My favorite genre of people-watching is bad first dates. I’m particularly fascinated when there’s a vast imbalance in terms of interest levels, and often wish I could conduct post-game interviews with each of the players: Where was your head at in that moment?

Last Friday, I was on one of those dates, and while it was easily one of the worst I’ve been on (I’d say top five, if I were to rank bad dates), it was initially promising. He was cute, the conversation started off well, and he was wearing my favorite sneakers. From there, things quickly went downhill.

He was very touchy, starting with too-frequent arm touches before trying to hold my hand and rest his other hand on my thigh. He also kept trying to kiss me – on my hand, my lips, my forehead – and earnestly declared that he really liked me (after knowing me for all of 40 minutes). At one point, I told him that I was uncomfortable with things being so physical so early on and with making out in a bar (the latter is comically untrue, generally speaking). He backed off briefly, but then was back at it. When we finished our drinks, he wanted to walk me home; instead, I said good night and got a Lyft. By the time I got home, I had a text from him asking me to message him when I arrived safely; instead, I blocked him. Just thinking about the evening makes me cringe.

I did some googling the next morning – I think I needed to feel some camaraderie and to see how other people handled these situations. Anyway, I stumbled on some fantastic advice: from now on, I’ll always make sure I have a $20 when I go on dates, because imagine how satisfying it would be to just put down the cash for your drink and get the hell out.