Date 157

"I'm spellbound, oh but a woman divides."

This was another very rare occasion in all the years I've been doing this, that I thought wow! However, this was during and not after the first date.

Giving Tinder another go, I wasn't amazingly into her before we met and the feeling before we went for drinks was that of nervous dread that the date wouldn't last long rather than excitement. I knew as soon as I saw her that we'd get on though. And that we did.

I was straight away attracted to her and we also had the same interests, in particular; a mutual love for Twin Peaks and cats. We drank for a good five hours or more and she could certainly put them away and to me, the signals were there that she liked me as well with her being very touchy feely and tactile. It was definitely one of my favourite first dates and I felt she was the complete package.

On the way back to the bus stop, by which time we were both quite drunk, she said that she wanted to see me again but that there hadn't been any fireworks for her. I found this quite an odd thing to say and at first thought this was a negative thing but she assured me that she'd had a great time and that we should go to the cinema for our next date. At this stage we'd still just been communicating via Tinder and without me asking, she made sure to give me her phone number and instructed me to contact her to arrange date two. In theory this sounded promising but the 'fireworks' comment put a lot of doubt in my mind, even though I tried to tell myself otherwise.

We texted for a few days and were in the process of arranging a trip to the flicks when the messages just stopped from her. I knew her birthday was the day after Halloween so I waited until then to make contact again to wish her happy birthday and see if she replied. She did but I felt if I hadn't been in touch then I wouldn't have heard from her. I mentioned meeting up again and she said she still wanted to but not for a couple of weeks as she was busy at work and the texts stopped again.

I waited until the week she said she was free and she suggested we go and see Widows the following week on a Tuesday night, so I felt positive again. Three hours before we were due to meet she cancelled due to work commitments. I was a bit pissed off as that really was short notice but I still wanted to see her so asked if she was free the following week. She was and we made plans again.

I didn't hear from her again so texted her the day before to check we were still on and she said she was up for it if I still fancied it. So the date took place and we caught up a bit before the film started. After it had finished I suggested something to eat but she declined saying she was tired even though it was 8pm and went home but she said she'd had a great time and wanted to meet again.

The next day I messaged her to see if she fancied coming to mine for dinner in a couple of weeks time but she said she was busy on the days I suggested and that she'd looked at her diary and was busy with work and social commitments until after Christmas so I decided to take the hint and leave it. Rumours of my unimaginative cooking had somehow clearly reached her...

Date 52

"I won't share you."

I went on three dates with this woman, who was a few years older than me and going through an amicable divorce, over the course of about three months as she had to keep going to Bangladesh on business for long periods of time.

The first two meetings were very enjoyable and although we didn't really have much in common, we got on extremely well and she was very good company. On the third date in Angel we had a lovely evening involving drinks and a meal and I ended up going back to her place in Walthamstow and sleeping with her.

The next day I texted her on my way home to thank her for the evening and then got an e-mail from her a couple of days later saying she liked my company but could we be just friends. I replied and said this was fine and never saw or heard from her again, which was disappointing to say the least as I did quite fancy her.

In retrospect, I can't help thinking that the reason she ceased all contact with me was because I put my uncanny cat whispering talents into practice. After consistently telling me how unfriendly her two feline companions were and how they never went near her, I instantly had both of them asleep on my knee and purring in unbridled contentment, so this clearly made her jealous as she'd never seen them behave like this before and I simply had to be jettisoned by her. Or maybe not...