WORST DATE...

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I matched with this girl Sarah on Bumble and we'd been texting for about two weeks. She seemed cool, funny, and when we decided to meet at this trendy coffee shop downtown, she looked exactly like her photos, which was already a win in my book.
Everything started normal. We ordered our drinks, found a corner table, and the conversation was flowing pretty well. She was telling me about her job at a marketing firm when I noticed something weird. This barista kept walking past our table every few minutes, and each time he did, he'd stare directly at Sarah with this intense look.
At first, I thought maybe he was just checking her out, which honestly, I couldn't blame him. But then it got weird. Really weird.
The guy started lingering near our table when he was supposed to be working. He'd wipe down tables that were already clean, rearrange chairs, anything to stay close. Sarah seemed completely oblivious, but I was getting uncomfortable.
Then he approached us. "Sarah?" he said, and she looked up with this bright smile.
"Oh hey Jake! This is Mark," she gestured to me casually. "Jake works here."
The dude just stood there for like fifteen seconds, staring at me with what I can only describe as pure hatred. Finally, he walked away without saying another word.
"That was weird," I said.
Sarah laughed it off. "Oh, that's just Jake. He's always been dramatic."
Always been? How well did she know this barista?
Things escalated quickly after that. Jake started making our drinks wrong on purpose - gave me decaf when I ordered regular, brought Sarah oat milk when she specifically asked for almond. When she went to the bathroom, he came over to my table.
"So you're her new boyfriend?" he asked, not even trying to hide the hostility.
"We're just on a first date, man," I said, trying to keep things cool.
"Yeah, well, good luck with that," he sneered and walked away.
When Sarah came back, I decided to address the elephant in the room. "Look, I have to ask - what's the deal with Jake? He seems really upset about something."
That's when her face went completely red. "Oh... um... we used to date. But it ended like six months ago, so it's not a big deal."
Six months seemed recent, but I figured maybe she was just being honest about her past. I respected that. We tried to continue our date, but Jake was making it impossible. He kept walking by, dropping things near our table, and "accidentally" bumping into my chair.
Other customers started noticing. This older couple kept looking over at us, and I heard the woman whisper to her husband, "That poor boy has no idea what he's walked into."
Finally, Jake couldn't take it anymore. He stormed over to our table with tears in his eyes and said loud enough for the entire coffee shop to hear: "Sarah, you can't just bring guys to my workplace! We broke up last Tuesday!"
Last Tuesday. Not six months ago. Last freaking Tuesday.
The whole coffee shop went silent. Sarah's face went from red to white to red again. I just sat there, trying to process that I was apparently on a rebound date less than a week after this girl dumped her clearly devastated ex-boyfriend.
"Jake, please don't do this here," Sarah whispered.
"Don't do what? Tell him the truth? That you moved out of our apartment four days ago?"
I wanted to disappear. Every person in that coffee shop was staring at our table like we were performing some twisted reality TV show. Sarah was crying now, Jake was crying, and I was just sitting there like an idiot holding my incorrectly made latte.
I should have left right then. Any reasonable person would have excused themselves and walked out. But for some reason - maybe pity, maybe curiosity, maybe just complete social paralysis - I stayed.
We ended up leaving together and going to a nearby diner where we sat in almost complete silence for an hour, picking at pancakes while Sarah occasionally sniffled and apologized. It felt like the most awkward dinner of my life, like we should have been watching Netflix and sharing leftover Chinese food instead of pretending this was still a date.