Now You Know

Submitted by Paul:

I met Mari at a tag sale that she was running.  We spent over an hour talking, and she gave me her number.  I bought a couple of books, because I would've felt weird if I didn't purchase anything.  It was a tag sale, after all.

I called her a day or so later to arrange a date.  She said that she was too busy for the following three weeks to do anything.  I guessed that it might have been her way of blowing me off, so I asked her to let me know if a time opened up in her schedule.

Despite not meeting up, we stayed in pretty constant contact.  She'd call me or I'd call her and we'd talk regularly, sometimes for over an hour at a time.  It was nice thing to look forward to, most days.

It started sounding a little red-flag when she said that she wasn't in touch with any of her former boyfriends.  "They just block me out of their lives.  I have no idea why," she said.

At the time, I replied, "That's terrible," but I couldn't help thinking, "Why?"

After a couple of weeks of conversation, she wrote me an e-mail about a funny work incident that happened to her that day.  I read it, chuckled, and went on with my business for the day.

Shortly afterward, she called.  It was polite and civil for a few moments.  She asked me if I had read her message, and I told her that I had, and that it was funny.

Then she asked, "Can you meet up tonight?  I want to talk to you about something."

I was thrilled that she had an opening in her schedule, but it seemed pretty abrupt.  I asked her if everything was okay, and all that she said was that she had to talk to me about something.  I asked her for more details, but it seemed to upset her.  We made hasty plans and ended the conversation.

The front of the local library was where we had chosen to meet.  It was right by the downtown area, and though I was nervous about the sudden nature of our meeting, I was looking forward to dinner and a date.

She stormed down the sidewalk at me, pointed a finger in my face, and said, "We need to talk."

I said, "Okay.  Should we sit down somewhere?"

"No, we'll do this right here," she said, "You didn't even read the e-mail I sent you, did you?"

I said that I did, and even volunteered specific details from it.

She shook her head and said, "No, no, that's not what I wrote.  Okay, you obviously didn't read it."

I pulled out my phone, which has access to my e-mail, and I said, "I can prove it.  But I don't see what the big deal is."

She made a grab for my phone, but I backed away.

"Back off, psycho!" I yelled, perhaps a bit too harshly and too loud, but what the hell was she thinking?

"You're a monster!  You're a beast!" she screamed.

I pulled up her e-mail.  "Here!" I yelled, "Here!  Exactly what I said!  Exactly what I said!  See?  See?"

She started crying and begged me to stop.  "Never contact me," was the last thing I said to her, as I walked into the downtown area, in case she had it in mind to follow me back to my car.