Key Factors To Help You Know If Your First Date Went Well (Or If You Should Expect To Never Hear From Him Again)

Dating is hard.

Essentially you have to sit down to dinner or drinks with someone you barely know and get to know them as fast as you can so you can decide if you want to endure the whole painfully awkward thing all over again.

It’s really hard to know if a date is going well. I’ve gone on dates that I thought were great and never got a text back. I’ve gone on dates that I thought were horrible and the guy was crushed when I rejected a second date.

We are all blinded by the fact that we want someone to love, so we will do anything and commit to anyone when we are feeling this lonely.

So how do you know a date is going well?

1. If neither of you itches to pick up your phone – that’s a good sign. If your date checks their phone more than five times or says “sorry my friend is asking for advice” or “my group chat is blowing up.” I can understand that, but you’re still being rude and this date is obviously not going well.

2. Awkward lulls are fine. Sometimes you need to pause, think of a new topic, take a sip of your drink. But too many long and awkward lulls where you are struggling to keep the conversation going means the date is not going well. The conversation should be light and easy and just go at its own pace without an enormous amount of force.

3. If there is mention of doing something together in the future, like you said you like soccer so you guys should go to a soccer game sometime, then that is a good sign the date is going well.

4. The weirdness that occurs when the check comes can tell you A LOT about how the date went. If you offer to pay and he gets uncomfortable, or if he accepts but there’s still a weird vibe, or if he pays and complains about the check – it didn’t go well. If he offers to pay the whole thing no problem or accepts your offer to pay casually, that’s a better sign.

5. A kiss at the end of the night. I know this is controversial to some – some would say a kiss on a first date is too soon. This could be true if the date didn’t go well or if you still feel like awkward strangers. A good kiss at the end of the night is a good indicator that the date went well.

But sadly, like I said, dating is hard.

You could get good sign after good sign after good sign – and they still don’t want to go out with you again. Or vice versa! The key is not to think too much about it during the date – but after you can truly evaluate how you think the date went and not pain yourself with the thoughts of if he really liked you or not.

Good luck, single friends, dating is a vicious game.