Stories of our own

At the launch, women were exchanging stories over the loud music about bad dates and relationship stoppers. Encouraged to share mine with Courtney Bryan, who works for Silver Lining, I told her of my ex. We’d been dating for more than a year when he suddenly broke it off after a phone call from his ex. They hadn’t seen each other in four years but she was getting married in a week and called to say she still had feelings for him. He said he did, too. Then he flew down to see her before the wedding. She called it off. A week later, they realized they’d grown to be very different people and weren’t going ahead as a couple.

After I was left wondering where he was for two weeks, he resurfaced to call me at 3 a.m. to tell me where he’d been, what had happened and suggested we give our relationship another try.

I told him never to call me again.

To lighten the mood, Bryan told me her sunflower story.

She had dated a guy for a few years and after they broke up, he was slated to appear on Blind Date, a dating game show, which was shooting in Toronto.

Eventually, she saw the episode where he greeted his date with a single sunflower. “I was a little embarrassed about both things,” she says of the sunflower and him appearing on a national dating game.

Bryan is more of a bouquet girl, preferring lilies or orchids to a single flower. She sees a bunch of flowers as a more thoughtful gesture.

“Maybe he thought he was being thoughtful. But the girl didn’t seem very impressed either.”