What made you decide to actually say how you felt, instead of sitting on it?

Isabella: "It's hard to put into words, but I was feeling these romantic feelings again — excitement, wanting to see what it would be like to be more than friends. I was nervous, because we'd already gone from dating to friends and back felt like a lot. But it didn't feel like friendship anymore. It felt like more."

5. Where are you two now, and how has the relationship evolved since that beginning moment?

Isabella: “We're in a really good place, and the future feels exciting. Coming into a relationship, you have this idea of certain benchmarks, like, we'll be together a year, and then this happens, then that happens. But we've had our own timeline for everything.”

Rebecca: "It's been three years. I feel like a completely different person than I was that first year. This is my dream relationship. We've had our ups and downs, especially since I came out later in life, but we talk a lot about what we're feeling and what we're going through. A lot of my personal growth has come from being in this relationship — not something I could've done entirely on my own. We're just present to what the other person needs. Relationships are so much deeper than what you see on TV."

6. Looking back, what did taking that risk, and dating more broadly, teach you about yourself?

Isabella: "I'm learning a lot about vulnerability, and how it leads to deeper connections with everyone important to me. That was a moment of putting myself out there and seeing it pay off, and having that pay off makes you more willing to take the next risk."

Rebecca: "For me, it's about being open to trying things instead of staying tied to a type or a plan. That's helped me in so many areas of my life. You really don't know the outcome until you try."

7. Anything else you want to share that we didn't get to?

Rebecca: "No, I don't think so. I just love being in this relationship. Everyone deserves an Isabella in their life."