The 'Less-Than-30 Minutes' one

Location: Nettle & Rye

I probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind for this date, so what happened could partly be my fault…maybe. It had been one of those days at work and all I really wanted was to get home, eat food and lounge in front of the TV for the evening. But instead at 5.30 I was re-applying my make-up at my desk and telling my colleague Jo that despite me not really being convinced by his photos and biog ‘you just never know, this one could be good!’

Jo had sat through this self-convincing speale of mine so many times now and no longer was prepared to just agree. She said I shouldn’t bother going and in no uncertain terms ‘why waste your time on someone you know you're not going to like? If you must go and you decide you don’t like him, get in and out as quickly as possible’.

So with those words ringing in my ears, I arrived at the bar not feeling exactly positive to say the least. But first impressions were actually quite good. He wasn’t bad looking and the first thing he said was ‘I have a tab behind the bar, what do you want to drink?’ In Bristol, such a gesture is pretty rare and I was actually slightly taken aback. However that was the only positive moment on the date.

Within 5 minutes of speaking to him, I knew I didn’t like him. He was very corporate, quite arrogant, talked about money way too much - how much his house had cost, his mortgage, his last expensive holiday, and how his boss had donated a million pounds to the Brexit campaign. The last part was said quite proudly and I just couldn’t face getting into a politics debate right then with us clearly being on alternative sides, so I drank my wine pretty fast. I thought we clearly just weren’t compatible and finished with some generic small-talk.

He offered me another drink and in my panic I literally couldn’t think of a good excuse so I just said ‘Umm no I’m ok thank you!’ Urgh! But he let it go and we parted ways on, I thought, fairly ok terms. Until the Whatsapp messages came through…

Here's a screen grab of the exchange:

I couldn’t believe it! And for the record he completely wasn’t nervous! For a good few hours afterwards I felt terrible and was really upset. I don’t like people thinking badly of me, but also that was another unsuccessful date, and like with all the others, it’s pretty depressing that it hasn’t worked out. 

But after telling the story to a few friends (aforementioned colleague included!) they told me it was his problem not mine, that this was what dating apps were all about, I shouldn’t feel bad about it and that obviously he had a chip on his shoulder.

I can finally laugh about it now and am coming around to her way of thinking. Just annoying as he lives above my local Tesco metro and I am dreading ever bumping into him again!