Some dates are so bad, people don’t have a choice but to walk out before they can end. Bad dates are terrible to sit through at the time, but they can make for the best stories. These Quora users have shared their miserable dates they’ve walked out on and turned them into words of advice and inspiration. Content has been edited for clarity.
He Was Unexpectedly Supportive
“It was her who walked out on me. A drop-dead gorgeous girl walked out on me. And it was the best thing she could have done.
Some three years ago I set up a date with a girl who had been throwing glances at me and sending me greetings with a friend in common for quite some time now. I thought she was out of my league so it took me some time to muster up the courage to ask, but once I popped the question, she said yes with a smile from ear to ear.
The day came and we met up at the park and went for a walk, going through the usual chit-chat. I’ve never been one to sweet-talk girls but I always make a conscious effort to be attentive and chivalrous to everyone. Especially beautiful girls.
Anyways, back to the story, I noticed she was taking quite a few selfies whenever she saw something pretty around the park. Then we entered an interactive museum and the self-photography session was just upscale. She’d be doing selfies at almost every hall, attraction, and corridor, and at some point, she handed me her phone and asked me to actually snap the photos for her.
The walk around the museum turned into an hour of me chasing her around, photographing her beautiful self with about anything and everything she found worth doing a photo with. There were plenty of amazing weird science devices and other fun stuff, but rather than joining me in toying around with them, all she could use them for was to pose for pictures. That itself kind of killed my mood but I tried to be cool about it either way and just shrugged it off.
I brought up some interesting conversation topics but she didn’t seem interested in the same things I was and kept promptly running towards the next flashy device to pose for the next picture, making it hard to keep a real conversation. The chit-chat became a dull exchange of the standard Q&A—in between snaps—, and when I’d crack some jokes, she didn’t find them very funny.
Despite my best efforts, by that time into the date, I guess my mood wasn’t at its best, which she most likely picked up on. The afternoon slowly slipped by, and even though I was still trying for it to work, it was clear neither of us was feeling it. Then she jokingly said something to remark just how good a catch she was, and to this day I wonder in what way, exactly. Later on, also ‘jokingly’, let me know I wasn’t very good at talking to a lady, which at that point was probably about right.
As we walked out of the museum, I proposed hitting a nearby coffee shop in the hopes it would eventually get better, but she came up with some lazy excuse and called it a day. Needless to say, there was no second date or any attempts to follow up from either side.
I won’t lie. I had high hopes pinned on that girl and at the moment I felt like a total loser. How could I ruin a date with a girl who practically had thrown herself into my arms? I kept going through my head trying to figure out what I could’ve done better. In the end, I realized it wasn’t me who messed things up. And like I said, looking back I’m happy she had the guts to walk away from an awful date.
I don’t think we would have made it very far.”
A Date With The Boss
“It was a blind date set up by my boss of all people. From the moment I sat down, his first comment was about my great rack and I knew I was in for a doozy. It went downhill from there fast. He was loud and made blatant suggestive remarks to the server upon ordering drinks. Bragged about his salary and sports car. Made innuendo about getting me in bed later that the couple next to us could even hear. And this was all in the first 10 minutes.
I suffered just long enough to give my order to our very sweet server, which just happened to be the most expensive thing on the menu. BY FAR.
I said, ‘Shoot, I think I would like another glass of pinot. And what the heck, let’s just throw in a delicious glass of MacAllen 18 (at 45 dollars a pop), for each of us, so we could toast.’
Romeo here was rich.
As he (finally) shut up and sat there speechless, I waited about five minutes and smiled as I excused myself to the ladies’ room, where I walked right past the entrance and without a second glance headed straight for the back door. I b-lined for my car, peeled out, and was home enjoying a glass of pinot with a bowl of cheese popcorn balanced on my knees, happily soaking in a bubble bath 15 minutes later. Which is about the time I received a phone call from Don Juan. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what Casanova had to say that night, as I deleted the voicemail without listening, but I’m betting he had at least two choice words for me.
