“It’s nice to meet you. Let’s have a glass of biodynamic wine and decide if we’d like to sleep together.” Woof. Is there anything that makes you want to unzip your skin and run into traffic more than a traditional first date? Or a T.F.D., as I’ve decided to call them, if only to make them feel slightly breezier on at least a syntactic level.
Let me answer that: There isn’t. Which might explain the rise of “dating coaches” on social media. Their credentials range from “doctorate in marriage and family therapy” to “idk I date a lot.” But what they all have in common is a dossier of tips and tricks for what to say, what to wear, and how to close the deal on a first date. And so I did what any thirtysomething woman desperate to make her dating life somewhat less miserable would do: I reloaded Bumble and put their advice to the test.
