Second date - double take

I had met Daniel* at a group dinner with mutual friends. We had happened to sit next to each other and throughout the course of the evening chatted away happily. He seemed nice, clean shaven, smartly dressed in a nice shirt and smart jeans....the kind of guy my mother would be delighted for me to spend time with. It was a fun evening so at the end of the night when he asked for my number I was happy to give it to him, he seemed okay. 

Daniel and I agreed to meet up in a few weeks time. As the evening arrived for our date I had bit of a foggy memory about his exact appearance. Yes, I admit it, I had entirely forgotten what he looked like. I reassured myself that it was a minor factor that didn't matter because dating isn't really about looks and a few weeks is quite a long time, especially when recalling facial features is concerned.

As I was waiting at our agreed meeting spot looking at each passerby hopefully wondering, "is that him?", I suddenly felt a dark shadow come over me and it made me instinctively grip my handbag tighter. I tried to shrug it off as pre-date nerves. 

It lingered more and I had to investigate! I quickly turned around on my heel almost bumping into to what I was sure was some kind of attacker. To my absolute horror I almost bumped into a really tall guy, wearing a floor length, black, leather trench coat - that was skimming the floor, and he had full facial hair, aside from a naked chin! (On a side note: Why would you just shave your chin and forget the rest of your face?!...that's like shaving half your arm pit!)

I was incredibly intimidated, no, I was actually scared. 

I was ready to hand over my handbag and reel off my PIN. Then he looked at me and said, "Hi Jo!" How did he know my name?! As I looked more closely at this intimidating stranger, it appeared to me that he wasn't a stranger at all. It was Daniel.

DANIEL!

This oddly dressed stranger was my date. I don't know if I did a 
double or triple take! He was unrecognizable. It felt like I had never laid eyes on him before, let alone had dinner with him a few weeks back. I was instantly on edge. 

I tried hard to look past this new look yet I found it very disturbing. Without exaggeration, Daniel looked like he was  a cross between someone from the Matrix movie and someone in the Village People! In my shock, I accidentally told him so as I declared, "Daniel? You look like you are in the village people?" he looked at me happily and said, "yes, it is great isn't it?!" Thankfully he wasn't insulted by my shocked outburst. 

The difference in Daniel had seriously freaked me out. It was like I was meeting him for the first time and there I was wondering about what happened to the guy I met at dinner a few weeks ago. I guess this was a new side to him that I was discovering! 

It wasn't really so much about what he was wearing or actually how he looked but that he was so unrecognizable from when we first met. It would have been less of a contrast if I had turned up dressed as a nun. What was going on? Can the real Daniel please stand up?!  Surely, my terrible memory isn't THAT bad. Is it?!

Before me was a whole new contrast to the version of  Daniel that  I had previously met and this made me feel nervous and distrusting. I was still half waiting for him to steal my handbag. What else was going to come out of the wood work?!

Dinner was awful because I was so on edge and far too nervous to properly get to know Daniel. I was expecting him to break out into singing YMCA  or maybe zap me into a parallel universe. 

Perhaps this was a bit unfair on Daniel, who can obviously wear whatever he likes yet it is also quite bizarre to present yourself so differently. As soon as I went blonde I updated my online dating pictures,  because before you get to know someone, looks do play an important role in dating, especially if you are trying to recognise them on a busy Friday evening! 

* name changed so that you can't identify him, not that he needed a disguise.