Dating the “Test and Apologize” Type

The test is in earnest. The apology never is. Or is it?

Dana DuBois
Published in
11 min readOct 7, 2024

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A black and white photo of a black pug with “I’m sorry” sad eyes staring at the camera.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

It’s Sunday morning and I’m meeting an online suitor for a quick coffee before I join my daughter at the gym for an 11am “Intro to Core Conditioning” class. I’ve intentionally left a very short time window for this date.

I’m not a morning person so my 45-minute window has dwindled to 40 as I find parking and stride to the cafe. He’s texted: “There’s already a line.” But before I can reply, I round the corner and see him sitting in an Adirondack chair outside the cafe.

He’s looking down at his phone, so I notice his hand first. I have a thing for hands, and his is pretty: long, strong fingers, attached to equally appealing forearms. It’s a split second of solo aesthetic pleasure and then he looks up at me. Piercing blue eyes light up as they meet mine.

Gosh, he’s really cute.

And he seems to think I’m really cute, too.

This hasn’t happened — at least, not to me — in quite some time.

It’s exhilarating.

Mason buys my coffee, a mushroom oat milk latte that’s earthy and weird. I offer him a taste, and he hesitates but then tries it. “That drink is made to make you feel better about yourself,” he jokes, and I agree.

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Dana DuBois

Publisher for Pink Hair & Pronouns and Three Imaginary Girls. Boost nominator. I'm a GenX word nerd living in the PNW with a whole lot of little words to share.