There’s no shortage of stories about dates that have gone from good to bad in a real hurry. Like, no shortage at all. But what about the other way around? Can a date start off as a complete gong show, yet go on to be something great? You bet it can! Reddit user u/Captain_Stottlemeyer seems to agree and asked, “What date started out well/bad that reversed into horrible/good?” Since I feel like focusing on the positive today, here are 10 examples of dates that no one would have predicted could have ended up in a good place, but they did!
1. Dog I Do Do
u/Jetsam21 | via Reddit
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2. Actually, A Tomato Would Be Nice, Thanks
u/JamieOils
Long-term reversal:
Got to college. A guy in one of my classes asked me out like the second week of school. Being kind of naive, I thought he just wanted to talk about the class. Quickly realized when we went out that it was an actual date. Kind of got the impression that he just wanted to hook up, which I was not into, so I emergency-texted my best friend to come save me. She shows up at this restaurant out of breath, walks up to us with a single tomato in her hand and says “Do you guys want a tomato?” (Absolutely no context. To this day I don’t know what she was thinking.) I somehow jumped out of the date using that prompt and didn’t talk to him much after that. Fast forward a few months, he’s actually a really sweet guy that I read totally wrong. Fast forward to now, we’ve been happily dating for a year. 🙂
u/JamieOils | via Reddit
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3. A Little Wine, A Little Stalking
1 of 3 | u/hashtagredlipstick
This was our second or third date. We went to this restaurant in my town that specializes in wine from the region (I live in a big wine making area). We ordered bottle after bottle, just talking about life, ourselves, our thoughts, our dreams etc. it was the middle of the day so we sat outside on the sidewalk of this place (it was kind of hidden from the general public in a little corner). This place is located in one of the oldest streets in my country and have these big, beautiful oak trees lining it.
Foil Arms and Hog | via Giphy
2 of 3 | u/hashtagredlipstick
Then my ex showed up. She told me she wanted to talk the day before, but I said that I had to work cause I didn’t want to deal with her. Anyway, when she spotted us on the sidewalk she came and sat at our table. My date and I were both a little drunk at this point but I was mortified. My ex asked if we were having a nice time, but her body language was terrifying. Thinking quickly, I told my date that her and I just needed to talk quickly and to please excuse us.
Cue me and her having a huge argument a few feet away from the restaurant. She told me she went to my job looking for me, but I wasn’t there and then went around town looking for my car. She knew I was at this place cause my car was parked a few blocks away and it’s one of my favorite restaurants. Creepy.
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3 of 3 | u/hashtagredlipstick
My ex also went to my date and asked if we were seeing each other, before I could stop her. My date, very casually said that at this point in time, we were not formal. Anyway I cut the date short to deal with my ex and profusely apologized. I thought my date would never speak to me again.
She became my girlfriend a few weeks after that. The love of my life.
u/hashtagredlipstick | via Reddit
4. I Meant It As A Compliment
u/antlindzfam
I had just gotten on a new birth control that had made me balloon up, so i was bigger than I’d ever been in my life. Guy asks me on a date. I say yes, we go to karaoke. We are sitting at the bar, having drinks and fun. He grabs my muffin-top and says ‘aww! Isnt this cute!’ .. I was mortified. I cried and was basically like, we are done here. Im embarrassed you did that, im embarrassed i cried, take me home. He talked me out of it, and we are married now.
u/antlindzfam | via Reddit
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5. Ain’t No Business Like Party Business
u/NikolajNotNikolaj
Started off badly. When we first met he completely ignored me – it was the end of the day and he’d been stuck at a work thing, do I understand being grumpy but there wasn’t even a hello! So while I thought he was good looking, I was pretty off him because of that.
