Lily, 19, student
Note to self: do not go on a first date on a university campus. I’m sure every single person I knew walked past and raised their eyebrows at me. I was blushing the entire time, and I think she thought it was because I was really into her…

Yemi, 37, tennis coach
He was much better looking than his blurry profile picture and had this warm, caring energy that put me at ease immediately. It’s been a month and, honestly, I think I’m in love.

Jennifer*, 42, director
I went on a first date with a man who told me he was retraining to be a life coach. Within an hour he was sobbing in the pub because I told him I didn’t know if I wanted to have a relationship with him, and was keen to just enjoy our evening. He then spent half an hour shouting at me for being a massive tease and said I was just using him for a free drink. Hopefully, that career change hasn’t worked out for him…

Merrisha, 43, coach
I’m a 43-year-old single mum who decided to get back online recently after being single for around four years, recognising that I really wanted to have a special someone in my life. There was a lot I had to learn about the dating world now. Firstly, you would think that on a dating website, people would want to date. I discovered that wasn’t the case. Lots of men like to initiate conversations and then disappear, which made no sense to me. I was also surprised at how many men online seemed to struggle with communication: text talk, brief responses and an inability to enter into two-way dialogue seemed to be the norm. And that’s after you discount the pictures of people posing next to sports cars, topless and profiles with all sorts of acronyms I have to google.

I had started with the free dating sites, but realised very quickly there were a lot of time wasters, so decided to invest in a month’s subscription on Match.com and had a first date in March. I was so nervous having been out of the dating world for a while. What do I wear? Do I even have anything to talk about? What if I’m ghosted, which seems to be a thing nowadays.

In one day, I went from messaging to arranging to meet for a drink that evening. I didn’t have much time to overthink things because it all happened so quickly, but as I parked the car, the nerves kicked in and there was also a healthy dose of excitement. I had made it clear I could only stay for a short amount of time, which was my get-out clause if it went horribly wrong – or if he was horribly wrong. As luck would have it, conversation flowed easily, and when he asked me out for a ‘real’ date the following day, I knew I was excited about it. Four months later, we’re still seeing each other.

Real first date stories: icks, instant sparks and major red flags