Margaret: “So, how do you know Gary?”
Me: “Um, we’ve exchanged a couple of emails and I’ve, uh, looked at pictures he’s taken on flickr.”
Baffled silence. Then, “I literally cannot image going on a vacation with someone I haven’t met. How do you know you’ll get along?”
“Oh, it’s obvious.”
“How do you know he’s not an axe murderer?”*
“He’s not an axe murderer.” I pretend this is an answer to the question. “He’s a friend of Cass.”
She gets that look that indicates she’s winning a debate. “How do you know Cass?”
“We’ve been writing back and forth for years. He scouted the racecourse that I did in India back when. And he was with us when I went riding with Lael and Nick. You know those guys.”
She shakes her head.
* * *
We’re sitting at camp. Cass says, “Nancy was making fun of me for internet bike dating.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, that’s what she calls it when you know someone only on the internet and then you plan a biking trip with them and go on it.”
“Coady was teasing me for that, too. She wondered if Gary was an axe murder.”
Gary laughs. We all shake our heads.
*Of course she didn’t actually say this cliché. It’s a metaphorical placeholder.
hilarious. i’ve had the exact same conversation around a campfire with a guy before.
Or…you’re all axe murderers, off doing what you do…
Very cute! But, I don’t usually bring out the axe until the second date….
Ha ha – too funny! I’m currently in an online bromance with a fella name Scott. We’re hoping to consummate the relationship this June. There was one point in the email exchange he was clearly asking if I was an axe murderer and, like all clever axe murders, I assured him I was not! Let the murderous rampage begin!
Whenever I would go hiking in a nearby state forest I would always bring my axe along to clear smaller trees off of the trails for the mountain bikers/hikers. Sufficed to say, this would always freak people out when they’d go hiking with me or run into me on the trail. Oh well…