Date: 2
Date: 3
Occupation: Businessman
Location: Pizza Hut
Date 2 irritated me from the moment his
abrupt phone call woke me up that morning.
He rang to enquire as to my whereabouts,
as he was ‘on the way to see me’. ‘You’re
breaking all forms of social and dating
etiquette!’ is what I longed to express, but my
Mandarin capabilities failed me. Instead, I set
him straight with a firm ‘No’.
I’d met this guy a few times before and
knew he was neither a rapist nor a murderer,
so I let his slightly erratic behavior pass and
continued to make arrangements for our
date. He insisted that by no means would
he be free before 7pm (I presumed he’d
probably already arranged an earlier date, the
two-timing slut). Arriving at precisely 7pm, I
rang to say I was at the entrance. To my utter
dismay, the chap standing before me was
not the beer-loving, tattooed guy I’d met in
88 Bar a few months before, but a gormlesslooking random I’d never set eyes on. How
had this happened? Had they swapped phone
numbers? Confused, but not wanting to stand
in the way of my dinner, we went inside and
ordered. After a slice of pizza and a mouthful
of mashed potato, he announced that he was
full, but content just to sit and watch me eat.
Half an hour into our date, he answered
his phone for the third time, then muttered
something about ‘mother’ and ‘hospital.’ He
apologized, paid the bill and swiftly left.
So there I was, stunned yet delighted to be
rid of the awkward silence. I stuffed my face
with the remaining pizza, drank the rest of the
wine and took myself home. He later texted
to apologize again and asked if there was the
chance he could be my boyfriend in the future.
Occupation: Government Employee
Location: Posh Chinese Restaurant
When Date 3 arrived to pick me up, I politely
informed him that I’d invited a friend – I wasn’t
prepared to be left eating solo again after
last night and it had come to my attention
that bringing friends on dates is culturally
acceptable in China, as demonstrated by Date
1. Date 3 didn’t seem at all perplexed and
we continued on our journey, first collecting
my friend and then making our way to the
restaurant.
As it happened, Date 3 had also invited a bunch
of his closest pals along who were already
waiting in a private dining room. We enjoyed
a range of local delicacies whilst my friend and
I were invited to toast our new companions
on an hourly basis, smashing a few bottles
of wine along the way. Following our meal,
we left the restaurant. To my absolute horror,
Date 3 tried to give me 500 RMB, claiming it
was for the taxi ride home. I argued for what
seemed like an eternity that the journey home
would cost me less than 20 kuai but he put
the money in my bag anyway and