I met Rudolph at a business conference. He was charming, had an infectious personality, and by the end of the second day, he was popular, with everyone wanting to be his friend. That’s why I found it surprising when he approached me instead. He asked for my number, and we started talking from there. He was handsome, had great vibes, and drove a nice car. I found myself wondering, “Why is a guy like this single?”

One day, I asked him, “So, why are you single?” He replied, “I’m so buried in my job that most of my girlfriends complain I don’t make time for them.” It seemed true; most of our dates were interrupted by calls from work asking him to handle one thing or another. It could get annoying, but I was okay with it.

One day, we went on a date, and while we were out, he got an urgent call from work. Not wanting to cut our date short, he suggested, “I’ll take you to my place, and when I get back, we can find another restaurant and continue our date.” It sounded fair to me, so I agreed.

He drove me to his place, and on the way, we picked up some drinks to keep me company while I waited for him. When we arrived, he took the drinks to the kitchen, saying, “I’ll be back soon.” Then he left.

Soon turned into later, and he still wasn’t back. After waiting for a while, I decided to go to the kitchen to grab the drink myself. I opened the kitchen door and was met with the biggest shock of my life. I had never seen a kitchen so filthy. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in ages. The floor was greasy, the countertops were cluttered with dishes that looked like they’d been sitting there for years, and there was grime everywhere. I’m not exaggerating—it was genuinely traumatizing.

I couldn’t even bring myself to touch the fridge, so I just went back to the living room, feeling increasingly uncomfortable and desperate to leave. When he finally came back, I didn’t mention anything about what I’d seen. I just let him drop me off at home and decided to start ghosting him from there. I couldn’t wrap my head around how anyone could be so unclean, and it seriously bothered me.

He probably thinks I ghosted him because he was too engrossed in his work, but that wasn’t the reason at all.