Date Night

This month’s date box came with a card game to stimulate conversation and a miniature fondue set, complete with chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows and Rice Krispies treats. We were able to dig up a few extra goodies to dip in chocolate also.

Fondue or don’t

on date night?

Ihave never had fondue before – and if there are three things I love, it’s my fiancee Kat, cheese and chocolate – so this is a date night that’s right up my alley.

Each month Kat and I receive a mail order date in a box so we can take some time out of our busy schedules to enjoy an evening together without going out and about.

We’ve had some great experiences and made some cherished memories with past boxes, so we were excited as we opened our third box to see what was in store for us.

We found a romantic quick-draw card game, a miniature fondue set, complete with chocolate, marshmallows, Rice Krispies Treats and graham crackers.

This is exciting. I’ve never had fondue, but I have a notorious sweet tooth.

First – my sweet tooth. Seeing what we have in store for the evening, I immediately do a sweep of the kitchen, collecting everything I can find to dip in chocolate, with Kat hot on my heels closing cabinet doors and drawers behind me. Gummy bears: check. Sugar cookies: yes please. Pretzels Kat got for her hummus? We better at least try it.

As always, the date box comes with a curated Spoitify playlist to set the mood, so we hit play, melt some chocolate and light the candle under the fondue set to keep it warm, sample a chocolate covered marshmallow and let the misadventure begin.

Our game tonight is a quick-draw name 4 game. We have a deck of cards with various topics ranging from name four of my fears, to list four items in a bloody Mary. The hitch – you have 10 seconds to list all four, and if you fail, you feed your partner a chocolate-covered marshmallow.

Can you name four laws that are easily broken in under 10 seconds? I shot off speeding and jaywalking in a hot second before stumbling, mumbling, muttering and watching the last grains of sand sift through our timer. Kat got a marshmallow, then a raw deal.

For her first card, she had to name four cocktails I like. Neither one of us are heavy drinkers. Good luck with that.

I’m already wondering how many marshmallows came in our date box. At this rate they’re not going to last the night. I’m thankful for the gummy bears.

Four movies we own? I’ve got this. We have an extensive movie collection, and recently watched the entire run of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Captain America and the Winter Soldier,” “Thor and the Dark World,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron…” Boy, those movies have long titles and 10 seconds goes by really fast.

Kat’s turn. She catches me flipping the timer as I read the question. We throw out the timer and notice that our little candle is doing a poor job of keeping our chocolate hot.

But now we’re using the cards as conversation starters and it’s a lot more fun.

Can I name four of my fears? I’m a big strong man. Surely three fears are enough.

There’s a lot to talk about when we name four places we should visit. New Orleans, Boston, Italy, Eureka Springs. Near or far, it’s exciting to think about the world opening up and going on these grand adventures.

It’s also easy to reminisce about four memorable dinners we’ve had when we have more than 10 seconds to think about it.

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What’s that burning smell?

Is that smoke coming off the fondue?

Yep. It burned.

It’s interesting how the fondue set can simultaneously be too cold to keep the chocolate in a liquid state, and so hot that it will burn the congealing glob of chocolate.

Tragedy. I survey the table. I’d sampled a pretzel, my fair share of marshmallows and a gummy bear. What about the Rice Krispies, the cookies, the graham crackers.

They were fine without the chocolate dip, but I can’t help but feel a little let down. I poke, prod, chip and chisel the burnt chocolate out of the bowl and we get back to the game.

In all, there were 54 cards, with a question on each side. We go through each and every one – laughing that on three different occasions when we were told to name four cartoon characters and on at least three occasions, we were asked to name four foods that can be dipped in chocolate.

Really? Insult to injury. Kat doesn’t have my sweet tooth. She thinks it’s funny.

It’s funny how the adventure in “misadventure” sticks out when you’re with someone you love. The fondue didn’t work. We changed the rules of the game to suit us. Some people might say the date box company missed the mark with this one. But I’m not sure we would have laughed as hard as we did if everything had worked out to plan.

A date night isn’t about everything going to plan. It’s about quality time. This is a night we’ll remember, and not because everything was perfect, but because it was a misadventure we shared. n