The restaurant he'd chosen was wonderful. He was there on time, looking hot, he even held the door open for me. Over drinks, we had great eye contact and the conversation came easily. By the time we were seated for dinner, I was already feeling quite starry eyed and charmed. “I think I've finally found my Mr. Right,” I secretly celebrated.

Dinner was truly delicious. But, somewhere between the appetizer and the salad there was this moment of silence. He didn't seem to mind. He sat there and smiled at me as he munched on a piece of French bread. But, I panicked. “Had we run out of things to talk about already?” So, instead of taking that next bite like I told myself I should, I opened my mouth and filled the silence with a rapid fire, take-no-prisoners series of the five most deadly dangerous conversation killing sins anybody can commit on a first date.

It's all kind of a blur right now, but the disaster unfolded something like this (imagine taking one breath and having all this blow out of you as you exhaled):

“So, this is some restaurant, isn't it? You must make a lot of *money*, right? My last boyfriend would never take me out to a place like this. He was too cheap. I hate cheap people, don't you? Everything tastes so good here, although if you ask me, they need to hire a new decorator. I probably shouldn't have dessert because I just can't stand the way my butt looks right now. My mom always nags me about my weight. Get off my case already, mom! And, now that I think about it my cheap ex-boyfriend always did, too. He also always chewed with his mouth open, which irritated me like crazy...I'm having such a nice time, aren't you?”

I'm not sure if the question mark had even come out of my mouth when I saw the door to the restaurant swing closed. I've never seen a man move so fast. It took me a minute to regain my composure. Then, I realized that within the span of 30 seconds I'd massacred this perfect date by bringing up the five off-limits, absolute no-no topics for a first date.

Tanya Haden Tebb, relationship expert and author, had told me in her eBook, How to Attract Men—The Goddess Secrets, to never ever under any circumstances talk about these five downers on a first date. And, here I'd gone and talked about all of them in the time it takes for a man to (almost) finish chewing a piece of semi-stale bread with that really creamy butter on top.

In my nervousness and fear of ruining the perfect date with a moment of silence, I'd brought up 1) Money, 2) Ex-Relationships, 3) Things I don't like, 4) Things I don't like about myself, and 5) My family, which Haden Tebb says to only bring up if they're totally great. Oops! I barfed out all five of the “don't ever speak about these topics”! No wonder he bolted!

Why oh why, in my moment of panic, did I not remember to bring up any of Haden Tebb's 10 Topics of First Date Conversation That Are Guaranteed To Win & Woo Any Man! She implores women everywhere to use these topics if you want to keep men hanging on your every word and get an invite for the second date before you've even finished introducing yourself.

As I hailed a cab to go home alone, again, I thought, “Next time I'll just make sure I keep my mouth full of food the whole time. That way, if I forget to use the Secrets I learned, at least I won't say anything I'll regret.”