Last year, I went on a date with a man who had a girlfriend. I knew he had a girlfriend—it said so on his profile on the app where we matched. Apparently, he was in an “ethically non-monogamous relationship”. I hadn’t dated someone who had a partner before, but after becoming single for the first time in six years, it seemed like an arrangement that might work for me. At the time, the last thing I wanted was to be someone’s girlfriend. So why not date someone who already had one?
We met for coffee near where we both live. He seemed a little flustered and later, once we had both warmed up a bit, he told me that this was because he and his girlfriend were potentially about to break up. In fact, it might happen in just a few hours, when he went to see her straight after our date.