Date 14 – Lazaro

Welcome to date 14 of 26

Guy Profile

Name: Lazaro

Age: 29
Height: 5.11
Occupation: Online Service team leader

How I met Lazaro

I met Lazaro on Plenty of fish.com (pof). He sent me what I thought was a sweet and sincere message. I had to reply. His response again was sincere, proving his first initial message wasn’t just a bait. We sent each other messages over a few weeks on the site before Lazaro sent me his number and asked me to drop him a line when I have the time. I sent him a text some days after and we texted each other every so often until we decided to meet up. As we work quite close to each other and in central London he suggested we should meet at Covent Garden station at 6.10pm on a Friday evening for coffee.

The date

I got to Covent Garden station quite early because I wanted to buy something from Marks & Spencer (M&S). I didn’t realise M&S was so close to the station so I was done within 5 minutes and had to wait in front of the station for about 25 minutes. At 6pm I received a message from Lazaro saying: ‘I actually made it a bit early and I’m here’. I looked around and I couldn’t see him so I sent him a message asking where and he responded with: ‘In front of you... on the other side of the road’. For some reason I felt like I was in a scary movie and someone was after me so I was a little scared. I nervously looked ahead of me and I found him and walked over to greet him.

The first thing he said to me was: ‘you don’t have three hands, why are you on pof? I have my own reason for being on there but you look perfectly normal.’ Although he was trying to be nice, that comment made me slightly worried. A part of me was dreading what he was going to say his reason was for joining pof because if the reason was really off putting I wouldn’t feel comfortable to continue and I would have to think of a very good reason to end the date. When we found a restaurant to eat in, he told me that he is on the site because he is a shy person. That was surprising to hear because he didn’t come across that way to me prior to the date and on the date, so a part of me did wonder if that was the real reason why he joined the site.

Whilst we were in the restaurant, Lazaro told me some really interesting things about himself and he seemed really smart and full of life. After our meal, we walked to Southbank but we didn’t stay for long because I wanted to end the date for no particular reason. I think he picked up on it too because he politely walked me to the bus stop.

He seemed like a really nice guy and I love the way he sees certain things. As he is also a photographer, who loves taking pictures and attending exhibitions his way of viewing everyday things and people is so different and refreshing. I wish a lot more people could see the world the way he does. He makes what most people would consider as insignificant or uncomfortable appear significant and comfortable.

He also had a slightly vulnerable but cute side to him which alone makes me feel I should treat him with utmost respect and courtesy. He said things like I tried not to send you too many messages because I didn’t want you to feel pestered. Interestingly prior to our date, some days beforehand he had sent me a message asking me how my day was and if I had done anything exciting. I mentioned that I had gone to church and bought some items for my car and I didn’t hear back from him for some days, so I jumped to the conclusion that he didn’t respond because I mentioned that I’m a Christian. I was disappointed that he would discriminate against me for that reason and I spoke to some friends about it and one of them suggested that I should text him. I quickly responded with: ‘no way, if he is going to stop talking to me because of my faith then he is not worth my time’. The curious side of me wanted to know if he did stop talking to me for that reason so I sent him a text, asking how his week had gone and to my surprise he responded and asked if I had any plans for the weekend and that’s when we made plans to meet up.

This experience has taught me that it’s not good to jump into conclusions and act stubborn when dating because such attitudes can cause you to ruin the chance of meeting amazing people. Had I not text Lazaro I may not have met up with him and even if he had tried to get in touch, I probably would have read his messages the wrong way and found unintended meanings in them because I believed at the time that he had a problem with my faith.

To conclude, I’m happy that I met up with Lazaro but I don’t fancy him so there wouldn’t be a second date. I would love to be his friend if he is happy to be friends with me because I love his outlook on the world and his intelligence.

That’s it for date 14.

Thanks for reading My dating year – date 14.