He Was an Hour-and-a-Half Late to Their First Date. 12 Years Later, They're Happily Married (Exclusive)

One woman is sharing the story of her less-than-perfect first date with her now-husband.

In a video posted on TikTok in December, Carla Soriano used the popular Pepe the King Prawn meme format to detail a particularly bad first date. After being promised by many in her friend group that she and a new guy would be “perfect” for each other, Soriano detailed how her date was almost an hour-and-a-half late — and showed up without a plan for what they would do together. He then had her pay for their food while he paid for his own ice cream ... and left her to pay for hers.

At the end of the slideshow detailing this disaster date, Soriano revealed that man is now her husband, 12 years later.

“I think the best part that came out of that video is just more room for him to get a better redemption arc,” Soriano tells PEOPLE exclusively. She and her husband, Aaron Wijesinghe, are now happily married with a child and dog together, and though their first date was far from picture-perfect, the pair happily joke about it now.

“It took a long time for me to be like, fine, I'll give him another go,” Soriano says. “But my standards for the second date — I was like, if he steps out of line at all on the second date, I'm done. I'm calling him quits after. I'm not even gonna wait like five minutes on him.”

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The pair had been in the same friend group for months before going on their first date, and Soriano recounts how her friends “couldn’t believe” their disastrous first date together. But after some convincing, they went on that second date.

“I had mentioned to him in passing what my favorite restaurant was, and I didn't know that he was going to remember it because it wasn't even in his area or anything. But he surprised me by making a booking for the restaurant,” Soriano says.

Though she knows that making a reservation is the bare minimum for most people, she notes that they were each only 18 at the time and attending college, making it a step up from other dates friends were having at her age. Soriano also added some extra stakes to this do-over date by leaving her wallet at home.

“He requested a specific table, like a nice table,” she remembers. “I was like, oh, this is already so different … It took me by surprise because I was like, I didn't know you were capable of actually planning a date.”

“That first date was very uncharacteristic of me,” Wijesinghe admits. “In hindsight, it was a reflection of my inexperience. This was like my first proper date not really knowing how to play things.”

“At the time I was a pretty broke uni student. I didn't have much money, and when you couple that with not knowing how to do things, it just led to a disaster area,” he continues. “But look, I learned very quickly. And I guess the rest was history.”

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“I wanted [the second date to be] low-key because I didn’t even know if anything's gonna progress with you,” Soriano says, with Wijesinghe sitting next to her. “After the date, we just strolled and it wasn't overly grand, but it was enough to be like, all right, this guy has capacity to change.”

The pair proceeded to date for eight years, and though Soriano admits it took her some time to decide she wanted to marry him — calling it a “very slow burn” — Wijesinghe says he knew within the first couple of months of dating that she was the one.

“I remember for me it was just one day it sort of clicked and I was like, oh yeah, look, this is my person,” he says.

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As for the viral video, Soriano admits she was incredibly nervous when it started to gain traction online. At the time of writing, the video currently has 17.5 million views and 1.7 million likes. The comments on the video immediately questioned why Soriano would continue to date Wijesinghe, but he remains unfazed by the Internet’s opinion of his first date fumble.

“He was having a laugh at the comments,” Soriano says. “Meanwhile, I'm in the background freaking out. Panicking. I was like, ‘They think I'm stupid. They think you're terrible. They dunno us at all.’ “

But in the end, they still got their happily ever after. Wijesinghe jokes that he needed time to save up for the “big ring” Soriano wanted, which was why it took them a bit to get engaged.

“I had to work hard and get promoted,” Wijesinghe says with a laugh. “But we got there.”

“I suppose I needed eight years anyway to be [ready],” Soriano jokes. “After that [first] date.”

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