She is dressed in a borderline way that leaves her precariously balanced on the thin line between being fashionable and being a cougar. The leopard-skin mock-fur coat seems to be causing her to sway towards the cougar side. Almost immediately her perfume begins to distress me. It has a dry, unhappy smell that makes me think of mothballs and formaldehyde. I experienced phantom scent flashbacks of it all the next day. It wasn't good.
One of the reasons I like Chapters for a first meeting kind of date is that in wandering around looking at books, you are not only presented with a lot of topics for conversation, but you are also given some good clues as to what a person is all about. Tawny steers us directly to the Catholicism section so that she can shop for a new bible. I am somewhat concerned and alarmed by her pointed interest in religion, and I'm confused as to why she would need a new bible. She points out that hers is hard to understand. I enquire as to whether they make an E-Z Reading version of the bible and she seems flustered. It turns out that they do. There is The Bible for Dummies, the Idiot's Guide to Spirituality and, my personal favourite, Dan and Stan's guide to the Bible. I heartily recommend that she buy Dan and Stan's book and she strongly considers it. Eventually she chooses a book on healing through prayer. I don't ask exactly what sort of injuries she is trying to heal, but she seems compelled to tell me anyway. As we roam the store she talks about her past relationships. There have only been three, really. The first boyfriend died in a plane crash early in the going. It happened while she was (ready for this?) in the army. She was supposed to be on that plane but she couldn't go so she gave the seat to her boyfriend who then died in the resulting crash. I can tell she expects me to be stunned and horrified at this obviously scarring brush with mortality. I can also tell that she's a little disconcerted that I am patently not stunned or horrified - you didn't get on the plane, you didn't die, so you're fine. Sorry about your boyfriend. How's your coffee? After a half hour of discussing her other two boyfriends she tells me that she has recently learned that when a guy talks about his ex's it means that he's not over them. She looks at me knowingly as she makes her point. I smile and nod. Then I go home, babbling incoherently about talking to her sometime after I get back into town. So I'm feeling satisfied - it turned out that there was something of a monster under the stairs, but I'm none the worse for wear. I relay the evening's events to my friend Casper and I'm pleased to discover that on that same night he was facing his own set of dating difficulties. |
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