For the first time ever, the Old Gold & Black sponsored a special date in downtown Winston-Salem for two lucky Demon Deacons. Fifty-seven students submitted applications, answering questions about their ideal romantic partners and what building on the Wake Forest campus they identify with. Members of the Old Gold & Black Editorial Board, who moonlight as expert romantic consultants, sifted through the applicants and chose to set up sophomores Teddy Barbe and Olivia Klingler. We sent them to the Old Fourth Street Filling Station on Feb. 10.

Amanda Wilcox: Let’s start by talking about how you felt leading up to the date. Were you nervous or excited?

Olivia Klingler: I wasn’t really nervous, but I didn’t know what to expect. I actually found out the day of that it was Teddy and I’m friends with Teddy, so that was kind of a relief and I was like, “Oh, good, it will be very comfortable and fun,” because I know him. We’ve become friends this semester and last semester, so we’re not very close friends, but I definitely know all of his friends and he knows all my friends.

I was very glad that it was someone that I knew. I figured that a ton of people applied to it, and whenever the applications came out, there were probably 15 people in my room, and everyone was talking about this thing and I was like, “Okay, this seems like a very safe thing to do — I’ll fill it out and it will never happen to me.” And then I got the email and I was like, “Oh great, I got like a job offer!” and then, “Oh no, I have to go on a blind date!”

Teddy Barbe: Well, when I got the email, I was really excited, for sure, and it’s funny because I knew who my date was. I have a friend group that has a Snapchat group chat, and when I got the email that Wednesday night, I was freaking out, and I went and showed some of the people in that Snapchat group, and the girl that I went with, Olivia, is in that Snapchat group chat, but I didn’t send anything to it. She sent something and said, “Yeah, I’m going on this blind date thing,” and then me and my friends decided to keep it a secret until she found out. She found out two or three hours before the actual date, but it was really funny keeping that secret because I had seen her several times since then, and I had to keep it together.

AW: How did the date progress after you met up with each other?

OK: He was talking with my roommate because everyone was trying to keep it a secret all week since he knew, and I didn’t. My roommate had texted him and said “Hey, she found out,” and so he knew that I knew at that point and asked if he should just come to our room because we were supposed to meet in front of Reynolda. There were a bunch of us hanging out there, and then we left and drove to the restaurant. 

TB: So, I went to her room, and we talked there with all of our friends, and we got into the car and drove to Fourth Street Filling Station. It was kind of funny when we got there — the people definitely knew and were expecting us, and everyone was super nice and a little overly nice, but not in a bad way.

AW: You already knew each other, but did you feel like you connected with each other and had good conversation?

OK: There was great conversation, and it was very easy and fun. We talked about our hometowns and our families and what we’re involved in, school, TV and general stuff like that — our pets, our dogs. We were probably there over an hour — there was no lack of conversation at all.

TB: Yes! We were there for almost two hours and there wasn’t really a moment of awkward silence or anything. We talked about her family and my family a little bit, and she’s not a big movie person, but I love movies, so we talked about that for a long time. My two favorite movies are Forrest Gump and The Lion King, and I basically just ranted to her about those movies. She was a good sport about it. And then we really kind of went for the whole nine yards — I feel like I really learned a lot about her. 

AW: What did you think about the restaurant, the food and the atmosphere?

OK: The food was really good. He had never had spinach dip before, so we got that and he liked it. I had salmon, and it was really good. It definitely had nice vibes — it was a fancier kind of restaurant. 

TB: Since it was provided by Old Gold & Black, we both decided to kind of treat ourselves a little bit. So, I got a steak and it was really good, and she got the salmon. I’m not a huge fish guy, but she seemed like she enjoyed it.

AW: What did you do after you came back from dinner, at the end of the date?

TB: On the way back, we stopped at Davis and she asked me if I had to drive my car back [to the sophomore parking lot], and I said, “Yeah, I do, but I can drop you off at Davis first, if you like.” Then she said that she had to bring her friend’s car back, so we both drove [to the parking lot]. On the way there, there was a song — whenever our friend group hangs out it’s always Olivia who plays music, so I have a good sense of the type of music that she likes — it was a new song that I had just heard about and I thought, “This sounds like an Olivia song.” 

So when I got back to the parking lot, I said, “I feel like there’s a song that I’m listening to right now that you would really like,” and then she came and listened to it and ended up really liking it. Then we just walked back to campus together and talked about our classes this semester and previous classes that we’ve taken. 

She’s studying abroad in Barcelona [next fall] and we were talking about an anthropology class that I took my freshman year, and I was saying that it was one of the coolest classes that I’ve taken, and she said that she was thinking about taking a class like that in Spain.

AW: Tell me about that song.

OK: I had no idea how he knew of this song, but he just said, “Listen to this song, I think you might like it,” because we had talked about music too, and I liked it. I think it’s called “[Slow] Dancing in the Dark” by Joji. 

AW: Do you think that you might go on more dates in the future?

TB: Maybe — I definitely want to get to know her a little bit more socially. She’s in my tight friend group, but I never got to know her on that level yet. I would say that we were good friends [before], just not on a “take her out on a date” level. But I could see this continuing, maybe.

OK: Since we’re friends, I’ll definitely see him, but I have no idea … But it was a great time.