Another Date Horror Story

Yesterday at church during Deacon Wyatt's sermon I was reminded of a story. A few years ago (2 or 3) I had season tickets to the Detroit Symphony (like I do now) and there was this guy from work whom I thought was cute. Someone had told me that he was single and not dating anybody, so I got up my nerve and asked if he would be interested in going with me. He said Yes, and when the particular Friday night rolled around he picked me up and we went to my favorite restaurant for dinner. One of the things I love about TJ's is that it covers the gamut when it comes to variety: vegan, vegetarian, chicken, fish, pork and beef, so the vegetarian is happy, but so are their meat-eating dinner companions. We're chatting away during dinner when he pipes up with, "I'm going to have to bring my girlfriend here. She's a vegetarian, too." I think the look on my face (even though I tried not to show it) was, "WTF?"

Okay, loyal male readers, why on earth would a man accept an invitation from a woman if he's got a girlfriend???? And going to tell me about it? Why not just say at the time of invitation, "I’m sorry, Kathleen, but I have a girlfriend." I would not have been heartbroken. Instead, I'm sitting at dinner and thinking of smacking him. ;-) That is if I were the violent type.

I maintained a pleasant demeanour throughout dinner and oh yes, I most definitely let him pay. We go to the symphony, because I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face. We have now reached the point where I was reminded of this evening at church. When we left Orchestra Hall, it was after most people had left (we must have stopped in the shop or something), and as we crossed the street a man approached us with a story about having a flat and needing money to fix the flat and he spun quite the tale. Yes, I fell for it and gave the man money. The other woman's boyfriend gave me a hard time, but Deacon Wyatt made me feel better yesterday about me giving away money with a story about his own kids many years ago. He had taken them to a movie and he instructed them to stand in one spot while he got the popcorn and pop. The kids had their own $3 to spend later, but he was paying initially. When later came though the kids informed him that they did not have their $3. He asked them where it was and they said that some man had approached them and said he was hungry. His point was that his children were not fools, but instead generous, as they had seen him being and he had seen his father before him being. And although the Date occasionally mentions my giving money to a stranger, I feel that that man needed that money more than I did. No, I'm not rich, but I am and was better off than he was. And although the man insisted he would pay me back the next day, I never really expected the phone call or the money.

I did appreciate Deacon Wyatt's sermon though because I know that most people would consider me to be the fool, and it's nice to know that here is someone who doesn't (or wouldn't if he knew).

As we drove back toward my house, he asked what I wanted to do next. I didn't look at him incredulously, but I wanted to. We decided to go to a bar near my house (walking distance) and while there I ran into a friend of mine and ended up hanging out with him while Date left early because he had biking plans with the girlfriend in the morning. He asked if I were ready to leave and I said No, I was going to stay longer and drink with my friend. I think that annoyed him, but tough shit. I told my friend the story of the evening and he couldn’t believe it.

To this day I wonder what his girlfriend thought he was doing on a Friday night.