If you pay on the first date, you've set the expectation to pay for all subsequent dates and for nearly everything else ever after (cab fares, meals, drinks, cover charges, the morning after pill). Now she views you as an ATM machine and fast becomes a strain. The "...does she expect to start splitting bills yet?" dance must be had at some point anyway....might as well cut through the bullshit and cleverly work it right the first time because the further down the road you go it's much more awkward (and how soon is too soon or too late, the second, third date?). One exception: I always pay for drinks at the bar. But strictly out of convenience for myself. While we're on the topic; I never set-up "first dates" as "first dates" in the formal sense, where I show up at her residence on my stalion, white-gloved with bouquet and corsage in hand (figuratively-speaking, of course). If you set-up first date's with a bunch of pretense (literal or figurative) then you had better pay, without question.
