Date Lab

One restaurant, two bars, a would-be preacher and D.C.'s ultimate cheesy line. They're all part of this couple's epic night.

7:30 p.m. | DC Coast | downtown

Audrey: The night of the date, I was about five minutes late. The people at the front of the restaurant told me, "He's the gentleman in the brown jacket." I looked over and all I saw was an old man. I thought, "Oh, my God, they set me up with a 55-year-old." [But then] they walked me over to Dave. I was so nervous, I was rambling.

Dave: She was smiling; she had a bouncy air. And she's really cute, which is always helpful. One of the first things she said was that she wanted to make the night as interesting as possible. I thought, This is a woman who wants to have as much fun as I do. We ordered a bottle of wine and decided to focus on it instead of appetizers. In fact, we were joking about going with the all-wine date and just having the free bread.

Audrey: He's cute and just looks like a nice guy. We talked about work and where he's from and -- my favorite part -- that he plays on the USA underwater hockey team. I had no idea that was even a sport. He might have totally made that up. But if he did I'd be impressed; it's a great lie.

Dave: No, that's true. [But] we did make a bet about who could tell [The Post] the best fake story about the other person.

Audrey: For dinner, we split our two dishes. And we got a second bottle of wine, because we're idiots. I felt like I had known him for a long time, so I had no problem telling him ridiculously embarrassing stories. I was like, it's just Dave, I'll tell him about the time I was giving some guy a piggyback and fell over and broke my ankle. We were probably not behaving appropriately for an upscale restaurant. We were laughing and being ridiculous, having people take our picture. When we finished dinner, he was like, "We should go have a drink somewhere, make it an epic night." That got me. My worst fear is that someone will call me boring.

Dave: We went to the Post Pub and had a few drinks. When they closed, we tried to argue our way into the Eighteenth Street Lounge. The guy said no. So we went to Fly.

Audrey: Then Dave was like, "Have you ever seen the monuments at night?" and I was like, "Oh, no, you did not just say that classic D.C.-creepy-guy line."

Dave: It is the ultimate cheesy D.C. line. But there aren't a whole lot of options at 1:15 on a Tuesday. So we caught a cab.

Audrey: At the Lincoln Memorial, we got the security guard to take our picture [for my blog]. Then he's like, "So, have you accepted Jesus Christ into your lives?"

Dave: He talked to us for about 20 minutes. That was interesting.

Afterward, we hopped a fence into the Korean [War] memorial, which I'd never seen. We didn't get arrested, which was huge.

Audrey: It was 2 in the morning, and I was like, "I've got to go home." I had enough money for a cab but not for bus fare in the morning. So that's how the date ended. I got Dave to give me a dollar.

Dave: I'm not sure if I just loaned it to her. It's fuzzy; there was a lot of wine involved. I kissed her and hailed her a taxi. I'd rate the date a 5 [out of 5]. I'd definitely go out with her again. We talked about going skydiving, [but] it's more likely that we'll see a movie.

Audrey: I don't kiss and tell. But I'd rate the date a 5. I had a blast.

Interviews by Christina Breda Antoniades

UPDATE: Dave and Audrey caught that movie and are planning a third date.

DATE LAB IS LOOKING FOR WRESTLING FANS -- and other singles willing to get set up. Go to washingtonpost.com/datelab for details.