Date Lab

7:30 p.m. | Lebanese Taverna | Dupont Circle

Deanna: I was ridiculously nervous. I was wearing a suit jacket and jeans, and before I got on the Metro, I stopped some lady to ask if I looked a little 1996. She said I looked fine. I arrived first, so I ordered a drink at the bar and was talking to the bartender [with her back facing the rest of the room]. He kept saying, "Here comes a single guy--no, that's not him." The third guy ended up being Adam. I was like, "What did he look like?" And the bartender said, "You could do worse."

Adam: Walking into the restaurant, I was feeling good. The hostess went to retrieve my dinner companion. I could tell Deanna was nervous. She looked anxious. She's not my type, unfortunately. For me, it's a question of how people feel about how they look. She seemed insecure about her appearance. She was -- how do I say this without sounding like a jerk? -- I guess "plain" is the word.

Deanna: Adam was tall and good-looking, but looked young. My type is older, salt-and-pepper hair, maybe a neater dresser. Still, we shook hands, sat down, and the conversation started immediately.

Adam: The conversation flowed, but it was blah. I expected we'd make the standard jokes of, "Oh, is that going in the paper?" But she kept coming back to that. I think she thought I was in cahoots with Bob Woodward, that I was going to meet him in a parking lot after the date and tell him everything. At one point, I said, "So what do you do?" and she was like, "I work for the government," and then didn't say anything. I thought, Maybe it's the kind of work where you're not allowed to tell anyone what you do. But she's a career employee at [a federal budget office].

Deanna: I normally don't talk about work. I represent the government, so I think I should stay nonpartisan.

Adam: I tried to spice up the conversation. At one point, I asked: "How do you feel about the Congressional Budget Office? Do you trash-talk them at work?" She thought I was serious.

Deanna: What do you expect me to say? They're hardworking, good people, and this is going in the paper.

Adam: Then I asked her, "What's the craziest thing you've ever done?" She thought for 10 minutes and then said, "I can't think of anything about me, but my parents have motorcycles."

Deanna: His was that he stayed up for 48 hours. I was like, "That's crazy, living on the edge." At the end, the date dragged on a bit. Then, we were leaving, and he was like, "I can walk you [to the Metro]." Which seemed really unnecessary -- it's right across the street.

Adam: Once there, she was lingering at the top, maybe waiting for me to make some can-I-call-you-sometime move. But I could tell there wouldn't be a second date.

Deanna: I thought we'd at least exchange numbers. Instead, we had a weird hug -- he only used one arm -- and that was it. I'd rather he'd said, I think you stink, and I never want to see you again. I'd rate the date maybe 2.5 or 3 [out of 5], more Kermit than kismet.

Adam: I'd rate it a 2.5, just because she was very nice, very sweet. I almost can't call it a date: We were two people who met for dinner and went through the interview.

Interviews by Christina Breda Antoniades

UPDATE: No info exchange, no contact.