However, I did stop by that restaurant on my way home from work the next day to make sure our server received a gracious tip. She was very appreciative and thanked me with a surprising recap of the rest of the evening. It seems my potential suitor was rather unamused with my disappearing act and was so disgruntled that when presented with the bill he stood up, screamed in outrage, and proceeded to throw what could only be described as a full-blown Mel Gibson hate-spewing temper tantrum, complete with red-face, clenched fists, and an impetuous kick to the chair he’d been sitting in, breaking it into several pieces and unfortunately scaring the heck out of both the staff and guests. Lucky for him, the restaurant’s manager was the nicest guy on the planet, and when given the option between the police being called or paying for the damage, he forked over an additional 100 dollars for the chair.
As I handed our server a gracious tip on my way out, I smiled to myself. Some may say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but I can assure you karma is priceless. Or at least worth 417 dollars (including the chair).
Oh- and my boss never mentioned a word.”
She Had No Sense Of Decency
“I set up a date with this one woman. We’re both working professionals, in our 30s, so I can’t chalk her behavior up to youth or lack of social interaction. Though, this was a few years back so I don’t quite remember what she did for a living.
Anyway, we set a lunch date about halfway in between both our workplaces. I showed up five minutes early because the place we chose could get pretty packed for lunch, meaning if you got there later, you’d be waiting a while for food.
Well, she texted me, ‘Stuck in a meeting, running a little late.’
I replied, ‘Ok, no problem.’
I grabbed a table and sat down to wait. About 20 minutes later, I asked her for an ETA (estimated time of arrival).
She said, ’15 minutes.’
Ok, I understood. Meetings run over, and 15 minutes was still not a horrible delay given travel time. Another 20 minutes went by, and I decided to call her.
I said, ‘Hey, where are you?”
She was driving and said, ‘Almost there.’
Ten minutes later, she finally arrived. She was about an hour late. Not a great start.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a sit-down type of place, so I wasn’t wasting a waiter/waitress’s time and tips to wait for her. We went up to order our food finally and she offered to buy lunch as an apology for being late.
I thought, ‘Ok… I’m flexible. I’ll stay a bit later at work.’
We ate, sat down, started chatting, and she started asking me about my time in the military.
She asked, ‘So, did you go overseas?’
I said, ‘Yes, I spent a few years overseas in Korea and Iraq/Kuwait.’
She said, ‘Oh cool!’ (Not the way I’d describe it, but ok) ‘Did you ever have to get rough with anyone?’
I replied, ‘Thankfully, I don’t think so no, though I did see combat. It’s not exactly something anyone wants to have to do typically.’
I tried to make it clear I wasn’t exactly a fan of this type of question through tone of voice and body language. She didn’t appear to notice, because she then asked, ‘Did anyone you know die?’
Again, I adopted a more curt tone and tried to make it clear this wasn’t a great line of questioning for a first date. Usually, that question gets asked but phrased differently like ‘Did you lose anyone you knew’ or simply ‘did you see combat’.
I replied, ‘Yes, several friends the second tour and one the first.’
Before I could even try to change the subject, she asked, ‘How did they die?’
At this point, I was pretty annoyed. We were sitting outside close to the parking lot and I sort of snapped. I let her know in no uncertain terms that her entire line of questioning wasn’t exactly ideal for a first date. Then I left and went back to work. Never heard from her again. No apology. No reaction whatsoever when I got angry with her. Just nothing.
I got over it, but that’s a date I doubt I’ll ever forget.”
She Left Him Hanging
“I met a guy online. I do not post pictures of myself that are older or hide what I look like — that behavior is illogical to me. The point I’m making is the guy in the following story knew what I looked like, top to bottom. I wasn’t just posting selfies of my face taken at a flattering angle.
I met this guy for dinner at a nicer restaurant of his choosing and I was so excited. We ordered drinks and dinner and he said, ‘I bet you could be real pretty if you changed up your look a little bit.’
