I really like that before dinner drink date. I like it for a couple of reasons:

1. There’s something exciting about the beginning of the evening… ‘the night is young’ and the sky is both light and dark. I find it romantic.

2. If the date sucks, you still have time to do something worthwhile afterwards.

Jamie* was really cute in his dating profile on Nerve. He also seemed smart and cool. We were meeting for a drink at 5pm. I had plans with friends at 7:30.

Don’t get too excited about Jamie – he’ll never live up to his profile. I reminded myself.

I walked into the Irish bar and saw Jamie. He was watching a basketball game.  He was really cute. Hmm. Surprising.

After a minute or two of the awkward, ‘nice to meet you for the first time even though we’ve been writing on-line for weeks,’ we sat at the bar, with our beers and had a great time. Yeah, we had a really good talk; he was smart, nice, interesting as  well as flirty and fun.

I would totally go out with him again!  I thought.

After our two beers in two hours, we walked to the parking lot.

“I’m going out of town for the weekend, but I’d love to see you when I get back,” Jamie told me as we waited for my car.

“I’d like that,” I said and I meant it. Crazy. I mean, I’m never interested in a second date.

A week went by before I heard from Jamie.

I recieved two emails from him in my Nerve inbox.

The first email said:

“Dear Molly, I’m writing to you because I cannot go out with you again. It’s really not you, but it’s me. My therapist is telling me I shouldn’t be dating right now. I have a real fear of intimacy and my tendancy is to break off relationshi[s before they can get too serious so rather than do that to you down the line, I need to do it now. S you can see, I’m in no shape to be dating. I wish you all the best.  Jamie.”

The second email said:

“Sorry. I meant to say Dear, Evie.”

*not his real name