Going on a first date and starting to have doubts

So a couple days ago I (25M) decided to spontaneously message a girl (27F) that I'm friends with on Facebook. I met her about 9 years ago, and we know a lot of the same people, but we haven't really talked much at all except for the first time we met all those years ago. I'm kind of in a weird spot, relatively fresh out of a breakup, and looking for new people to spend time with so I just decided to hit her up and see what happens.

We texted back and forth a few times and then I asked her if she wanted to do something later this week. She said yes. The thing is, I've never really been on a date before. Or whatever this is. I was in an 8 1/2 year relationship prior to this that started when I was 17 and I didn't have a car or a job then. We never really "dated" because we had been talking for like 2 months before we actually met and we were pretty much already a couple when we did first meet. So I'm completely in the dark here.

As for this new girl, I don't have a clue what I'm doing. We have a day and a time set, but no set activity. I don't want to ask her a billion questions and seem like I'm incapable of planning a date, or like I'm expecting her to make all the decisions, but we also don't know each other that well so it's tough. Dinner sounds like a good starting point, but every time I think about someplace I just imagine myself looking like a total idiot eating certain types of foods in front of her. I don't even know if this is a "date" date. Is dinner too formal?

She's also kind of hard to talk to. She's told me she's super shy, but I'm having a hard time discerning between shy and disinterested. We started talking on Facebook messenger, and she asked me if I wanted her number after a while, so I imagine she's at least a little interested, but it's just really hard for me to read her.

Basically I'm panicking. The creeping thoughts telling me that she's not super interested just make me think this is going to be a super awkward date, especially because she's shy, I'm shy, and I'm also inexperienced. I'm already nervous and it's 2 days away. I'm trying to get confident about it because I know it's going to come off bad or lame if I'm a mess about this the night of, but I'm almost at the point of cancelling just to save myself the embarrassment.

Help.

Submitted July 09, 2019 at 11:42PM

So a couple days ago I (25M) decided to spontaneously message a girl (27F) that I'm friends with on Facebook. I met her about 9 years ago, and we know a lot of the same people, but we haven't really talked much at all except for the first time we met all those years ago. I'm kind of in a weird spot, relatively fresh out of a breakup, and looking for new people to spend time with so I just decided to hit her up and see what happens.We texted back and forth a few times and then I asked her if she wanted to do something later this week. She said yes. The thing is, I've never really been on a date before. Or whatever this is. I was in an 8 1/2 year relationship prior to this that started when I was 17 and I didn't have a car or a job then. We never really "dated" because we had been talking for like 2 months before we actually met and we were pretty much already a couple when we did first meet. So I'm completely in the dark here.As for this new girl, I don't have a clue what I'm doing. We have a day and a time set, but no set activity. I don't want to ask her a billion questions and seem like I'm incapable of planning a date, or like I'm expecting her to make all the decisions, but we also don't know each other that well so it's tough. Dinner sounds like a good starting point, but every time I think about someplace I just imagine myself looking like a total idiot eating certain types of foods in front of her. I don't even know if this is a "date" date. Is dinner too formal?She's also kind of hard to talk to. She's told me she's super shy, but I'm having a hard time discerning between shy and disinterested. We started talking on Facebook messenger, and she asked me if I wanted her number after a while, so I imagine she's at least a little interested, but it's just really hard for me to read her.Basically I'm panicking. The creeping thoughts telling me that she's not super interested just make me think this is going to be a super awkward date, especially because she's shy, I'm shy, and I'm also inexperienced. I'm already nervous and it's 2 days away. I'm trying to get confident about it because I know it's going to come off bad or lame if I'm a mess about this the night of, but I'm almost at the point of cancelling just to save myself the embarrassment.Help.