First dates can be absolutely magical or utterly excruciating. And in the age of dating apps, there’s no real way to tell which experience you’re going to get. Because the “curated” online version of a person is often very different from the messy, drunken reality.
Natalie Hooper (@nataliehooperr), a Dallas-based mom, recently took the details of a “nightmare” (her word) first date to the internet. In a TikTok that’s going viral, she explains what went down. Hint: basketball was involved.
Pregaming Gone Wrong
An avid Mavericks fan, Hooper says she’d planned to go to the game whether she had a companion or not. She said she got tickets “two rows behind the bench” for a great price. But she matched with a Colorado-based emergency room doctor, so they decided to grab a bite and check out the game together. The first red flag (for her)? When he repaid her for the basketball tickets, he only covered his own.
“I think if you’re going on a first date, you should pay for the basketball ticket,” she states.
The date started off awkwardly. She says he got to the restaurant about an hour early and started drinking. “I think by the time I got there he was already like two or three drinks deep,” she says. They ate and then were off to the game.
Hooper says she told him that she didn’t want to be late because she loves the tip-off. Yet, he still suggested post-dinner, pre-game drinks. “If we can get a drink quick, great. Otherwise, let’s go to tip-off and whenever there’s a buzzer, we can go get a drink and come back,” she says she suggested.
Or she told him he can go by himself and then come back.
At the game, things got progressively more alcoholic. Hooper says her date guzzled about four or five more adult beverages. At this point, she guesses he was eight to 10 drinks deep. Now, her date is drunk, the Mavericks are getting “annihilated,” and she’s ready to go.
Unhappiest Hour
She says he semi-bullied her into joining him for a nightcap. “I think if I can just get a drink with him somewhere, I can walk home from there,” she says of this decision.
They settle on Happiest Hour since it’s near American Airlines Center, where the game was played. But they never made it because he starts monologuing.
According to Hooper, it is more like an unhinged rant. At one point she’d walked ahead of him (she’s ready to get this drink and night over with), so he’d stopped to shout across the street.
“This is what I’m talking about. I don’t want to follow you. You’re not the leader,” she says he yelled. Meanwhile, she was mortified that this was happening in public, and she was not going to put up with it.
Finally, the 47-year-old doctor suggested that some sort of trauma in her past has left her unable to see what a good and genuine human he is.
A Gameday Ticket Is Small Price To Dodge A Bullet
The only thing users seem to disagree with Hooper on is who should’ve paid for her ticket.
“Yeah, he’s a bad apple, but only paying for his ticket was fine if you had already purchased your own prior,” said @junky9873.
Another agreed, “You invited him to the game. If he planned the game. Yes he should pay for both. But you kind of put him in a spot.”
Another viewer summed it up the entire night succinctly, saying, “The ick is strong.”
Meanwhile, another user commented, “I’m way too gay for this but I did listen to ur whole story and he sounds insane.”
Hooper responded by saying she was actually scared of him.
Wilding Out On A First Date
Commenter Lorraine Quiche (@quichelorraine1980) thinks the ER doc just wanted someone to party with. Chances are, she’s not wrong. Because if he’d been trying too seriously, or even semi-sincerely trying to pursue something, he probably wouldn’t have gotten so inebriated.
Add to that the generational differences, and it’s not surprising she went home to her dog. “Mismatched expectations around booze is an increasingly common mood killer on first dates,” reports Vice.
BroBible reached out to Natalie Hooper via TikTok direct message and with a comment on her video. We will update this article if she responds.
@nataliehooperr why is dating so hard? #datingindallas #dallas #dating