Meeting the family is not normally something you have to worry about while you are dating. Dating is meant to just be a fun, relaxing (HA) time where you can simply get to know the other person without worrying about anything more than whether they are going to text you back or not. Meeting-the-family stresses can be saved until you are in a relationship at a far later date. I, unfortunately, met the family a lot earlier than most.
It has become a bit of a tradition with me that I go away for New Year. I love to start the brand new year in a brand new place, experiencing something different each time. This year though, I couldn’t. Because work had very unkindly scheduled me in for not only New Year’s Eve but New Year’s Day as well. Who would do that??? It’s like torture in 21st Century form.
I didn’t spend New Year’s Eve completely alone though and had plenty of parties to choose from thank goodness. And I thought the only way to make myself feel better about the fact that I wasn’t in a different country at that moment, was to become horrendously and completely plastered. Which I did.
The evening was a hilarious one, partly because of my stupid level of inebriation and partly because I was surrounded by a wonderful group of my friends from uni. The party was a chance to catch up with them, many of whom I hadn’t seen since we graduated, but I also got to meet some lovely new people. One of the hosts of the party had invited his work friends and I ended up chatting to (and later getting with) a really handsome guy called Dan as the clock struck midnight – I had to have my midnight kiss right?
A few weeks later I started dating a new guy, Will. After a string of absolutely horrible men in 2014, I was really excited by this new thing we had going on. For once in my life I could see it really going somewhere. We had a lot in common, we were similarly educated, into the same things and generally getting on really well. It wasn’t often that I felt I actually had a connection to someone so early on in the dating period.
After we had been dating for around 6 weeks, he invited me to his house. He wanted to show me where he lived, his parents were out (wink wink) and we just wanted a nice chilled evening. And not going to lie, I was itching to see it. He had already told me he was from a very posh suburb on the edge of London. And I could not wait to see exactly what it was like.
And it did not disappoint! You know the kind of roads where you walk down it and every single one has a horsebox in the driveway? That’s the kind of road he lived on. The house was truly beautiful. There were two living rooms, the biggest kitchen I have ever seen in my life (complete with underfloor heating) and plush white carpets throughout the entire house. It was gorgeous.
He took me upstairs to his ‘TV room’ which he described as a ‘little’ room (although it was actually about the size of my bedroom) where he and his twin could escape from their parents when necessary. And that’s where we settled, peacefully watching a film until we heard the front door slam.
I instantly panicked. I don’t know at what point you guys think is the right time to meet the parents? But there was no way I was ready to do that yet. Especially when they live in a house like this. But to my relief, he said
‘Don’t worry. That’s just my twin.’
And sure enough, a few seconds later, said twin poked his head around the door. At which point I got the shock of my life.
‘Lois meet Dan, Dan meet Lois.’
It was one of those moments where you want the ground to swallow you up and you just want to hide away from the world. I didn’t think events like this happened in real life. But apparently they did. I couldn’t really enjoy the rest of my date and I have no idea whether Dan ever told his twin (unidentical I might add. They didn’t look that similar) that we had got together a couple of months before. But things fizzled out between Will and I and we stopped dating about a month later. Such a shame. I should probably start doing background checks on my dates in the future. Just in case.