Sounds Like a Middle Manager

Story Sent in by Maribel:

Mark's first big mistake on our first date was to down half a bottle of beer in under 10 seconds and ask, "You're the singer, right?"

I replied, "Uh, like in the shower and in my car, when no one's around. Otherwise, no."

He gave me a weird look and said, "You're not the singer? Must've been someone else, then. You're the... vet?"

"Vet? As in veteran or veterinarian?"

"Either."

"No."

He shook his head and shrugged. "Refresh my memory, then: which one are you?"

I replied, "Maribel. Waitress and part-time student. Studying business, making pottery..."

He frowned. I said, "Not ringing a bell? Seriously? We've been talking online for over two weeks."

He retreated into his menu. "No, I remember talking to you. Yeah, it's all coming back to me, now. Anyway, this place has great burgers."

"I'm a vegetarian, Mark. I told you that."

He repeated, "This place has great burgers," and we didn't talk again for a little bit, as we looked over the menus.

He spent the rest of dinner talking mostly about himself, how awesome he was at his technical support job, how he was in line for a huge raise, and on and on. He didn't ask me a thing about myself, and seemed to forget I was even there, sometimes.

The real crazy part came on our second date. At first, over email, he asked me if I wanted to go to the same restaurant we had gone to for our first date. I told him that I preferred to vary things up, and so we wound up having dinner at a pub not far from that first place.

He was already there when I arrived, and when I sat across from him, the first words out of his mouth were, "You sing, right?"

I stared at him like he had just breathed fire. "You're joking. Really? You're asking me if I sing? Again?"

"So you... do? Am I confusing you for someone else?"

Dinner was a hurried affair. He spent most of it telling me how he was going to be promoted and score a huge raise, sometime soon. Despite that, I didn't contact him after the second date, and he never reached out to me again. Poor guy probably forgot I existed a minute after we parted ways.