Dating Disasters: ‘Then panic set in: how was I going to solve this?’

In Dating Disasters, anonymous readers share their most embarrassing, cringeworthy, and dramatic dates. This week: Valentine's Day gone wrong.

I've never been very good at dating. Something always happens: I stumble over my words, I accidentally hint that I've been stalking my date a bit too hard beforehand, or I just generally make a complete mess of things. The latter happened a few years ago as well, on Valentine's Day no less.

I was, I thought, still far too inexperienced when it came to dating, so I decided to install a dating app. This was back when Tinder wasn't just a collection of the same, meaningless profiles, so there was plenty of choice. I quickly started chatting with two nice matches and in the spirit of ‘tip 9: spread your chances’, I decided to meet both men. Surely one of them would be more fun than the other, I thought.

Nothing could be further from the truth: I don't know how I managed it, but I had really snagged two very nice men. I knew I would have to choose between them eventually, but I always managed to postpone it. That can wait, I thought. Soon Valentine's Day came around and one of them had arranged a date for us. Thank goodness, I thought. At least I don't have to choose for tonight. We had a wonderfully fun date, and when we got home, he came in for a moment.

We flopped down on my bed and just as things were getting really cozy, my roommate called out if I could come downstairs for a moment. Of course, I had already informed her about my dating situation, but I hadn't expected that information to come in handy so soon. ‘I don't know what to do now,’ she said. I looked past her through the window next to the door and saw my other date standing there with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. In hindsight, it made sense; I had lied that I had nothing to do that evening. Stupid. For a moment, panic set in: how was I going to solve this?

In the end, I ran back upstairs and had my roommate tell him that I wasn't there. You have no idea how guilty I felt when I later that evening found the abandoned bouquet of flowers, or when I woke up next to the other one that same morning, but I really didn't know how to get myself out of this.

No matter how difficult I found it, I decided not to see either of the men again. The guilt from that evening weighed far too heavily on my heart, and I felt they deserved someone who would choose them completely. I'm still not proud of myself when I think back on this, but it's my own fault. Next time, I should just bet all my money on one player...

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Image: White Lotus, Warner Media