My Worst Date

They say "never say never," but they also say that you learn from your mistakes. I prefer the latter because I will never, let me repeat, never go on a blind date EVER again. I was only 16 years old at the time and I had no idea what I was doing. There was no social media and the only way I would communicate with strangers was a program called ICQ. This was a way to meet random people from anywhere around the world.

His name was Emanuel—you never forget the names of people who said or did something unforgettable—I am now 35 and still remember him. We only described each other but decided not to exchange pictures. I honestly didn't think much of it. I was never a shallow person so it was not important to me. However, it turned out to be a disaster, more than I was willing to accept. I was not even slightly attracted to him, but I didn't imagine that would be a problem until he started hitting on me.

When we first met at this mall, he didn't want to go to any of the bars or cafés around and suggested just sitting on some stairs that were right next to one of the elevators. I found his personality annoying, but I decided to suck it up and just stay for a while, knowing and thinking to myself that I would never see him again. At one point and out of the blue he tried to kiss me. He didn't give me a choice: I was forced to turn my face away from him. It was the most awkward moment I ever had with any guy in my entire life.

Usually, if a guy likes me and I don't, I make something up to avoid saying "I am not attracted to you." I am sure most people use white lies in such cases. Basically, any excuse to avoid getting that far. Nobody wants an arrangement to meet someone they don't like. But it was too late. He reacted in shock and started asking what my problem was and why I rejected him. I knew I didn't owe him any explanation but I said, "I have a boyfriend." This only made matters worse: he believed it, or maybe he convinced himself it was true just to protect his self-esteem. He started yelling like a crybaby, "WHY didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend?! you should have told me!! What is wrong with you?!" At this point, I wanted to run away FAST.

Next, I told him I had to leave and started walking away. Instead of leaving me alone, he started walking along with me and chasing me for much longer than expected. All I wanted was for him to disappear. I asked him to leave but he wouldn't. He started saying that I met with him because I was probably considering cheating on my boyfriend. He wouldn't give up as he was convinced I was "tempted" to be with him and he had to "insist" a little more. By now, we were in the street and had already walked a few blocks. I didn't want him to know where I lived (I was close to my house), so I kept praying inside that he would just leave, but he wouldn't.

After a while my patience was completely lost, so I decided to tell a security guy who was standing outside a restaurant if he could please help me. I told him this guy had been harassing me for a long time. He didn't have to help me because it was private security and not a police officer. However, he was nice enough to stop him. I thanked him and LITERALLY ran away from there as fast as I possibly could. This could define the word "relief."

Believe it or not, that wasn't the last time I spoke to him. He decided to give me a call to insult me over the phone as he could not get over the "fact" that I had a boyfriend and didn't tell him. I hung up on him and thankfully never heard from him again. Blind dates are not a good idea when you have the choice of having at least a clue about who you are going to meet. It is also a good idea to spend a few days just chatting instead of meeting right away. Trust me, it can go very wrong.