kids under the age of five. Was divorced two years ago. He
was a chef at a fancy restaurant and is a self-proclaimed
workaholic. He wanted to have me come over so he could
cook for me—I guess his ex-wife had the kids since he never
mentioned them—but I felt it was safer to go somewhere
public. That was a mistake, as he criticized the food all night.
He spent so much time picking it apart I don’t think we talked
about one meaningful thing. I left not knowing any more about
him than I knew at the start.
Date four was Andrew. Andrew was just shy of forty.
He was a banker, which I thought I wouldn’t find interesting,
but he was very nice. He was one of those guys who can talk
about anything and make it interesting. He was funny. Had no
kids, but very much wanted them. He thought it was
wonderful that I was a teacher and asked me tons of questions
about my job and about myself that I could tell he actually
wanted to know the answers to. When I blurted that my
parents owned a tire business and rattled off the name, he
didn’t even blink. He had to have known that it was worth a
ton of money. Everyone does. The name is very iconic. He just
told me that next time he needed tires, he’d be sure to get them
from there.
Everything went well. We had a nice dinner at a family
style restaurant that wasn’t classy enough to make me feel
nervous. He walked me to my car, and when he leaned in to
kiss me, I panicked. My first instinct was to kick him in the
balls. I knew that was wrong, since he didn’t mean anything
by it and I was probably giving off vibes that I’d welcome a
goodnight kiss. It was innocent. He was genuinely confused
and felt terrible when I backed away like a caged animal.