The first meal that the characters Kevin and Dana from Kindred by Octavia Butler share is at lunch after meeting at work. At that point, they are both writers in Los Angeles, but he is more successful and has sold a novel. She meets him at work, the warehouse, and he has more personal wealth than her since he works full-time but has money from writing as well.

While at work, Kevin realizes his coworker Dana isn't eating because she doesn't have enough money to eat lunch. He buys her lunch, and then they talk in a pleasant way that indicates an intimacy. They both have problems in their families and feel comfortable talking to one another. Neither of them mention any romantic or sexual possibility, but at one point, because she is black and he is white, someone at the warehouse makes a comment about them being a couple (and their status as a couple being interracial).

This lunch, which is told in great detail, could be considered the first date. But the first date they have beyond lunch at work, which continues into other lunches after this first one, is when Kevin asks Dana to go to a play with him and she says yes.