By the next morning, she had stopped answering.

I told him not to take it personally. People changed their minds. Dating was uncertain, especially after years away from it.

Then it happened again.

The second woman enjoyed the evening, accepted an invitation for another dinner, and disappeared before sunrise. No explanation. No polite message. She simply blocked him and vanished.

After the third woman did the same, Dad began searching for faults in himself.

“Maybe I talk about your mother too much,” he said one evening.

“You barely mention her unless someone asks.”

“Then maybe I’m too old-fashioned.”

“Holding a door open isn’t a character flaw.”

He smiled because he knew I wanted him to, but the reassurance did not reach his eyes.

Each rejection reopened something inside him. The radio went quiet again. He checked his phone whenever it made the smallest sound. Sometimes I saw him rereading old conversations, as if one sentence might reveal the mistake he could not remember making.

The fourth woman had talked about introducing him to her sister. She was gone by morning.

The fifth had suggested a weekend trip to a farmers’ market. She vanished too.

After his sixth hopeful evening ended in the same cold silence, coincidence no longer felt like an explanation.

I visited Dad and asked him to walk me through the dates. Had there been an argument? A strange comment? Had he become too intense or made anyone uncomfortable?

His face tightened.

“What kind of man do you believe I am?”

“That isn’t what I’m saying. I know you. I just need to understand what they experienced.”

He turned to the sink and rinsed a mug that was already clean. The familiar motion told me I had wounded him.

“I want an answer too,” he said quietly.

That night, I called my best friend, Rachel.

Rachel and I had known each other since college. She was warm, confident, and honest even when honesty hurt. She could make strangers feel comfortable within minutes, yet she could also sense a lie before the person telling it reached the end.

If Dad was unknowingly pushing women away, Rachel would recognize it. If something else was happening, she might notice that too.

“I need you to go on one date with my father,” I said.

She laughed, certain I was joking. When I did not join her, the line went silent.

“Lola, that is your dad.”

“I know how it sounds.”

“He has met me.”

“Only a few times. He might recognize your face, but he won’t remember your name. Tell him the app matched you.”

“You want me to investigate him?”

“I want you to tell me the truth about what happens on those dates. Six women left in exactly the same way. I can’t watch him blame himself without knowing why.”

Rachel listed every reason the plan could go wrong. It might embarrass Dad. It might damage my friendship with her. It might break the trust between my father and me.

She was right about all of it.

Still, when she heard the fear in my voice, she finally agreed.

The Date That Changed Everything

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