After Our First Date, I Swore There Wouldn’t Be a Second

Chapter 1: Perfect couple

Before I reached my car, I had already decided there would not be a second date.

It was not because Daniel had been rude. In fact, he had been almost painfully polite. He arrived ten minutes early, held the restaurant door open for me, and listened without checking his phone once.

He was kind to the waiter. He laughed at my jokes, including the ones that did not deserve it. When I mentioned that my hands were cold, he quietly asked whether I wanted to move to a table farther away from the air conditioner.

Daniel was perfectly nice.

That was the problem.

There was nothing obviously wrong with him, but there was also nothing connecting us.

I loved novels. He rarely read anything longer than the instructions on a box.

He watched football every weekend. I could not name a single player.

I enjoyed crowded cafés, art exhibitions, and walking through old bookstores. He preferred quiet evenings, practical hobbies, and repairing things around his apartment.

Even our food choices seemed incompatible. I ordered a spicy pasta dish. He chose grilled chicken without sauce because, as he explained, “I like knowing exactly what I’m eating.”