A week later we both coincidentally got dragged along on another couples first date – first thing he did when he came to pick me up was comment enthusiastically on my “No Admittance Except On Party Business” sign, so I decided he was worth giving a second chance. Date went swimmingly, we’ve been together ever since – 3.5 years later and we’re still going strong 🙂
u/NikolajNotNikolaj | via Reddit
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6. Good Luck With Your Creep Husband
1 of 3 | u/alskdjfhgtk
First actual date with my now husband was going great! He asked me out by inviting me to a wedding, so I wanted to meet the couple before going to their wedding. Went bowling with the other couple (the two guys have been buds for a loooong time), the other guy was opening my car door for me because it just worked out that they were parked next to us, he touches my butt, I thought accidentally, but then does it again more aggressively; clearly on purpose. I get in the car quickly and tell my date what happened. He immediately got out and yelled at the touchy guy, for quite a while. We went back to his place and just hung. I found out then, apparently this had been an issue with this guy before…
Tracey Matney | via Giphy
2 of 3 | u/alskdjfhgtk
Fast forward to the other couples wedding a month after this (let it go after an apology) and I’m on the dance floor with a group of people and the groom comes up behind me dancing, he slides his hand up my dress. I leave the floor immediately and go tell my then boyfriend what happened. We stay for one more drink and leave.
Digital Pratik | via Giphy
3 of 3 | u/alskdjfhgtk
Next day, groom texts boyfriend asking what happened (boyfriend stood up in the wedding, it was noticed when we left early), and my boyfriend let him have it. Went at it with him over fb message essentially ending their friendship.
I married my date 7 years later. First date was crazy but our life together is now amazing.
u/alskdjfhgtk | via Reddit
7. Here’s Mud In Your Eye
1 of 5 | u/ShortSpoon
It was our second date. We had met on PoF, and talked for over a month before we ever got together. The first date went okay, not great, but good enough for me to see him again.
He met me at Cheddars after work. I should have known how this would go, because everything bad in my life happens at Cheddars. But I was dumb, and I went. He had put on a pair of dress pants and a tie to impress me. It did, because he showed up to our first date in a ratty plaid t-shirt. He stole food off my plate, and made me laugh so hard I snorted my Diet Coke. Not ready for the date to end after dessert, we drove around in my car.
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2 of 5 | u/ShortSpoon
That was when the trouble started. We got into a semi-heated debate about the name of a local movie theater. The only way to resolve it was by driving to said theater. To get there, I took my little front-wheel drive car through a muddy field. We got stuck. I don’t mean “oh there’s a little mud and the tires can’t get traction”, I mean we fell into a ditch and mud came up to the wheel well. The car was stuck.
3 of 5 | u/ShortSpoon
Rather than let me get out in my dress, he takes off his dress shoes and belt, rolls up his pants, and starts to push. Nothing. The car doesn’t budge. He knocks on the window and asks if I have AAA, or any tow service. Nope. I do not. And then, his faces falls when we both hear thunder boom. It could have been a scene from a movie. It starts to storm. Like, the rain makes my windshield rattle hard, and he just stands outside shaking his head, like he can’t believe he took my dumb ass out.
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4 of 5 | u/ShortSpoon
In the distance, we see headlights. A woman asks if we need help. Apparently, people get stuck there frequently, and she pulls them out. She has him tie a towel to my front bumper, and then starts to drive. Mud splatters everywhere, all over my car and windshield–and all over my date. At this point, I’m shocked that he hasn’t abandoned me. She’s stuck too.
Farmer Wants A Wife | via Giphy
5 of 5 | u/ShortSpoon
After nearly three hours of this, I give up and do the only thing I know what to do: I call my dad. Between my dad, my date, and stranger who just left comic-con, we finally get my car out. My poor date is covered in mud. His dress clothes are ruined. And it’s nearly one in the morning. My dad thanked him profusely, shook his hand, and gave me his credit card so I could buy my date some new clothes.
