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He Gets An "A" For Effort

He is about my age, with longish black hair. Walking towards us on the sidewalk, he looks at me with wide, concerned eyes.

“Why are you walking on this sidewalk in barefeet?”

I smile and hold up the sandals in my hand.

“My sandals broke.”

“But there are people's... around here. There's...”

“It's okay,” I shrug, “I don't have much choice. It's not so bad. And I'm trying to watch where I step.” I smile again, trying to appease his concern.

“Do you want mine?”

I look down at his sandals, then back up at him. He is earnest, still a little wide-eyed.
I chuckle.

“Thank you, but I'm okay.”

“What's your name?” he asks.

“I'm Beth,” I answer.

“I'm Devin!” my friend pipes up.

“Hi Beth. Hi Devin. I'm Paolo.” He turns back to me, “You're very pretty.”

“Ah, thank you...” I say uncertainly.

There is the briefest of pauses, his head tilted slightly to the side.

“Would you consider yourself a very spiritual person?” he asks.

“Ah, yes...yeah, I'm a pretty spiritual person.” I wonder where this is going.

“Would you like to go out for drinks with me sometime?”

Oh. That's where this is going.

“Ah, thanks, but no thank you.”

I turn to go, “Have a good day, though.”


Honestly, though. He gets an A+ for being kind, direct, and gracious when I turned him down.
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Comments

  1. Laura J2:11 AM

    good grief you should have said 'yes'!!!! unbelievable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jess Versteeg11:12 AM

    I AGREE WITH LAURA. He actually took the time to ask if you're spiritual. Holy cow, Bethhhhh!

    But I probably would have also said no. And then later regretted it because it could have been a little adventure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jess Versteeg11:12 AM

    I AGREE WITH LAURA. He actually took the time to ask if you're spiritual. Holy cow, Bethhhhh!

    But I probably would have also said no. And then later regretted it because it could have been a little adventure.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Margie Becker 1:37 PM

    Oh Beth! What a story! ...even if you only ever stayed friends...you could still have such a great story of how you met!If you bump into him again on the street, I so go for it!

    That being said... I relent... you are much more wise than me. Maybe he was a crazy and you just dodged a bullet...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Margie Becker 1:38 PM

    PS... This is Margie :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stephen8:41 PM

    I'm baffled as to why going for drinks is a bad thing??

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beth11:42 AM

    stephen - it's not inherently, although you may recall that i got myself a bit of a stalker in university by being friendly to a man on the street... since then, as a general principle i avoid encouraging attention from strangers. also, i wasn't attracted to this guy...so it wasn't going to go anywhere.

    ReplyDelete

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