Story Sent in by Marc:
Brianna and I had been out on two dates prior, and everything seemed nice and normal. She was in marketing for a media company, although her particular focus was magazine work. For our third date, I invited her over to my house, where I planned to cook her dinner.
Dinner went well, and I suggested that we watch a film together. She excused herself to my upstairs bathroom, and I cleaned up a bit while she was doing her business.
When she didn't return after 15 minutes, I went to check on her. The bathroom door was closed but I could see that the light was on within. I knocked and asked if she was okay. No answer. I knocked again and called her name.
"Here I am!" she said, from the direction of my bedroom.
I entered my bedroom and found her standing there, doing nothing at all. I asked her, "What's going on?"
She said, "I just… I wanted to just give myself a quick… tour. Is that okay? I'm sorry."
I replied, "Of course, that's fine. I set up a movie downstairs. Are you done in the bathroom?"
She shook her head. "No. I haven't even gone yet. I left the light on to remind me. I'll be right down. Promise."
It sounded weird to me, in retrospect, but at the time, I simply accepted it, returned downstairs, put out a bowl of M&Ms, and waited for her.
She didn't come down for another 15 minutes, and I returned upstairs, quietly. The bathroom door was closed and the light was on, but this time I slipped past it and looked into my room again.
She was on my computer. "Hey," I said, walking in, "What are you doing?"
She said, "I was just on the… Internet, I wanted to check my… mails… I'm sorry, I just got caught up with…"
I looked at my computer screen. What she had up wasn't an email client. It was a series of documents: letters I had written to various friends and former girlfriends. Some of them I hadn't opened in years, but there they were, about a dozen of them, all open.
I turned to her and asked, "Why are you going through my–"
She bolted out of the room, flew downstairs, and threw herself out of the house. I heard her car peel away.
I watched a film by myself and from then on, I've kept a closer eye on my visitors.
"It sounded weird to me, in retrospect"
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised it didn't sound weird there and then, but when you're in a situation where you want to like someone, I suppose, it makes sense. Thanks for sending this in.
Subtlety is dead.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's exactly where being a console-heavy GNU/Linux user has its advantages. Most people wouldn't know how to read the mails on my machine. ;P
ReplyDeleteAnd calling it GNU/Linux means you never have to worry about being on a date anyway, right? :D
Delete(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Am I the only guy thinking that I would have made a pass at her the first time I caught her "giving herself a tour" of the bedroom? Not the second time, of course - going through somebody else's mail; that's just CRAZY.
ReplyDeleteGood point wolfdreams01, I mean once she was in the bedroom would be a shame not to waste the op to give her the 'extended' tour...
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ReplyDeletePeople are either really naive or, as JMG comments, they are just too smitten to care..
ReplyDeleteI just can't get over the fact that OP writes his letters to friends and girlfriends on a computer, rather than by hand.
ReplyDeleteThat's not even unusual today. On the rare occasions that I write snail mail, I type it. So does virtually everyone else I know, at least under the age of 60 or so.
Delete^Sadly, if i ever needed to contact someone by snail-mail, I would probably do the same. My penmanship is atrocious, and the fact that most of the work I've done for the last five years has been on a computer hasn't done much to help that.
ReplyDelete@Kitty - a lot of people actually write long emails in Word, so that they have time to think about what they wrote and to have a backup in case the power blows or something. Nowadays most email clients will automatically save a draft, but they didn't always do that. I lost many long emails and discussion board posts that way.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I totally thought the date was going to steal something, or was looking for information to steal his identity. Wasn't expecting a mere snoop!
Well Miss Gnome, generally when a woman I'm on a date with avoids the living room in favor of the bedroom, I take a certain hint from that. ;-)
ReplyDelete