I took him back to my house so he could shower and get cleaned up. For some strange reason, he texted me the next day. Now we sit, three years later on the couch. I told my mom that night I found my future husband. I was right.
u/ShortSpoon | via Reddit
8. Anxiety. Check. Moonlight. Check. Swoon. Check.
u/tinyney
Started up meh (because of me lol) and ended great. Met up with this guy I met on tinder after we’d been talking for a week. His work shifts were pretty crappy so his sleep schedule was always fucked up. Day of the date he tells me he’s really tired but excited for our date, I tell him if he’s too tired we can always do it later. He refuses and tells me he really wants to meet me, doesn’t matter that he’s tired. Ok I swooned a bit. Finally we meet up and my shyness and anxiety make a grand appearance, he’s carrying most of the conversation and I’m thinking I messed up already, looks like I’m not interested but I really was. There was a live drummer near the beach (we went to a little amusement park by the beach) and as we were enjoying the beats he put his arm around me and we continued walking to the beach side by side. Ended up being an awesome night, running around the water, cracking jokes, turns out we had many shared interests. He kissed me in the moonlight by the water, super romantic setting. I swooned quite a bit that night and continue to do almost 2 years later.
AsmodeeGames | via Giphy
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9. Forbidden (Not Really) Love
u/Khaleesi1997
So this is long but has a good ending:
So my freshman year my one friend who was about three years older than me mentioned one of her guy friends was coming back from a study abroad in Germany. I met him and I immediately had a huge crush on him. I was 18 and he was 22 so it seemed a little rebellious to have a crush on an “older guy” lol. For the next six months, the both of us went through a “will they wont they” thing and everyone would make jokes about how cute we would be together. That summer, I decided to just let him know exactly how I felt, and he asked me out on a date. The date went amazing…until the last five minutes when he told me he couldn’t be with me cause he needed to work on some personal issues he was dealing with and everything. So yeah it really sucked and I resented him for almost my entire sophomore year. I dated this one guy (who turned out to be a total jackass) and tried to move on with my life, but I seemed to never lose feelings for the other guy. Cut to my Junior year, when I was in a much better place mentally, and we began texting and talking again after my friend (the one that originally introduced us) drunk texted him from my phone. We finally met just the two of us and he apologized for hurting me before, that he had gotten his life together, and he said he had never lost feelings for me either. And with that the rest is history ???? we began dating, fell in love, and have been together for about 1 year and 4 months, and are talking about moving in together ❤️ sorry that that was long btw
u/Khaleesi1997 | via Reddit
10. Snowstorms And Pickles And Happy Tears, Oh My!
1 of 3 | u/ananas232
That one OkCupid date started out bad because I was hungover/severely sleep deprived from my office’s Christmas party, and a foot of snow had fallen on Montreal and I had to dig up my car from under it (required for city plowing) before said date. So, I was about an hour late, but he also ended up being about an hour and a half late. Because he was from Vermont and I lived in Montreal, he had 2.5h drive. He had to cross the border and didn’t have service for canadian part of his drive (an hour) and neither of us thought about that beforehand. So no news from late guy, didn’t even know he was going to be late, got no news for the last hour before he showed up. Still decided to wait a bit, somehow. Also, I had met a nice guy just a few days prior, so was not into meeting somebody new (and definitely not someone that lived so far away, still wondering to this day why we started chatting on OkCupid to start with) but I still showed up for politeness because he drove so far to meet me.
@RobertEBlackmon | via Giphy
2 of 3 | u/ananas232
Anyways, he shows up, I hand him a cold coffee and a vegan sandwich with pickles. I later found out he HATES pickles, but he still ate them. I stay fairly cold for the first half of the evening because I wasn’t in the mood, as explained. Then… then I started listening to him.
3 of 3 | u/ananas232
We have now been married for 2 years, together for 4. Turned out we are best friends, best lovers, best everything together. I am so grateful I showed up. A year and a half into our relationship, he bought a house 10 minutes from the border so we could be closer, and as of last November, I am an american permanent resident and we are allowed to live together. We are so happy together I can literally happy-cry on demand.
u/ananas232 | via Reddit
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What About You?
Have your own bad to good date story to tell? Tell us in the comments below!
u/Jetsam21
I had been dating my current fiancé for about a month when my little 5 lb dog decided that running full speed around my apartment while having explosive diarrhea was a good idea. My fiancé picked the dog up, and held him under the shower while singing “What A Girl Wants” and washing the poop off him. That’s when l realized he was my person.