Twisted Sister

Submitted by Danny:

I found a girl on a dating site, Tricia, who seemed genuinely shocked that I had messaged her in the first place.  I think that one of her first messages had a line in it like, "I can't believe that you'd message me.  My older sister's on this site, too, and she gets all the messages.  I'm lucky to get one in a week!"

I'm not sure why, looking back, but I mistook self-deprication for charm, and kept pursuing her.  She'd slip in little things like, "My sister is a lawyer, and she has two master's degrees," out of nowhere, making me wonder if she thought that talking up her sister would make herself more attractive. 

Tricia, at one point, asked me if I'd find her more attractive if she weighed less than 130 pounds, because her sister weighed less than 130 pounds.  I said something like, "I'm into you.  Not your sister.  Can we stop talking about her?"

She informed me that she liked talking about her sister, that she was proud of her, etc.  In the time leading up to our date, I just essentially ignored it when she brought something up about her amazing sister.

On the night of our date, I half-expected Tricia's sister to show up instead of Tricia, but Tricia was good enough to be there herself.

Of course, the girl was in rare form, injecting anecdotes about her sister whenever she could.  I had promised myself that I wouldn't fly off the handle or even acknowledge it.  She'd mention her sister, I'd smile or nod and then bring up something totally unrelated.  I could tell that this was frustrating her, but she was obviously playing some sort of game, and I wasn't about to join in.

Finally, she said, "Do you know of anyone who'd be interested in my sister?"

Jokingly, I said, "Yeah.  You.  You never stop talking about her.  I feel like I know more about her than I do about you."

She smirked, as if she had a joke that she couldn't wait to tell me.  She did: "I don't have a sister."

It took me a moment or two to ingest what she had said.  After some time in silence, I asked her what she was playing at.

She said, "I just wanted to see if you'd believe me, and you know, also to see if you'd be more attracted to her than to me."

So it was all just a game after all.  I don't like playing games, and I told Tricia then and there that I would've been interested in her if she didn't run me through all of that "sister" nonsense.

As things were, however, I told her that I probably wouldn't be interested in seeing her again.  She looked as if she was going to cry, but she held it in.  Dinner came to a fast close, and that was the end of that.