The one with the loser Albanian guy

I've yet to have a positive interaction with an Albanian man

I’m not sure how to properly set the stage for this wild story but here we go.

In June, I was doing this dating spree as a social experiment. I’m not the kind of person who can date multiple people at once, but I was trying to do things differently (since nothing I’ve done so far has worked).

I started chatting to this Albanian guy on hinge. I’ve sworn off Albanian men long time ago, but this was me trying to be open minded. We chatted for a few days, it seemed promising, but then there goes red flag #1: his idea of a first date was to invite me over to his place and he would cook for me.

I said no to that, and so we went to a ping pong bar as our first date. First impressions: I’m not physically attracted to him, this is going to be a long long night. How could I turn around and leave at that point? He had already spotted me. Also, kind of odd, but he had brought his water bottle from home to the bar and didn’t drink anything there, but he paid for my drink. It was just not a vibe to be drinking on my own, but if I was going to get through this date, I needed some liquid help.

We ended up going to another bar for a drink, he insisted on carrying his water bottle around. The barman had to tell him that he can’t have it on there and even then he didn’t throw it out, he just hid it. The whole night was just odd, I was just not into this man, but I was also trying to not write people off so fast and based on superficial reasons.

His hands & arms were filled with tattoos. I saw he had 2 letters on his wedding ring finger, so I asked him whose initials had he tattooed. Here goes red flag #2: It was his ex girlfriends. It was the initial of her name with the initial of his last name. He told me some weird story about them, didn’t really believe half the things he said and I honestly didn’t know how to react to that. Now the red flag isn’t him getting her initials tattooed, but the fact that they had broken up for over 2 years, so what was he waiting for to get that removed? It seemed as if he was holding on to the past and everyone he was meeting was a placeholder until he got back with his ex. I shut down after I found that out, I just wanted the night to end.

Despite my better judgement, we kept talking after that night, and this time he invited me over to his place for food and wine. I brought the wine. I went over and his apartment was very much what you’d think a dudes apartment would be. Not nicely decorated, smelled like chlorine, nothing was matching but it was tidy-ish. I had just watched the Ted Bundy show on Netflix around this time so a part of me was sorta paranoid, but ultimately I knew I was safe. We put on a show in the background after we had food and we just talked throughout it. Sort of got just friend vibes. I went home and nothing happened between us. I told him I’d repay the favour of cooking for him.

So here we are on hang out #3? He came over to mine, I made my noodle and bacon dish and as soon as he sat down he basically told me that he’s moving back to Albania…to which I responded “so then why are you on dating apps and going on dates when you know you’re leaving?”. I was just turned off and annoyed and I didn’t even like this man. He didn’t thank me for the food or complimented it, he just didn’t have good manners in general and would eat with his mouth open. I mean, talk about icks. We went out to the balcony and sat there and talked some more and decided to just be friends. And since we decided to be just friends, I invited him to come golfing with me and my friends 2 days later….

To be continued…….