“Oh, good Lord! That cannot possibly be the man I am meeting tonight,” I exclaimed out loud to no one in particular.
“Excuse me,” I said to the waiter passing by, ““Is that portly man, and I am being kind, mind you, waiting for anyone in particular?”
Before the waiter could answer, the man in question turned towards me with a wide smile, “Hello Sadie, I am so glad to see you!”
“Are you Dave?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes, I am,” he answered with a smile, and a bit of a mischievous twinkle in his eye, I might add.
I could only manage a whimper as I walked towards him. Before I even sat down I ordered a Gray Goose martini, extra dry from the bartender. If this was a joke, I was not amused, and if it was for real, I needed fortification, and quickly.
“Hello, Dave. Have you been waiting long?” I asked as I put my hand out in greeting.
“Not long at all. You look lovely,” was his reply.
We chatted about nothing much at all as I settled in and anxiously awaited the arrival of my martini. Now, I am not usually a heavy drinker. Generally, I enjoy lingering over a lovely red wine. However, I was not prepared for the scene that was unfolding, and I just needed to relax quickly, or else I was bound to just turn around and walk right out. I was here to meet the handsome man from Match.com whom I had been emailing and talking to for the past couple of weeks. The only problem is that the man before me and the picture of the man I was expecting to see were so completely different. So, to be fair, I was in a bit of shock.
“Here, you go miss,” said the waiter as he placed my drink before me. “Thank heavens,” I said as I held my glass to Dave’s, and swallowed a large sip of icy comfort.
“Who are you?” I finally blurted out. “Was the real Dave unable to make it tonight and sent you in his place instead? Because you most certainly are not the man in the profile of whom I’ve been communicating with.”
“I assure you that I am the man that you have been talking with and swapping emails. I am the man that had you laughing till you cried. Don’t you recognize my voice?” he asked.
To which I responded, “I am still in shock over your dishonesty to notice your voice. Why would you do such a creepy thing?” I wanted to know. Tactfulness is not one of my top 10 qualities.
“If I had posted my real picture, would you have even given me the time of day, Sadie?” he asked.
“Probably not,” was my honest reply.
“My point. Think about the past couple of weeks and how enjoyable our conversations have been. You would not have experienced that if you’d cheated yourself because of how I looked. Are you really that shallow?” he asked me pointedly.
“I am not shallow at all, and I am also not a liar. What you did is wrong. If you were capable of this deceit, what else would you do? How do you expect to enter into any relationship starting out on that foot?’ I replied.
“Well, first of all, we are just meeting for a meal, and we’ve had a few engaging conversations. So I thought we’d have a few laughs over dinner. What’s the worst thing that we don’t hit it off? So we both had a social evening, and we go our separate ways. There is the possibility that we will enjoy tonight so much, we’ll want to see each other again. So, what is so wrong that?”
OK READERS. LET ME HEAR FROM YOU. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION? IS WHAT DAVE DID WRONG? SHOULD SADIE LET IT GO SINCE SHE OBVIOUSLY ENJOYED HIS COMPANY THINKING HE LOOKED DIFFERENTLY? HAVE YOU HAD THIS EXPERIENCE? I’D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT IT.
Sadie Jackson, a fictional heroine, is back on the dating scene for the third time. After two trial marriages, she is bound and determined to get it right. She can be nauseatingly optimistic and enjoys recounting her dating experiences with humor and compassion. Follow her dating escapades in this work of fiction. You can find more Sadie, by
clicking here.