Ok you've all done it, both guys and girls. You go out on a first date to find that the conversation is good and the food is great. Yeah the real highlight of the night is the food. 45 minutes stretches into an hour and half or two by the time you get through dessert. One of you is thinking this is great, an hour and half of dinner and drinks, the second date should be even better. But no, the other person just had to have the dessert that Check Please said was to die for. Fair enough, if you go out for a dinner date, the only real expectation you should have is good company for dinner.

I had a date recently that was far more sinister and just a blatant dine-and-dash. I met a woman and asked her out for coffee or a drink. We had talked about going someplace with outdoor seating, so I sent her the names of a couple nice places in an email with outdoor seating. She replied that she really didn't like either place and shot me back an address to a new restaurant with outdoor seating that's supposed to have great wine. OK cool why not. We're meeting for a drink and she likes wine, perfect. Long story short we're there the place is great and the conversation starts to flow. She mentioned that she was hungry, so I asked if she'd like to eat while. She enthusiastically said yes and goes on to tell me about a couple of dishes that I have to try. After dinner and a couple glasses of wine, the dessert menu comes out and she points out a dessert that we can't miss. OK cool, things are going well the conversation and wine are flowing. It's all good.
Then, desert is done and so is she. Her demeanor changes completely. The purse comes up on the table. She's ready to go and not in a good way. She's checking her text messages when the check comes out. I reach for it, and she's nice enough to look up from her phone while texting to say 'Thanks for Dinner.'
This would all be be fine if I had asked her out on a dinner date. In sales they'd call the move from coffee and drinks to a full blown dinner an upsell. In dating it would be progression. This was an upsell.
Oh the joys of dating.
Dine-and-dash, we've all done it in one way or another. Some people are just more brazen than others. Have you ever run into or ended up playing the brazen dine-and-dasher?