Date Lab: A Joseph Gordon-Levitt comparison is a good start

About the daters ...

First thing people
notice in your home ...

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Steve: Ridiculously large TV. As an individual who lives in a studio, a
60-inch TV is relatively out of place.

Molly: Rubber duck collection. At this point, I don’t even seek them out; they come to me.

People you’d want with
you on a desert island ...

Steve: David McCullough (amazing historian; I could listen to him for hours), Adam Sandler (funny man!), Scarlett Johansson (do I really need
to elaborate?).

Molly: My best ladies, an engineer
to build me something to get off this island, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Brag a little ...

Steve: I’m a law student who has a good head on his shoulders. I strongly believe that chivalry is not dead (note this is VERY different from paternalism) and know how to treat a lady. I am also exceedingly modest!

Molly: Smart and sassy. Easy conversationalist. Was once given
the superlative “most fun” at my job.

Interests to share ...

Steve: Positive outlook on life in general! I’d hope she would like to travel [and] was interested in learning to do new things and open to experimenting in general!

Molly: Good books, great movies,
pop culture, not sports.

About the date ...

7:30 p.m., Cafe Luna, Dupont Circle

Steve: I got there 15 minutes early. I was sitting with my back to the door; I probably should’ve faced the door, but in some ways it helped calm my nerves.

Molly: I went inside and only saw a couple of people. I was pretty sure it was him but didn’t want it to be awkward, so I said something to the waiter and he said, “Oh, your date’s right here.”

Steve: She was shorter than me, which is a good thing. She was cute, very well dressed; she carried herself with a smile. She seemed a little nervous.

Molly: He looked a little bit nervous as well, but he had a big smile. It was definitely a good first impression. In the [Date Lab questionnaire] I remember referencing Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I was pretty much expecting someone like that: a sweet, down-to-earth guy. Steve definitely fit that bill. He reached out to shake hands with me, I was kind of like, “Let’s surrender to the fact that it’s an awkward situation and let’s just hug it out.”

Steve:I don’t know why I went for the handshake, because I’m a very friendly guy. [The hug] was the right way to start the date. She looked at the table, and she was like, “How would you feel about sitting outside? It’s so nice.” I said, “That is a great idea,” and so we actually got up and sat outside in this nook.

Molly:I didn’t want to be too insistent. I thought, I’m going to be high-maintenance if the first thing I say when I walk in is “I don’t want to sit at this table.” But he was easygoing and nice about it. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful night.

Steve: We split a bottle of wine, and we ordered it probably in the first 10 minutes.

Molly: We dove into the conversation right away. Within the first couple minutes, we touched on the subject that we were both from the [Washington] area. Pretty much right after that, he asked, “What do you do?” which to me is so typically D.C. It’s always the first or second question people ask you. That was my impression of Steve overall. When you think of a typical D.C. guy, that is like Steve to a T: the way he dresses, the stuff he was talking about, his interests.