We’ve heard it all our lives. From dating experts, magazines and our own grandmas: If you sleep with a guy on a first date, he’ll never want a serious relationship with you. Men love the chase, these dating oracles claim. Boys lose interest in girls they win too easily, they warn. And, they insist, men won’t buy the cow when they’re getting the Soy Joy for free.

But guess what? Those authors, dating experts and even sweet old Gram may have had our best interests at heart, but they’ve been spreading vicious lies.

BettyConfidential asked men around the country what they really think about first-date sex. The truth? They love it! (Big shocker, we know.) More surprisingly, none of the men said first-date sex would stop them from having a serious relationship with a woman. In fact, nearly every guy we spoke to said he’d had at least one long-term relationship with a woman he slept with on a first date.

Now, we’re not suggesting you run out and bang the first guy in line at Starbucks this morning. (Unless that’s your cup of joe.) But if you hit it off the first night with some lucky guy, don’t feel bad if your goodnight kiss melts into a morning-after smooch. (Just remember your safety gear if you plan on stealing home base.)

Read 5 Biggest First-Time Sex Mistakes

Yes, there will always be a few unscrupulous fellows who love you and leave you. But at least you’ll know up front they’re not worth your time – or your thousand thread-count sheets. Most men, however, say that when they really like a girl, first-date sex certainly isn’t going to taint their feelings for her. Quite the contrary, in fact…

Men Hate the Game, Not the Player
“It’s practically a prerequisite for dating me,” a 31-year-old engineer from Boston tells BettyConfidential. “I don’t want to date a girl who’s prudish or plays games – unless they’re the kinky kind.” He says he’s had two relationships resulting from first-date sex. One lasting six months, the other lasted two years. He says he usually finds women who don’t have sex on the first or second date “borrrring.”

A 26-year-old actor from Los Angeles says he never judges his dates based on the timing of their first sleepover. “I had sex on the first date with a girl and it turned into a two-year live-in relationship,” he explains. “It led me to believe that it’s more about the chemistry between people than following The Rules.”