Start your date off with a 'teaser' —an insinuating comment, a quick flash of skin, or a straying hand while driving to the restaurant.
Everyone from Brad and Angelina to David and Victoria Beckham has sung the praises of what has now become an American institution. The President and First Lady are known for their strictly-scheduled, no-kids-allowed rendezvous, and even Hollywood has cashed in on the date night phenomenon with the 2010 blockbuster of the same name. So how can you, without the luxury of a personal assistant, a five-member glam squad, and four branches of the military on your speed dial still manage to create a night worthy of the tabloids? Well, why don’t we take a few cues from the tabloids themselves?
The Teaser
It has happened to all of us at one point or another: we walk into the grocery store with the intention of buying one or two things, but inevitably find ourselves with arms stuffed to capacity. As we wait in line, unable to defend against the onslaught of enticing pictures and tabloid cover lines, we are helplessly lured in. It is in this moment that we discover the power of the well-placed tease.
Start your date off with a hint of what’s to come—an insinuating comment, a quick flash of skin, or a straying hand while driving to the restaurant. Like our insatiable need to find out what popular soap star was abducted by aliens, or which Hollywood hunk recently gave birth to a litter of kittens, the tease will keep him focused on you throughout the date.
The Conveniently Forgotten Facts
The bread and butter of every good tabloid writer is their ability to take the tiniest grain of truth, toss in a dash of cleverly-concocted controversy and a pinch of scandal, and spin it into a masterpiece. Though somewhere locked in an IRS filing cabinet is a 1040 form that may prove otherwise, tonight you are not the devoted mother of the cutest kids on the planet with a job and a mortgage payment due at the end of the week. Tonight you are on a date, a carefree, uncommitted twenty-something sitting next to Prince Charming, and the two of you can’t keep your eyes—or your hands for that matter—off of one another. Save the facts for tomorrow, tonight you are whoever you want to be.
Resolving The Story
Every couple has a different story. Maybe you met in high school and have been inseparable ever since, or maybe you are doing your best to blend two families together in the hopes that this relationship will go much better than the previous one did. No matter your particular circumstance, date night is your chance to recapture the feeling you had when your relationship began. Remember how nervous you were when he would step into the room? Remember how he tripped over his words as he tried to ask you out for the first time? Date night is your chance to recapture that romance in a way that is unique to you.
For some it may involve a lavish night on the town with an elegant meal and hours spent in each others arms on the dance floor. For others it might be nothing more than dropping the kids off at a friend’s house, laying on the couch together, eating a cheap delivery pizza, and watching a rented DVD of the movie you went to see on your first date. Romance is what you say it is, no matter how you want to spin the story with the girls at the water cooler on Monday.
