THE creative juices were flowing when Iyabo, a 24-year-old development associate at a nonprofit, and Jon, a 28-year-old record company executive, met for dinner at Italian spot Opus. The artistic duo bonded over music, movies and TV, but Jon threw a gutter ball when he said he doesn’t hit the lanes. Though this pair may hit up a concert together as friends soon, romantic bowlers they’ll never be.

He said:

Going into the date, my mind-set was “Whatever happens, happens.” When Iyabo arrived at the restaurant, my initial impression was that she was kind of cute, well-dressed and carried herself well.

Once we started talking, the conversation was absolutely terrific and flowed naturally all night long. We covered everything from music to films to travel and the inauguration. We tended to agree on everything, and that definitely helped the conversation. I liked that Iyabo was passionate about helping people and that she seemed to feel comfortable with herself.

After dinner, we shared part of the subway ride back home. I genuinely liked her as a person and would see her again, but as friends. I think Iyabo would be fun to hang out with, but unfortunately for me the spark of attraction wasn’t there.

She said:

When I got to Opus, Jon was already sitting at the table. Right away, I thought he was cute and very outgoing. While chatting, we learned we both went to NYU and talked about our majors and what we do now. I told Jon about some videos I’ve done and bands I’ve worked with. He told me about starting his first record company in high school, and I was impressed. We both value creativity, and our conversation was easy and fun.

While sampling each other’s dinners, we found that we like the same movies and love the TV show “Lost.” Despite all we had in common, there was one thing I didn’t like about Jon: He doesn’t like bowling! He said he’s not very good at it, and that makes him not want to do it. I think you should have fun doing something even if you aren’t good at it.

After dinner, I think we were both unsure how to leave things. If we hung out again, we’d definitely have fun, but I’m not sure if it would develop into much more than friendship.