I politely told him the date was over, got up, and found the waitress, and explained to her what happened. I asked her to bring my meal and drink to the bar as well as the tab for my portion of the meal. I paid for my tab and asked that my food be boxed up. I sat at the bar and drank my drink. Just as I got my to-go food arrived and I was preparing to leave, the guy came up to me and told me he needed a ride home and he forgot his wallet. I told him he’d better call a friend for a ride and to bring his wallet when they came. And I left him standing there with the bouncer to sort it out.”
And He Still Acted Like A Gentleman
“I craved a good steak dinner so I invited an Internet person I had been chatting with to my favorite log cabin restaurant. I immediately thought it was strange that she asked me to come to her apartment to pick her up. Usually, for Internet first dates, you don’t usually give your address out. But I thought it wasn’t a big deal.
I drove up and a woman was standing there with a very large purse/satchel/bag, whatever. It was indeed her but I had to ask because she had posted an inaccurate photo of her online. She didn’t look like the photo in the face or body.
‘Oh, okay.’ I thought, ‘We will have a nice dinner together and her untruthfulness wasn’t going to ruin my dinner.’
When we got to the restaurant I offered to lock her huge bag in the trunk, she said, ‘No, I never go anywhere without THIS!’
Now I was thinking, ‘What’s with her attitude and that bag?’
So, once seated I look over the drink list and there are a few domestic Cabernet and Merlots that I have had and liked, yeah, overpriced but that’s normal. She however wanted the 75 dollars bottle.
I asked, ‘Have you ever had that kind? Is it good?’
‘No’, she replied ‘but that’s what I want.’
I said, ‘Wow, it’s so expensive. How about if they sell it by the glass, I get you one to see if you like it?’
‘Oh, okay, we can go with the one you already know you like’, she agreed.
The drinks came and for some reason, the server poured a little for me to test and for my date also. We approved and the server took our order for dinner. Now, this was a place that the smallest steak dinner was a full 16 ounces, it usually came as two steaks with all the side dishes included. It was what I usually ordered and most of the time I brought one steak home. This woman ordered a 24-ounce porterhouse and floored me, but I said nothing. She obviously was out to get as much as she could for free and eat all week on the leftovers.
So, no worries, I was annoyed, but I was going to still have a pleasant evening despite her quirks. So as she reached over to drink, I noticed her bracelet.
‘Oh, what an attractive bracelet’, I said.
‘Yes, it’s magnetic!’ she exclaimed, ‘And it helps me with wrist pain’.
That’s when the trouble started. I said I was glad it helped her.
She then virtually exploded with a very loud vulgar rant towards me, ‘You are a freaking liar! My doctor knows that it’s real and you don’t know a thing!’
I saw our waitress hiding behind a log, peeking out in horror. Everyone became silent in the whole place, the proverbial pin drop could have been heard in between this behemoth’s shrieks.
Then I said, ‘Just try to calm down. We have ordered our meals and can still have a nice dinner, then I will take you home and we never have to see each other again.’
‘You’re a liar!’, she screamed again. ‘And you had better pay for our food and not stiff the waitress!’
So I pushed away from the table, got up and leaned over the table towards her, and said, ‘Lady, don’t you tell me how to act in a restaurant.’
As I started to turn right towards where the server was hiding, I saw an angry patron on my right coming over to us, but he saw and heard me handling the situation and went back to his table. The server was able to cancel our food, and she said she would get the almost full bottle and cork it for me. I went back and told the date that if she wanted a ride home, to be out front in five minutes and I would drive up to the door. The server thanked me again.
As she handed me the bottle she said, ‘You will need this when you get home.’
I let the woman get in my car. She placed that huge bag on her lap and put her whole arm inside up to her elbow, pointing towards me. Now I realized what the bag was, it concealed her protection. I drove home with one eye on her, never saying a word. She never let her eyes leave me as we drove ten miles back to town. I resolved to crash the car on her side if she pulled a weapon on me, maybe bear spray, I don’t know. I dropped her off at home and got the heck out of there.”
