My Dating Experience With A Traveling Nurse

This is my embarrassing tinder date stories. Everything that I say in this story is real, therefore, to protect the person’s identity, I will only refer to her as the “traveling nurse.” Tinder can be tough to find dates, whether it’s flooded with fake scamming accounts, or matching with someone just for them to ghost me a few days later. Dating in this day and age can be draining. So, when I do match with a woman I like and we both want to meet; it can be magical. I am not the type that just blindly swipes, I actually open their profiles and read what they have to say. One day, I came across the traveling nurse. She said she would be in town for the next few months and looking for adventures. These are the stories of those “adventures.”

Date 1

We decide to meet at a restaurant's bar, where we had two frozen margaritas. At this restaurant, the frozen drinks are limited to two per person, due to the high feet altitude in this town. Now I've been living in this town for a couple of years now, so I was fine, she was also fine, even though she only been here for about 2 months. She insisted that we continue drinking somewhere else. That should have been my first warning, but my ego and pride were on the line. “I can't let her out drink me!” so we walk to another restaurant, and two more margaritas and an appetizer. I was starting to feel it now, she wanted to keep going.......She enjoyed the frozen margaritas, so we went back for a third. By end of that drink, I was in trouble but tried my best to stay focus on our conversations. Then, she wanted just one more drink at another bar. We had one beer each, which I accidentally spilled on the table and ran on her pants. With the loud sound of the glass hitting the metal table, the others at the bar turning to look, my heart wanted to jump out of my chest at that moment. By the end of the date, she drove me home, in my car, and took an uber home. As I sit on my couch, defeated and utterly drunk, I thought to myself, “how in the hell can she drink like that and be fine!?! The altitude in this town was over 7000 feet, about 2000 above the city of Denver for context. Total drinks: 3 frozen margaritas, 2 Margaritas on the rocks, and a beer. The room was spinning, I couldn't close my eyes until my body was able to eject a good portion of the drinks, I consumed...... thankfully I didn’t have a hangover, maybe I shouldn’t go drinking with her again.

Date 2

Clearly, I haven’t learned my lesson from my first date with her. After a few days of texting back and forth, I noticed a pattern with this traveling nurse. she works long hours and when she’s off, she goes straight to the bars. I was her only connection outside of her co-workers, felt bad for her, so regardless of if this turns into a romantic relationship or not, I decided to play the hero and support her. One night, the traveling nurse texted me that she was at this bar with her co-workers and invited me. I decide to venture out to this bar, when I got there, I couldn't find them and texted her “I'm here.” She replies back “cool, I'm home in bed.” my heart dropped, I never liked the idea of going to bars solo to drink or flirt with others, now, I am that guy at the bar sitting by himself pretending to care what’s on the television. This was truly embarrassing to me, kept telling myself I should have known better. One positive, I don’t know if the bartender felt bad for me or the person who ordered the drink left, but the owner gave me a free beer. The next morning, she texted me, apologizing for ditching me. As the person I am, I forgave her, maybe she had a hard shift at work. Being a traveling nurse can't be easy.

Date 3

One would think after two negative experience’s that I would learn my lesson, nope. On this date, though, I made sure I stayed within my limits, After all, I don’t actually drink that much. I consider myself a social drinker and never drink alone. At this meet-up, she brought one of her co-workers/friends. She tried to get me to hook up with her. Neither I nor her friend was actually interested in each other. This time, I stayed in buzz to sober mode, but the traveling nurse went off this night. So much so, that I think she might be a borderline alcoholic. She pregamed before meeting me and drank all night. At some point, her friend went home and I became a drunk sitter......she would talk/flirt with other men at bars, while I stayed on the sideline making sure she doesn’t get taken advantage of. How the hell did I get myself in this situation? At 2 am, the bars are closed and she is clearly not okay to drive, so I tried to drive her home, only.......she was so shitfaced that she couldn't remember where she lived! So, I'm driving in circles in her car, she gets frustrated and throws her phone to the very back. I'm getting tired and said, screw it, she can sleep on my couch, but first, I have to get her some food. So, I stop at Ihop, one of the few places still open after 2 am. Once we arrived, not even fifteen seconds out of the car, she starts heckling a cop that is leaving Ihop. This is beyond embarrassing, it’s scary, like something out of a damn movie. Thankfully, the cop didn’t do anything and I quickly guide her through the doors. Her antics didn’t stop there, while she is sipping on coffee and eating pancakes, she decides to bother a group of people at another booth. As I try to gesture her back to our booth, she’s bragging about how I'm watching over her all night. Embarrassment, turns to frustration and she’s making fool out of herself and me. At one point, she spent a long period of time in the bathroom, I think others could hear singing, anyways, back in the car, she starts disclosing some drunk truths to me. Really, it’s what I thought all along, she was telling me about her traumas. I won’t go into details about that, either, but her behaviors made sense. She's trying to drink the pain and memories away. Which, unfortunately, that’s not how it works. She wanted to take a bath saying she felt “dirty” and I think everyone saw a wet spot on her pants after she left the bathroom...... I opened the door and showed her where the shower was, I turned around she was completely in her birthday suit. I’ve never seen anyone undress that fast before. At that moment, she was the definition of a hot mess. We never had sex, I never touched her, she passed out on my couch, and I went to bed thinking about everything that has happened that night. The next morning, I woke up, gave her a glass of water and her pancakes. The traveling nurse covered up and kind of brushed me away, as if she thought I was trying to have sex with her now. I wish I had said, “trust me, after last night and everything you told me, I wouldn’t want to touch you.” Of course, I didn’t, we got dressed, and she drove me to my car. While driving, a friend from her hometown, video calls her about her night, she flashed me on the video call saying how I was upset because I didn’t get any this morning. No deer, I'm upset that I was even in this situation, to begin with. that was the final embarrassing experience with the traveling nurse. I finally learned my lesson and never saw her again. I hope she can find peace someday, but it’s going to involve AA and therapy to get to that place. As for me, I have to learn how to not play the hero, when she never wanted to be saved in the first place.