But I was a good sport...

While I definitely have plenty of bad first-date stories, I figured I'd touch on a few that weren't exactly terrible.  In fact, this one led to one of my longest relationships to date... in spite of how it went.

Sebastian Something-French-ish.

For our first date, Sebastian picked what I had thought to be this fabulous Italian restaurant in the city.  I'd never been there, but I had heard good things.  It did, in fact, turn out to be a very nice restaurant (I think), but that's about all I remember as far as the restaurant itself is concerned.  The situations that transpired inside said restaurant are much more vivid in my memory...

First of all, as we were walking to the restaurant, Sebastian casually mentioned that his parents enjoyed the food there also.  I brushed it off, thinking that was a piece of Seb-trivia that didn't need to be processed.  But then we walked in the door and lo and behold... who is dining at said establishment tonight as well?  You guessed it - Ma and Pa Something-French-ish.  (To be honest, I clearly wouldn't have known them from a hole in the ground, except for the fact that Sebastian enjoyed pointing out this fact, almost as much as his parents did.)

But that wasn't enough.  There were plenty of empty tables in this establishment, but apparently, the dating-gods (and the hostess) thought they'd get a good chuckle out of sitting us near Seb's parents.  No.  Let me rephrase that.  Not near... NEXT to his parents.  And by "next to", I mean our tables were literally less than a foot apart.  No pressure there.

But I was a good sport.  And I really liked Sebastian... so I put up with it.  It wasn't that horrible, just very uncomfortable - especially on a first date.  But Ma and Pa Something-French-ish left shortly thereafter, so Seb and I actually did have a chance to dine on our own.

And then the bill came.  He gave them his card and every guys' first-date fear started to take place:  DECLINED. 

But I was a good sport.  And I really liked Sebastian... so I put up with it.  (Are we starting to sense a theme here?  Trust me... this should have been the motto of our entire relationship.)

When all was said and done, I had paid the bill, met the parents, and managed to keep my sense of humor throughout the entire evening thinking 'hey, at least we'll have a good story!'

...and we did.  :-)

Photo Credit:  Lucia Restaurant