The date from hell you just have to escape

by Tamara Hellstrom

Have you ever been set up for a date and you find you are completely incompatible with the person?

Or worse - you find them genuinely creepy? It’s so bad that you can’t just grin and bear it – you have got to get out of there somehow.

For such situations, read on. You’ll learn the best methods of escape from a horrific first date without causing further embarrassment and with your dignity intact - hopefully.

The oldest trick in the book, get a friend to call you during the date, just in case. If it is a bad one, make some excuse over the phone and make a swift exit.

For the more crafty characters, and if you are without a friend on standby waiting to bail you out, sneakily initiate the ring function on your phone yourself, ‘answer’ it and have a conversation with err.. yourself. “Hello...say what? My dog’s been run over? Right, I’m on my way.”

Tried and tested

Kate Rintoul used this tactic on one of her dates: “I had a bad experience once when I had a date who was really overbearing and quite rude. I decided enough was enough and got my friend to pick me up, making excuses about some emergency at home that meant I had to leave.”

If you can’t do any of that, try this: excuse yourself and head to the toilet, like Harry Dillon did: “I once went on a blind date set up by a friend. It sounds cruel but when I met the date for the first time I just did not fancy her. She was really in my face and the final straw was her halitosis. I had to escape, so I pretended to go to the toilet and sneaked out. Never again!”

Be inventive

If you feel it would be too mean to just disappear, try using your environment to your advantage to act up a bogus ailment. If you are in a loud bar, say you have developed a splitting migraine. If you are in a restaurant, say the food has made you feel sick. Something about the place you are in has made you ill and staying on the date is no longer an option.

Another option, that will mean you avoid all the inital small talk, is to turn up late enough so that you know the date will have arrived already. Remain undetected and have a good peek at who it is you are meeting.

If they don’t take your fancy (and you are so evil that you judge on looks alone), turn around and go home. You won’t have lead them on and you save both of your time.

Still not found the perfect solution to escape a dating horror show? Well, you could just tell them straight that the date is not working. They are likely to be feeling the same way about the situation as you do. Maybe that is the adult thing to do. At least your friend gets to relax at home this way.