Time Slipped Away
I met a guy through OKCupid who seemed very mature and together. I was actually excited to meet him. On the set date, I sat outside the restaurant for ten minutes past waiting for him. I finally sent him a text saying, “I’m outside on the bench.” He came stumbling out of the restaurant and said, “Oh, uh, sorry, I forgot to tell you I was inside.” So, ok, I let it slide, he could have just been nervous, maybe saving a table for us. We went inside and sat at a bar. Granted it was a sushi bar, but they did serve sushi to the dozens of empty tables surrounding us.
So ok, again, I let it slide. I thought it might have been less awkward if we weren’t staring at each other, anyway. But as soon as I set my purse down, I realized that he already ordered. And he didn’t order food for us to share, he ordered food for himself. I ordered my food. His food came before mine does, obviously, and he proceeded to eat all of his food before mine was even made.
At this point, I was pretty sure the date was a bust. But I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and chalked up his behavior to nerves. I tried to keep the conversation going because he was pretty much silent the entire time. Whatever he did say, it was long and drawn out and very boring. The conversation that was had was him talking about anime conventions and video games. He was very pompous in the way he spoke too. Annoyed the snot out of me.
I was done. I couldn’t take this train wreck any longer. I headed to the bathroom and racked my brain about how in the hell I could get out of there. I came up with the excuse that my roommate was sick and I had to go take care of her. He buys it. So we got the checks. And they were separate checks, mind you. Usually you have to ask specifically for separate checks so I wondered when he had done that.
I ended up paying for my own meal. He even paid his bill first. He could have easily offered to pay mine, but he didn’t even offer. I’m not a sexist person, but it’s pretty common knowledge that on a first date, the guy pays.
Now any normal person would have looked at that date and thought it was a complete disaster. But not this winner. I’d barely got on the road when he sent me a text that said, “I had a really good time! I would love to see you again. Let me know when you’re free.” He actually thought the date went well.
I realized later that our date only lasted 47 minutes. I desperately wish I could get those 47 minutes of my life back.
