He seemed unaware date wasn’t going well

Before the night began, her date made her wait while he cleaned his apartment for 20 minutes

Mia is a 27-year-old assistant who lives in High Park. She says “My style is cute but casual. I wear leggings as pants, but will dress them up with a nice top and accessories.” Mia is “sweet, fun-loving, funny, caring, confident, adventurous, athletic, passionate and tends to persevere.”

She says “On dates, I prefer doing an activity over dinner and drinks: bowling, visiting the aquarium, seeing a concert, something like that — points for creativity!” Mia has been single for three years.

“I was in a serious relationship for almost five years before that, and have been struggling to find a real partner ever since.”

I go on occasional dating binges, but I have to take breaks after bad experiences. I delete all my apps, but then always find myself back on them.

I met Teddy on a dating app a few months after a string of less than stellar dates. We had a promising conversation on the phone. I liked that he wanted to talk instead of just texting, because it showed a genuine interest in getting to know me. He was funny and charming, and we had lots to talk about.

We decided to meet up that weekend at his place, and go to dinner and then see a band play from there.

When we met, I realized that, while he was attractive, his photos weren’t particularly recent. I’ve been trying to be less picky, so I didn’t fixate on it.

We hugged, and I assumed we’d be going to get dinner, but he said he had to clean his place before we left and asked me to hang out while he tidied up. I sat there for 20 minutes. It was weird but, once again, I tried to be chill about it.

We went to a restaurant near his apartment. At the end of the meal, the server asked if we wanted our bill together or separate. Teddy instantly responded “separate,” which shocked me. He must have seen my feelings all over my face, because he said “What? You thought I was going to pay for your dinner?”

I will say that I’m not someone who expects a guy to pay for me every time. However, I feel like friends get separate bills, and dates do not. I like to take turns paying. I stammered something about how I usually get one bill, but I was definitely put off by his response.

Before we left, Teddy went to the bathroom, and came back holding a tissue to the side of his face. He had had a zit, and had clearly popped it in the bathroom and was trying to stop the bleeding. He then put the used tissue down on the table, right in front of me, while he put his jacket on. I considered running out of there at this point, but I didn’t want to be rude, and I was also completely stunned and didn’t know what else to do.

Teddy didn’t seem to realize his behaviour was weird or socially unacceptable in any way. I told myself to stick it out, that at least it couldn’t get any worse. It got worse. We left to go see a band play. All the way there, Teddy was talking about the zit, telling me how it had been bugging him the whole night. Then he stopped and said “You have cash, right? There’s a cover.” I said yes, I had cash, but was thinking, “Seriously?!”

The show was loud so we didn’t have to talk much. Once it was over, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. On the way back to his apartment, where I had parked, Teddy held my hand.

He seemed completely unaware that things weren’t going well. He asked if I wanted to come up to his place. I said I wasn’t feeling well. When I left, I went for a hug, and he went for a kiss, so he ended up kissing the side of my head.

I’ve never experienced anything even remotely similar on a date before. I took a break from online dating after that.

Mia rates her date (out of 10): 1 Want to be a dating diarist? Email datingdiariescontact@gmail.com