I've had this happen on occassion, but it kinda seems sadorandomly flukey.
It could be related to needs... perhaps if the visiting sim's needs are too low... but I'm not sure. I've had this happen a few times, when going from one comm lot to a different one or trying to bring the date back home to my sim's dorm. I've had it happen where the date would get out of the taxi and then just leave by walking off the lot. No notification message, no date meter. I think once, I had a situation where only my sim got out of the taxi, and the date walked On to the lot. I think the meter showed up for a split second, and then it just ended. Again, no notification message. *shrugs*
I didn't notice any particular pattern, but then again, I didn't think to look for one at the time. However, since then, I've rebooted my game and I haven't had that problem since. If the date ever ends abruptly, it is almost always due to the date's needs being to low.
When I call them back over the date timer thing doesn't show up again.
When you 'call them back over', are you calling them via the Ask On a Date or are you just inviting them over hoping that the meter would show up again? I assume you mean that you are Asking them on another date, and they arrive but no meter is showing up. Do they still get the blue plumbob over their head? I think I had this happen once... and it took a while, but the date meter did show up eventually. It was just very strange. It was almost as if the game mixed it up with an outing just for fun. Maybe the meter from before didn't completely 'die' yet and wasn't allowing the new meter to be created?
Ste