We set her up with a 32-year-old government contractor named Chad Bartlett. For her outfit, Mary chose a black T-shirt, black sweater, black-and-white patterned knee-length skirt and knee-high boots with black tights. Chad went with a simple button-up shirt and jeans. He arrived at Prequel, a hip restaurant incubator with an ever-changing menu a few blocks from Farragut Square, about 15 minutes late by Mary’s calculation. “I got lost trying to find it,” said Chad, who also said he did absolutely no preparation for this date: “I kind of embraced the blindness.”

However, Chad wasn’t blindsided. Typically, Date Lab participants start the night with almost no prior knowledge of the other dater. This time, the sensible minds at The Washington Post Magazine thought it best to brief Chad in advance that his date was poly. He was pretty chill about the whole thing — “especially on a first date,” he told me, “because pretty much everyone is polyamorous at that point.” Chad is also very sensible. And this is not his first rodeo. “In my 20s, I had been through stints of dating multiple people — what they call ‘ethical non-monogamy,’ ” he said. “As long as you have open, honest conversations about what the relationship is supposed to be, it can work out really well.”

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The pair started the night with cocktails. Mary ordered some version of an Old-Fashioned; Chad ordered a vodka and ginger. Then they worked their way through the menu of what Mary called Mexican street food. She was encouraged by Chad’s willingness to share finger foods pretty much “bite for bite.”

He was also fun to talk to. Mary told me that, early in the evening, she launched into standard-issue dating small talk — her bio, as she called it. “He kind of cut me off, like ‘I’d really like to talk about anything other than work.’ ” Chad said later he hates when people ask each other what they do for a living. “It’s the worst question in D.C. dating.” Mary agreed: “My job is the least interesting thing about me.” Instead they talked about his favorite hobby — organizing an adult summer camp — her involvement in the church and even her current boyfriend.

Mary wasn’t seeing anyone when she signed up for Date Lab in February, but she’s since started a relationship with a married man. He’s not interested in having children in or outside of his marriage, and so Mary is technically still very much on the market. She was upfront about all this, and Chad appreciated it. “I get that dating a polyamorous person can be tricky,” he said. “I think she handled it kind of well. It was kind of refreshing.”

Mary and Chad chatted comfortably for approximately two hours about their families, their backgrounds and where they are in their lives. They ended their date by purchasing two extra quesadillas and distributing them to a couple of homeless people near Farragut Square. Then the pair exchanged numbers and went their separate ways. “I thought it was a great first date,” Mary said. “I definitely wanted to see him again.” They texted the next day about a second date. But after a couple of days, Chad let Mary know that he thought it would be best if they didn’t go out again.

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Chad later told me that Mary’s practice of polyamory had almost nothing to do with his decision. “If the scenario was right,” he said, he would have considered it. What was more concerning to him was her religious fervor. Chad recognized that church was as much a part of Mary’s routine as adult camp was a part of his, and he couldn’t imagine how they would even have time for each other. “It kind of proves my point about not wanting to talk about what you do for work but what you do for fun,” he said. “I’m not going to not date a lawyer, but I’m probably not going to date a Sunday school teacher.”

Rate the date

Mary: 4.5 [out of 5]. “He was very attractive, tall, solidly built. He wouldn’t look out of place at a rose ceremony.”

Chad: 3. “I don’t see us going forward romantically.”

Update