Date Lab: He’s formally known as prince

7:30 p.m., Ceiba, downtown

Eddie: At 7:35 I got a little nervous — like, am I about to be stood up? And right then she tapped me on the shoulder. I turn around, and she’s screaming and laughing and we’re both screaming and laughing.

(giaimomd)

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Wait, what? That’s awfully enthusiastic for a blind date. Most strangers would find that ... alarming. But unbeknownst to Date Lab, these two had a history. A couple of years ago, Eddie and Suzanne were co-workers in a teacher training program in the District. Talk about a small town.

Suzanne: We were friends, and we went out casually a few times. Definitely not serious; just kind of a fun thing. There was no point at which we were exclusively dating.

Eddie: To be honest, when I first met her at [work] I was already attracted to her and thought about asking her out. [Eventually,] we’d gone out by ourselves ... but they weren’t really romantic dates, I guess — it’s hard to categorize. I’ve always found her attractive, but the timing was never right.

Suzanne: [At Ceiba,] I saw him from behind, and I knew immediately it was him before he turned around. I thought it was funny, but I had been hoping to meet someone new. It was nice to see my friend.

Eddie: It was a nice, intimate dinner. We started off with wine. Luckily Suzanne is a wine connoisseur, so she ordered. We toasted and took a couple pictures.

Suzanne: We’re Facebook friends, so I was able to tag him right away in our non-blind-date photos. We were so happy to see each other. We caught up on our careers, because we’ve both made some moves since we last spoke.

Eddie: We talked about my summer trip to Ghana. My mom just retired and moved back to West Africa.

Suzanne: He’s actually, like, royalty in Ghana.

Eddie: Yeah, that’s true. Both the sitting king and the queen mother are my direct relatives. I remember my dad saying I was named after a king and that I’m a prince, but I always took that with a grain of salt. But now that I’m of age, I did my research and looked it all up, and it’s the truth.

Suzanne: I could tell we had both grown up a little more, that we are both more adult in positive ways. That was nice, that we had both matured a little bit. We had a really high-energy quality that I think permeated the room — like, people noticed us.

Eddie: I probably was a little bit more flirty than normal, and probably just because I realized this was my second chance to possibly date her or see if she wants to go out on a date again.

Suzanne: They were playing a lot of salsa music, so at one point we decided to dance. I was trying to teach Eddie some salsa in the middle of the restaurant.

Eddie: That was probably the most romantic part of the night. The restaurant was dimly lit, the music was playing, and it was really at that time just us two.

Suzanne: It felt like being on a date with a friend. It was definitely date-ish because of the dancing, and we were laughing and taking pictures. But it felt like being on a date with my friend Eddie. It wasn’t feeling like a date-date.

Eddie: It was close to 10:30 when we realized they were closing up. We finished dessert and got going. I think she was skipping along and singing some John Legend songs, and I was singing I think some Stevie Wonder. We were just in a funny mood. I gave her my hat because it was cold out there and she didn’t have one.

Suzanne: We hugged and we had a little peck on the lips — not a romantic kiss, just a very casual kiss.

Rate the date

Eddie: My date was gorgeous, she was smart. I would say [the date was] a 5 [out of 5], no doubt. I had a great time. I’m looking forward to possibly seeing her again.

Suzanne: [I’d rate it a] 5. We had a great time together, and the actual evening was really fun and nice.

UPDATE: Eddie and Suzanne have been keeping in touch since their date and, as of press time, had plans to meet up for lunch.

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