Jordan’s Cree-P-S tends to lead him in the direction of “weird, bizarre experiences,” which he embraces. He’s a 25-year-old case manager for trauma survivors and the mentally ill who carries himself with the neurotic swagger of a standup comic. He’s short on height and long on confidence. “If anything,” he told me, “I could probably work on feeling more self-conscious.”

What would his Cree-P-S tell him about Elizabeth Leff, a 24-year-old leadership development associate at a local nonprofit? Her Date Lab application had accents of charming weirdness. Asked to describe her dating life as a TV show, for instance, she wrote: “super emotional, angsty girl loves people a lot so it’s hard for her to have a healthy relationship with anyone because they’ll probably die.”

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The two of them arrived at Iron Gate on N Street NW on a Thursday evening. Jordan wore combat boots, a shirt with tigers on it and a jean jacket festooned with pins: a pair of cherry blossoms in honor of D.C.; the sign atop a Philadelphia landmark in honor of his hometown; a crest to honor his middle name, Montana, which he says was inspired by the “long line of Jewish cowboys” in his family tree.

These proved to be a handy conversation starter during the awkward pre-dinner photo shoot. Even before they sat down, “I knew a lot about him,” said Elizabeth, who had been nervous about going out with a stranger.

Next, they ordered drinks, a gin cocktail for her, beer for him. The conversation was “a little interview-y” at first, Jordan said. “I did get the sense that she was perhaps a little more inhibited than I was. I was constantly waiting for that weirdness to pop out.”

Elizabeth didn’t need to ask too many questions to learn about Jordan or his family. Those insights arrived with the free round of drinks that the server delivered courtesy of Jordan’s father, stepmother, and “stepbrother and stepsister” (i.e. their dogs). “My first thought was, ‘He told his family that he was doing this?’ ” Elizabeth recalled, incredulous. She had not, and would not have told her parents she was going on a blind date. For one, they just don’t have that kind of relationship. For another, “They’d be like, ‘That sounds pretty unsafe and stupid. Why are you doing that?’ ” she said, adding, “The paranoidness I feel about strangers I think is passed down.”

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Toward the end of dinner, Elizabeth confessed that she had needed to go to the bathroom for a while, but had been nervous about leaving her drink with someone she didn’t know. “That’s just how I walk through the world,” she said later, “being constantly worried that I’m going to be taken advantage of.” (I’m with Elizabeth on this one. She’s not weird; blind dates are.)

Jordan didn’t take it personally and told her the only way to feel totally at ease would be to take her drink with her to the bathroom. It was sound logic, but she decided to wait it out anyway.

What was Jordan’s Cree-P-S doing with this information? Elizabeth seemed sweet, but not weird or idiosyncratic enough to bowl him over. “I was attracted to her in sort of a more basic level,” he said. He was down to hook up if she was, but he didn’t get that sense from her — correctly, as it turned out. Elizabeth was interested, however, in being walked home: “He was very gracious in offering his male privilege to me in that way.”

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It was a nice walk. They stopped at Barbie Pond, the diorama of doll torsos at 15th and Q streets NW. They played a game called “Perfect Perfect Perfect,” where each person asks about dealbreakers that would make an otherwise perfect partner undateable. (Elizabeth said she couldn’t date a perfect man who never brushes his teeth. To her astonishment, Jordan said he could overlook something like that.)

He asked her if she was attracted to him. She told him she was still figuring that out. Jordan suspected Elizabeth might have more conventional taste in men, so he took that as a victory for his personality. He asked her if she ever kissed on the first date. Sensing a gambit, she replied, “Not usually” — as in, No thanks. Elizabeth’s Cree-P-S was pointing her away from Jordan, romantically speaking. But it was also telling her that his questions were inquisitive, not aggressive; that he was good company and a source of safety on a dark street, even if he was, technically, a stranger.

Rate the date

Jordan: 4 [out of 5].

Elizabeth: 4.

Update

Some texting, but no more dates.