RAD: Prayer Boy in These Foolish Things

Lunch meet & greet! Trust me, it’s a fluke that I had two dates in a row…

Name: Prayer Boy

Introduction Platform: Bumble

Age: 56

Relationship Status: Divorced 10 years and sounds like he’s had lots of girlfriends since. Says they usually last about a year. Seems like he likes to drag his dating out to about a year and then cut it off.

Job: Manufactures dental implants, veneers and other medical/dental equipment

Lives: In the not-so-far-out ‘burbs, but his office is about a mile from mine! That’s how we decided on lunch.

Length of Date: an hour

We Did: Met for lunch at a Mexican place in between our two offices. Literally took us both three minutes to drive over. Had lunch - but before we ate, he asked if we could hold hands and PRAY, which, okay fine. But it threw me a bit and kind of quickly made my mind up about him.

He Looked: Shorter than 6’1” that he put on his profile. I’d guess he’s 5’10”. And because of that, he seemed smaller than his photos represent. He looks big and almost burly in his photos. In person he’s much less attractive, though he does have cute dimples and a scruff of a beard. He was aight, but…his mannerisms were confusing as well. He was sooooooo effeminate that it was SHOCKING. His photos literally scream “MANLY”. Yet his voice and body movements say something completely different. I don’t know, you guys.

I Looked: So. I maybe should have thought twice about wearing my Spanx faux leather snakeskin leggings and my tall, tall pointy black boots. I also showed some cleave under my drapey cashmere sweater. Oh well. I maybe put on a little bit of a show for Prayer Boy, hmmm?

Convo: We said our hellos and after the prayer, wouldn’t you know that some peeps from my office showed up? Yeah, it’s a pretty common thing since this restaurant is popular and SO close to the office, but the thing is, the hostess sat the four work folks at the table DIRECTLY ACROSS from us! Like, pretty much within earshot! Good thing is, it’s not a quiet place. You know, it’s a very casual Mexican place…loud and fragrant and all that, so we couldn’t hear (or smell) what was going on at the nearby tables. Thank goodness! It wasn’t as weird as I thought it was going to be at first, but we all kinda laughed it off when we passed by the table at the end of lunch.

Back to the convo. It was pretty light until I asked Prayer Boy about his kids. That’s when he got a little (more) animated and the talk got heavier. He has a daughter (19) and a son (15). His daughter has an almost 3-year-old kid. Yeah, do that math. He was open about it but seemed almost ashamed of the fact that his daughter got pregnant at 16 - and got married at 16 as well! He blames his ex for not reigning in her daughter and blah, blah, blah. It felt like the flood gates opened for him with regards to baggage and exes and such. Bottom line is it feels like although he seems mild-mannered and soft-spoken, he doesn’t seem very tolerant.

High Point: The chips and salsa?

Low Point: Probably when I laid eyes on him. I know that sounds harsh, doesn’t it? It just didn’t feel like a match from the get-go.

How It Ended: Our conversation seemed to drag and I checked the time and it was already close to when I needed to get back to the office. I told him I needed to get going and he paid the check and we put our coats on and had to walk past my work peeps and say hi and laugh. Awkward. He walked me out to my car and lingered and I could TELL he was about to go in for a KISS. Huh? After a Mexcian lunch? With work people so close? Just. No.

Chances Are: Not a prayer.

Date Rating: C-. The date itself wasn’t bad - it was tolerable. But I just don’t see us together forever or ever, Amen.