The Flight Attendant… a 2/5 on the date scale

It was a long work day, I was unproductive and was unmotivated. I logged on to Grindr to see if I could arrange some fun to perk me up that night.

I was messaged by a flight attendant who was staying at one of the hotels in the city. He seemed nice and genuine. I asked the usual questions such “what are you looking for?” - “what do you do for work?”. Surprisingly he wasn’t just after fun but was after dates and mates.

It was decided that I would come to his hotel room and have a chat to see if we clicked (I failed to recall dating rule #3 always have the first meet in a neutral place). He seemed a little nervous about giving me his hotel room number. He was curious and asked whether I felt uncomfortable going to his hotel room. I simply replied that I was confident and comfortable… I mean why would I feel uncomfortable about meeting in a hotel room? I should have seen the warning signs…

So I got to the hotel lobby and walked up to his room. His looks were just a little less cute than the pic. I resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to get a fuck tonight. We got chatting and it soon become blatantly apparent that he was not a guy I would consider having a relationship with. He was overly effeminate and lacked confidence (the ‘be alert’ tone was sounding). In addition to being a flight attendant he previously owned a beauty salon (the alarm bells had moved towards the evacuation tone).

Being the gentleman that I am I continued to chat for about an hour and a half. Admittedly there were a couple of those awkward silent moments. I was the one asking all the questions as I didn’t want to divulge too much about me as I was already distancing myself from this guy and didn’t want him to get the impression that I was interested in him.

After the obligatory hour and a half, I said I needed to go home and cook dinner. He instantly latched on and invited me to dinner at the hotel (he had demonstratred that he was an expert clingon). I actually had some salmon that needed cooking, so I gave an honest answer that I needed to cook something up that night.

When I told my gaggle the events of the night, do you think I got any sympathy? No, one of my gaggle pissed herself laughing and found it hilarious that he exactly fitted the gay fem flight attendant stereotype.

How could I have avoided this awkward date? Firstly, meet in a neutral place to assess whether his pic is true to form. Secondly, have an exit strategy! Yes, I’ll repeat that for maximum impact – I had no exit strategy.

You see it in all the movies and romantic comedies… one must have an exit strategy planned prior to going on a date. There are two reasons for this, the primary reason is to exit from a dud date quickly, efficiently and with a minimum of fuss. The second reason is to avoid that awkward situation where you have to tell your date that he is not your type and the inevitable questions that follow.