He brought the photo frame as identification

The man who arrived for our date looked nothing like his profile. I know photos can be misleading, but this was a different cast. When I asked, he pulled a small picture frame from his bag. Inside was the guy from the app. “That came with the frame,” he explained. “I own it.” He believed buying a sample photo at a home decor store entitled him to use the man's face as his dating profile. Not legally, he clarified. “Romantically.” I said I was a woman looking for an honest introduction, not a discussion of frame ownership. He insisted the picture represented his aesthetic and placed it between our coffees so I could “ease into the transition.” Then he turned the frame around. He'd written his hobbies on the back. One was authenticity. I left before ordering food. He called after me to ask whether the date would have gone better if he'd used a more recent picture. Of the stranger. He meant a more recent picture of the stranger.