Vicki and Brendan
Vicki is a 36-year-old sales manager who lives in the west end. She says “I’m blond, with a little help from my friends, and I take pride in my appearance.”
Vicki says she is “outgoing, social and easygoing, even though I’m a Gemini.”
She is “usually happy — I believe in the ‘laws of attraction’ and being a glass-half-full, optimistic thinker.” She says “I’m really good to people, so I expect the same in return. If someone treats me badly, or takes me for granted, I don’t shy away from initiating a discussion.” Vicki says
“I used to date men I had to ‘work’ for because I needed the challenge, but then I discovered that wasn’t really good for me.”
I met Brendan on a dating site. He started to chat with me, but he didn’t have a picture of himself on his profile.
I’d just gone on a blind date with a guy who didn’t have a picture on his profile, and that had turned out badly, so I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to do that again.
Brendan engaged me in conversation for about 45 minutes, while I was also chatting with a few other men.
In terms of details, I only knew his first name, and that he was a VP at a big company, and all he knew about me was that I work in sales for a corporation. He asked me if I would go out with him.
I liked our conversation, but I wasn’t interested in a totally blind date again, so I asked him to send a picture.
He kept chatting but ignored my request.
I got annoyed and told him I wasn’t going to waste my time unless he sent one. He immediately wrote that he’d send something — and sent over two photos of his feet, instead.
One shot had a pair of ski boots on a mountain; another was of his feet in sandals in a warm locale. I burst out laughing.
After that, I decided to risk it, and said that I would go out with him because I thought he was funny.
We planned to meet at a nice restaurant downtown that I chose, because I knew the place well, and if the date ended badly I could stay and still have fun on my own.
I had also set it up so that a friend was waiting for my call, if needed.
I went early to have a drink, and lo and behold, my friend Billy was at the bar of the restaurant. He’s a great guy — we’d met through work and had some friends in common.
After his divorce, I actually offered to write a dating profile for him, since he was new to the dating scene, and he had teased me for never setting him up with a profile like I said I would.
He walked up and said hi, and my heart sank.
I didn’t want Billy to see that I was on a blind date, especially because I was on a blind- blind date, and didn’t know what Brendan looked like.
He could be an ugly troll for all I know.
I tried to get rid of Billy without making a big deal of it, but he laughed and said I was being rude, and that I should offer to buy him a drink.
I told him I never buy men drinks, so Billy bought me one, and I had to sweat it out with him at the bar for a while.
Eventually, he started asking me where my friend was. It was then that I noticed the look on his face: he looked guilty, but also like he was holding in laughter.
I suddenly figured out that he had duped me: Billy was Brendan. He had set up a profile under a different name.
After figuring this out, I was nervous, because I didn’t know what his intentions were. Had Billy just seen me online and decided to play a joke? Was this supposed to be just friends, or was it a date?
I decided that the logical step was to drink a lot that night.
It got comfortable eventually. We both got smashed. I did most of the talking, like always, but he jumped in where he could.
We laughed most of the night. After dinner he told me he had tickets for a basketball game, and we went.
At some point, he put a fake pair of crazy teeth in his mouth, which I thought was both hilarious and really embarrassing. He even ate with them in his mouth.
I think we both didn’t even know if it was a date, or a fun friend night, but then we were suddenly making out. We’ve been together ever since. Vicki rates her date (out of 10): 8 Want to be a dating diarist? Email datingdiariescontact@gmail.com