The 6Hrs Date

Last Fall I matched with a man on Tinder. We got chatting and I could immediately tell he was new to online dating based on how he introduced himself and how we carried on the conversation. He shared his full government name and said I could look him up. I'm like wow this one is a johnny just come. People don't really put their info out there. You'll have to be out here buying vowels and consonants, turning into CIA to find people's true identify. I welcomed him to the wild wild west that is the world of Tinder. We exchanged #s and started texting and eventually planned a date.

The day before our date he called to confirm we were still on. I joked with my friend that he was old school as I’d never had a date call to confirm an outing. Typically, arrangement and confirmation were done via text.

We agreed to meet at 3pm at a coffee shop in West Seattle. I got in early and shortly after he joined. We exchanged pleasantries and he told me he wanted to get coffee. As we waited online to place an order his first question was "what do you do? " I rolled my eyes and said damn, jumping right in, we ain’t even ordered yet. He laughed, placed his order and we found a spot. I answered his question and i swear you could feel the tension in the air. I'm thinking to myself am i gonna make it through this date?

Next stop was taking a water taxi from West Seattle to Downtown. While on the ferry we talked about work, he lived and work in India for the past 8 years. Coming back yearly to see his family. When we got into the city I asked if we could stop at an antique shop, and he said sure. I browsed through and pointed out some of the things I liked, and he blurted "your place must look like an old lady's house"

I did a fake laugh...In my mind I’m like strike 2 Oga.

We made our way to Pike Place market, and spent time walking through and he shared fond memories of the market. We got hungry and stopped for HH. During Happy Hour he confessed that he thought he blew the date when he saw my reaction after he asked the first question. I shared that the question was not the issue, just the timing of it. I told him typically people ease into the date and start off with warm questions like, how’s your day been? What have you been up today?

We discussed his upbringing and life in Seattle before moving to India. We shared our travel adventures and I told him I liked to collect currencies. He brought out an Indian Rupee and handed it to me. I was touched and asked if he would sign it and he did.

After stuffing ourselves we decided we should head back to West Seattle. Unfortunately we missed the ferry and the next one was 50 mins out…so we ran into another spot to kill time. We talked more about our experiences. He asked more questions about my upbringing, life in Nigeria, New Jersey, and Seattle. We also got to cover more grounds about his time in India and he even shared pictures.

On the ferry back we walked out to to the deck to see the city lights and took turns taking pictures.

I told him dessert was on me so when we got back to West Seattle i put him on to Metropolitan Market's 'The Cookie' (Best cookie in the world. you are welcome!) .He mentioned there was an arcade spot nearby and asked if we could check it out. I agreed and we spent about 1hr in there playing games, some I’m sure he let me win at.

By the end of the night it was 9pm…we laughed that we could not believe we’d been out for 6 hrs! and to think we both thought this was going to be a rough date. We hugged and said our goodnight

It was easy to lose track of time because i didn't feel like i was on a date. While the date started out bumpy, the fact that we were able to openly address, move past it made it easier. I felt like I was talking to an old friend and things just flowed naturally.

So what happened next? You’ll just have to wait to find out.

Pearl B