Mummy's boy

What do you get when you have a box of Roses Cadbury chocolates, a block of dark chocolate and a banana?

Not a second date.

This was my reality recently as I headed to my first date for 2023, and wasn't it memorable.

The guy (28) had suggested a dessert picnic but I (stupidly) assumed that meant he would bring proper food AND dessert.

He asked me to bring a picnic rug so I thought we were set.

But my idea of a romantic nighttime picnic by the water soon disappeared as I see him walking towards me carrying a Woolworths bag with the aforementioned sweat treats (he did keep the banana in the bag - so random!).

My first thought was I haven't eaten dinner! Quickly followed by I totally mis-read this situation.

Let me set the scene. We were meeting at 7pm on a Friday night (soon turned to 7.30pm as he was late leaving the Gold Coast) and where we met in Brisbane's West End was right near a public toilet block on the river.

Under other circumstances (and perhaps him on a date with someone else!) it could have been quite romantic.

The tree we met (and sat) under was lit up with fairy light and was quite beautiful to look at.

However, I was being eaten by mosquitoes and folded my picninc rug at the corner to protect my legs and it was cold. Like way too cold for December (thankfully I'd taken a denim jacket).

But apart from these mishaps I was hoping my gut feeling about this situation, and guy, would not be correct.

I was determined not to let his age influence the outcome of the date (he could have been a mature 28-year-old).

But as we got talking about fairly benign topics I asked who he lived with, to which he replied "family."

I didn't press the issue for a few minutes, then asked what family he lived with?

Turns out he's still at home with mum and dad, and younger sis (but at least she'd moved out of home, then returned). He hasn't left because "don't you know how expensive it is to live out of home??".

He then preceeded to tell me it was $350 to rent a room at Southport on the Gold Coast.

Ahh, yeah mate, been living out of home for 17+ years. It's called adulting.

Then it dawned on me - mumsy would have cooked him dinner before he jumped in the car and headed to Brisbane for a date.

I wouldn't have been surprised if he was driving the family station wagon as well.

I lasted almost two hours on the date which was a fair amount of time, especially considering his solution to me being cold was for us to go back to my place "to keep warm."

No thank you.

He messaged later that night saying he was keen for a second date, but I messaged the following morning saying it was nice to meet him but we were at different stages in our lives and he'll make some girl really happy one day. That just wasn't me. I wished him well.

And got back to swiping on the dating apps.