Every time someone new asks me how to start, they expect a technique. There isn’t one, but there is a pattern in what stalls.
Opening with a label tends to go nowhere. “You are my girlfriend” or “you are a pirate captain” gives the character a costume and no scene. The reply comes back agreeable and empty, and then you are staring at a text box wondering what the fuss is about.
Opening with a moment works better. You are both waiting for a delayed train. It is late and neither of you can sleep. You just got back from something that went badly. It is nothing clever, it just hands the thing something to react to.
The other half of it is expectation. The first evening is usually the best one for the wrong reasons: everything is new, so anything reads as impressive. The honest test is whether you still want to open it on a Tuesday three weeks later. That is the thing worth paying attention to, and it is why our rankings lean on longer testing rather than first impressions.
So: what did you actually type first, and did it go anywhere?