“When I met Tara, I had definitely gotten to the point where a first date didn’t make me feel nervous anymore.” He adds, “My dating life, before that, wasn’t very grown-up. I would meet people at parties and not follow up. This was one of the first times I had really properly asked someone out.” He says, “I’m looking for someone who likes to laugh, and can keep the joke going. I want to feel like we’re experiencing the same version of the night.
We went out for an innocent coffee that went fine, and she mentioned she was going to a club the next night. She said I should go. Naturally, I recruited a team to go with me. We drank a little too much beforehand and attempted to get in through a side entrance before cutting our losses and going to get fast food instead. That was right before Tara and I both went home for the summer.Since then, I’d been hoping to run into her again.
We were supposed to meet in the afternoon at my place, but I was out for lunch at a random pub with a friend. Tara’s place was near the pub so when I told her where I was, she said she would just come meet us.Tara looked great. I had asked my friend if we could settle our bills before Tara arrived but when the server came over, both our cards got declined, or rather, wouldn’t go through. Repeatedly. Tara showed up while this was happening.
We were planning to see a prestige Oscar-bait picture but it was sold out, so we decided to see a horror movie. A horror movie is an especially bad choice for a first or second date. You want to cross some bridges with someone before you do one of those together. The vibe was decent but it was hard to get over the initial chaos of being unable to pay for my lunch in front of her. I was rattled and felt like I’d lost leverage. It only got worse when she had to pay for the tickets and food because I had yet to figure out what had happened to my card. I was finding it hard to be present.