Five or six months ago, TikToker Alli (@alliparenteau) matched with a guy on a dating app. His pictures were decent, and he seemed lighthearted and funny, so she thought they might get along. He also had a good career.
He reached out to set up a date with her right away. Afterward, she looked him up on social media and saw that they had a few mutual friends.
The first mutual friend she noticed was a girl she worked with. She figured that they were friends or he had gone on a date with the girl in the past.
On the day of the date, her roommate dropped her off at the coffee shop to meet up with him. She planned to walk home later because it was nice out. She arrived at the coffee shop before him, so she just grabbed a seat and waited.
He messaged her, saying that he would be a couple of minutes late. While she was waiting, she happened to run into her coworker and her boyfriend. They ended up chatting for a bit. She told her coworker that she was meeting a friend for coffee.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her date walking toward her, and he seemed super awkward. Alli finally ended the conversation with her coworker, and they walked away.
During the date, they talked about work, but he didn’t seem to remember her other coworker, who was a mutual friend. To Alli, something wasn’t adding up. He was also clearly uncomfortable and flustered, but she chalked it up to first-date nerves.
After about 30 minutes, he suddenly suggested that they go for a walk. They started walking in the direction of her home because it was a 50-minute walk, so he wanted to accompany her. She finally asked him if he knew their mutual friend, and he told her that they went on one date together.
Then, they began talking about unique names. He pointed out that her name was spelled pretty differently and started spelling out the name Erin, even though her name was Allison.
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“I am never speechless, but this man just called me the wrong name right in front of me, and he had no clue,” said Alli.
“Usually, at this point, I would get awkward in the silence and start rambling on, change the subject, but I just wanted to see this man sweat.”
He apologized profusely for calling her by the wrong name. When they reached a hilly section of the path, they went their separate ways. He gave her a hug, but didn’t say anything about a second date, so he was clearly embarrassed.
Alli didn’t know how he could forget her name when it was right there on her dating profile and in their messages. Later, he messaged her, apologizing again. They chatted for a day or two before she finally stopped responding.
When she went to work, she talked to her coworker, who was their mutual friend, and it turned out she had dated that guy for several months, even though he acted like he had no idea who she was.
Apparently, he had also reached out to her about a surgery he had, so it was a mystery why he was pretending not to know her.
“I’ve never been called the wrong name,” said Alli. “I could see maybe if he said Alice versus Ali or something like that, but it was not even close. I took a break from dating after that just because I was so done with men.”
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
