I'm on call for a friend today, and it's not an uncommon situation.

What I am on call for?

She's going on a first date with a guy. A coffee in the afternoon. That's it. Not staying over, not drinking, and not far from her house. Just a coffee. He seems nice. But she has given me the time, the venue, and when I should reach out if she hasn't checked in.

This isn't common. There is nothing this man did wrong on text. In fact, the reverse - this was a guy she liked enough via text to choose to meet up with at all. He's the BEST case scenario. And she's still anxious and wants someone to be aware of what she's going to do.

There's no way to fix this if you're a man who dates women. You can't individually be better. It's a huge systemic problem that'll take massive cultural shifts in how we raise and nurture our kids, over generations.

And for those in that situation now, it fucking sucks.