Starting last year, we started to notice a very familiar face. There was a guy who would play an escape room here every single week. Then we started to notice that he would bring a different girl each time he came in. Even though this is the first time we’ve noticed something like this happening, I guess we really shouldn’t be that surprised. It was probably bound to happen. I’m sure the same thing happens at restaurants. But today, I’m not going to comment on his monogamy, or lack thereof.
The funny thing is that he would play the exact same room, An Hour to Kill, each time he came in (for his date, I’m assuming). It was painfully obvious (to us at least) that he was pretending it was his first time playing-- every single time. We overheard one of the girls saying “oh my god you’re so smart.” And his response was, “yea I’m pretty good at escape games.”
One day he comes in on a date (new girl, of course), and his “go-to” game is booked (An Hour to Kill). All the easier games are booked up for the night too, so he is forced to play our absolute hardest game, The Villain’s Lair. He and his date totally failed that room. He didn’t get to play smart guy this time around.
Then, what do you think happened next? We saw him the following week. And now he’s playing The Villain’s Lair again (different girl), determined to redeem himself. He gets a little further this time but still does not beat the game.
The climax of this story happens when one Saturday he brings in another girl, who just happens to be related to (the cousin of) one of our game masters who was actually working that day. What a small world. Our game master didn’t ruin their date, but later informed her cousin of the guy’s dating practices. I don’t think they’re dating anymore.
Fast forward to today. “The guy” has played through all of our rooms, multiple times, and knows them very well. Last time I saw him was about a month ago. He hasn’t been back in a while. It seems like he found a new spot. That, or he finally found true love at last.
I remember this one time where he made the leaderboard -- a place on the wall where we take a physical polaroid of your winning group and post it up for all to see -- and he was visibly nervous as the girl went to look at the other pictures. That’s because he’s made the leaderboard before and probably didn’t want the girl to see the other pictures of him on the wall (with other girls). Good thing for him that we clear the leaderboard each month and his previous pictures weren’t posted at the time.
Half of our staff were appalled by his behavior. Some of us were just glad to have his business. I’ll admit that even a couple of us were impressed by his ability to get so many dates in such a short amount of time. He was (and still is) our all time best customer though. So it put us in a weird position. Some of us had to fight the urge to “blow up his game,” so to speak. Instead of saying “hey welcome back for the millionth time our bestest customer!!!” -- we would say “hello sir, welcome to Exit Game!”
The lesson learned here is… escape rooms must be a great place for first dates. This guy sure had success doing it.
--Game Master George
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