That's Where We Don't Want to Go

Story Sent in by Ben:

Rachel and I met over a dating site and spoke back and forth for a good month before meeting in person. She worked in a small tech company's operations department, and she had said for weeks that it was a "busy time of year," and that she was "too involved at work to meet up any sooner."

I took her word for it, and our messages were generally positive and complimentary. It wasn't until shortly before our date that she added me as a friend on Facebook. I looked at her tagged photos and saw that she had seemingly been in the Florida Keys for two weeks out of the four or so that we had been talking.

Far from working, there were dated photos of her on the beach, in lounge chairs, and surfing. I'm sure that she felt that she had a good reason for lying to me about why she couldn't meet up, but I couldn't figure out why she just couldn't say, "I'm on vacation in the Florida Keys and can meet up upon my return."

I didn't mention anything to her by email, but at dinner, I asked her, "How was your vacation?"

She replied, "What vacation?"

I said, "To the Florida Keys. Looks like you had a great time."

She said, "I didn't go to the Florida Keys. I've never been there."

"But there were photos of you there. I can probably pull them up on my phone." She didn't say anything, and I did indeed load up the photos in which she was very clearly tagged and very clearly appearing, unless she had a clone.

She glanced at them and said, "Those aren't me. I've never seen those before."

"But they're on your profile. You're tagged."

"It must be someone else's profile."

"But it's on yours. Let me show you–"

"They're not on my profile!" she barked, and I jumped in my seat. She went on, "Those aren't pictures of me, I've never been to the Florida Keys, and I'm sick of talking about it. Change of subject."

"But why would you lie to me? I wouldn't care if you were in the Keys. You told me that you were busy at work for the past four weeks."

"I was busy at work. Change of subject."

"But these pictures are of you!"

"Change of subject!"

I remained silent after that. The waiter came by and we ordered our food. Rachel finally asked me, "What were you doing trying to snoop through my photos? They were none of your business."

"You added me as a friend. You never told me not to look at anything, and you had photos up. If you didn't want me to see photos of you on vacation, then you shouldn't have added me."

"I've never been on vacation! Change of subject!" she shouted again.

I called the waiter over, asked for the check, and I told her, "We're splitting this."

"Fine with me."

As soon as I put down my money, I left and went home. By the next morning, I could no longer access her profile.