From Canne with Love

While dining on the Riveria the other night, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on the sad situation next to me. A beautiful French girl waited, at first patiently, for her presumed date to meet her. As I finished course after course, her date had still not arrived, and she became increasingly annoyed. Finally, she leapt up from the table and gave quick word to the waiter before walking out the door. I thought that was the end of that and took a moment to feel sorry for her and curse her date. But then, not 15 minutes later, she returned with her date in tow. I couldn’t help but scowl at the playboy slouching in his chair and looking all smug and carefree. The girl on the other hand appeared very upset, barely spoke and ate only two bites of her bouillabaisse.

I couldn’t believe she had agreed to keep her dinner date with him after what he pulled and his subsequent behavior! Which leads me to the question, how long do you wait for a date? And let’s say you do decide to wait, do you act pissed off the entire meal to try and make him or her feel sorry for their disrespect of your time and feelings?

After giving this some thought, I can only recommend waiting a maximum of 20 minutes or so, and then calling or texting your date to find out the deal. If they respond with a reasonable excuse, decide if you can accept it, and if so you can wait. If they don’t answer, leave a message that indicates that you cannot wait any longer and that they will need to contact you to reschedule. If and when that does happen, they had better offer you a good excuse and profuse apologies before you agree to meet them again.

It’s hard for me to believe that in this era of connectedness, jerks still stand people up without so much as a lame SMS excuse. But if this happens to you, do yourself a favor and don’t sit through a date with the offender. You deserve the respect of your date — move on to someone who shows you this plus a great time.