Abdi doesn’t date all that much — he’s often busy with work. But he’s been on Tinder. And he’s formed an opinion about the whole thing. “The problem with dating right now is that there are way too many choices,” he said. He compared the breadth of the dating arena to the vastness of Netflix and said that it gives him anxiety. “No one is trying to settle down,” he said. I asked him if the operative word in that sentence was “settle,” and he agreed. He also freely admitted that he’d succumbed to that fear of missing out a few times himself.

Eden showed up at the restaurant a bit frazzled from work, wearing a leather jacket, jeans and an off-the-shoulder shirt. “I was probably a little nervous,” Eden told me later. “I’d figured we’d both be nervous, so that made me feel better.”

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When she arrived, Abdi said, he was seated with his back to her. Even before laying eyes on him, though, “I suspected he was Ethiopian,” Eden said. It was the name, Abdi, that had given it away. This was intriguing to her since, although her parents were Ethiopian, Eden had spent most of her life in Indiana and hadn’t dated many Ethiopian guys.

The truth is, Eden hasn’t dated that many people at all. She recently got out of a 5½ -year relationship, and she’s only 23. She’s been on Tinder and Coffee Meets Bagel but told me this was only her third or fourth actual date. “My biggest challenge is forcing myself to get out there,” she said. “I really want to be dating and meeting new people.”

I asked her if Abdi was her type. She answered like someone who works at a digital marketing firm: “I don’t really have enough data to say anything about type.” (On her Date Lab application, she described her type as someone who is “smart, funny, adventurous.”) But when Abdi stood up to meet her, she thought he was pretty cute — if a little short for her taste. (He’s an inch-and-a-half taller than she is.)

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They got drinks. Eden ordered a sauvignon blanc. Abdi ordered the espresso martini because, they both agreed, it sounded too weird to pass up. He followed up with salmon as his entree; Eden ordered shrimp pasta.

Over dinner, they talked about “Ethiopian things” — family, childhood — Eden said. She told Abdi about growing up in the Midwest. He talked about going to school in Ethi­o­pia, when teachers were free to physically discipline students. “Teachers are like your second parents,” he told me, recounting a story where he was slapped by a fourth-grade teacher for chatting with a student from another class. “Eden thought that was funny.”

Abdi was forthright, and Eden seemed to like that. “He was definitely a compelling storyteller,” she told me. “We were talking on and on. I think we were like the last people at the restaurant.”

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Abdi liked that Eden was funny, easy to talk to and very open about her life. He enjoyed her “warm presence.” (In his Date Lab profile, he said he was looking for someone who is “intelligent, thoughtful, witty.”)

Eden estimates that she and Abdi were together for about 2½ hours. But by the end of the first hour, she’d already decided that she didn’t see anything coming of it — no matter how much fun they’d had. She told me that she can usually determine whether someone is going to be important in her life, sometimes with the exchange of only a few words. “When I don’t trust that sense,” she told me, “I’m usually wrong. That’s all I can say.”

At the end of the evening, they walked to the Metro, exchanged numbers and hugged. Abdi asked Eden to message him when she got home, so he’d know she had returned safely.

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Between then and the next day, they exchanged a few texts. Eden told Abdi that she was going away for the weekend, and he asked if they could get drinks when she got back. She told him she didn’t think they were a good match and declined.

“She said we should hang out as friends,” Abdi said, “but that was just a formality. I have plenty of friends.”

Rate the date

Eden: 4 [out of 5].

Abdi: 3.5.

Update