The date was perfect – until I saw his mum

I’d thought just the two of us were going on a date – he hadn’t said anything about his mum joining (Picture: Laura Santi)

‘This can’t be happening,’ I thought.

My date, Ryan*, had just met me at the door of the jazz concert venue with our tickets. ‘We’re sitting in the front,’ he’d said with a smile.

I had naturally assumed ‘we’ meant him and me – until we’d approached the stage and his mum had waved at us from a front-row table.

What was happening?

When I first met Ryan, I’d been single for over two years and had spent the past 16 months on the apps. I was enjoyi...