The People Industry

Story Sent in by Don:

In an unusual occurrence, Amanda wrote me a first message on a dating site. It was full of questions and I answered them all as best as I could in my response. I also asked her a bit about herself, as her profile essays were sparse.

She didn't write back for a couple of days but when she did she asked me if I wanted to meet up. She didn't provide answers to anything I had asked at all. But she wanted to meet for coffee and so we made a date.

On the date she was really evasive when I asked her anything about herself. She only hinted at what she did ("I work in the people industry"), she wouldn't give me specifics about her favorite books, ("Anything with a good story"), and she wouldn't even tell me anything about her family ("Yes, I have a mom and dad"). In short, she was really guarded and I wondered what I was doing on the date at all.

"You're pretty guarded," I observed out loud.

She said, "I'm a private person."

"But I'm not really learning much about you."

She said, "You've learned that I'm guarded. That might be my biggest attribute."

"No argument there."

I wrapped up the meeting pretty quickly after that. We walked outside, she hugged me goodbye, and I told her, "I look forward to not-learning-about-you again, sometime."

"Never!" she yelled into my face before breaking off into a panicked run. I can't see too many people opting for a second date with her, but for some reason I guess that's what she wants.