Dinner with the King

Story Sent in by Margaret:

In his profile, Eric mentioned that he was "actually descended from royalty." So of course, one of my first questions to him was how he had figured that. He told me it was a tale to be told in person, so for that reason (among others) we went out on a first date.

The first thing I noticed at dinner (that I hadn't online) was that he constantly referred to himself in the third-person. "Eric's very happy to see you," he said. "Eric's ordering the Waldorf salad." "Can Eric order you some wine?"

It was unnerving, and I ultimately asked him how he was descended from royal stock.

He cleared his throat and said, "Eric is the poor Dauphin, Louis the XVII, son of Louis the XVI and Marie Antoinette, who disappeared so long ago. The rightful king of France!"

I nearly spat out my wine and asked, "That's really great. And you can quote Huckleberry Finn with such detail."

He gave me a look, then dabbed at his mouth with his napkin and said, "Would you excuse Eric for a moment?" and then left the table. My guess was that he was off to think of another wacky lie to tell me, but he never came back.