Woman caught off guard when man asks her questions on date

TORONTO, ON—Online marketer Meghan Heffernan, 34, was utterly astonished on Friday night when her date Joshua Chen, 33, appeared to show genuine interest in aspects of her life and personality.

"I told him I had just come from my book club and he… he… wanted to know things about it," said a visibly shaken Heffernan, in between breaths into a brown paper bag. "Like, who is in the book club? Which book are we reading? Am I more a fan of British Victorian literature or modern Canlit? Really thoughtful and specific questions. It was almost as if he was interested in getting to know me and learning things about my life, instead of just waiting for me to finish talking so he could start talking about himself."

"It was really weird," she whispered, curling up into the fetal position.

Heffernan's previous first dates have included aspiring stand-up comic Jonathan Sturgeon who tried to convince Heffernan to get in on his knife-selling pyramid scheme without so much as asking her what she did for a living, and Jeff "The Rookie" McTavish, a former college athlete and souped-up Honda Civic enthusiast who only took his eyes off the hockey game at the sports bar to text expletives to an ex-girlfriend in Heffernan's presence.

"I guess Jeff did ask me a question, but not until the very end of the date. And that question was, 'Wanna make out?' so I'm not even totally sure that counts."

When asked to comment, Chen said, "Seriously? Is the bar really set this low? Dudes aren't asking women questions on dates? Do they even understand how conversations work? Do they get that women have lives and interests of their own?"

At press time, Chen had already gotten in touch with Heffernan to ask for a second date at that nice Italian place she had mentioned she liked.

"He… um… he asked me out again, and called me on the phone during daylight hours," Heffernan stammered after hanging up. At that point, she passed out cold. It took several minutes and an old-timey flask of smelling salts to revive her.

Heffernan is only the second woman in Toronto to be asked a question on a date this year. In 2015, a total of fourteen local women were asked questions by their dates.

According to Statistics Canada, those numbers have dropped significantly since the late 1990s when women were frequently asked "Do you do the Dew?" and, "Do I make you horny, baby? Do I?"