SWEET SATURDAY SAMPLES: INTERNET DATING "POST-MORTEM"-- JULY 21

Welcome to another Sweet Saturday Sample!  Curl up and enjoy!

Last week, Maeve and Martha compared notes about their Internet dating plan.  In today’s episode, excerpted from Interior Designs, the two are commiserating after the first “dates.”

“How did it go?”  Maeve’s eager question came in a voice mail message.

She was supposed to have met with someone, too.  I was very curious about it, but glancing at the time, realized she would still be at work.  Well, maybe I’d just leave her a voice mail message.  Surprisingly, though, she picked up.

“Wow!  I didn’t expect that,” I burst out.  “Aren’t you still at work?”

“Oh, yes, but I’m takin’ a break.  I’m havin’ coffee in a little diner near one of the foster homes I’m visitin’.  So…how did it go?”

“Strange,” I finally replied, after pondering the whole thing for a moment.  “It felt…awkward.  And I had this sense that he wasn’t who he said he was.  And get this!  He Googled ‘Margaret’ and outed me!”

“Oh, wow!  I hadn’t considered that possibility.  Well, now I’m wonderin’ about my ‘date.’  Which, by the way, I haven’t gone on yet.  I’ve decided to meet him tomorrow…in spite of it bein’ the weekend.  But Buzz will have the kids….”

“Hey, that just gave me an idea…since he Googled me, I should repay the favor.  But I guess if he mentioned doing that, he would be aware that I might try it…he is probably secure about what I’ll find.  So maybe the surface elements are real; that doesn’t mean he’s trustworthy, though, does it?”

I could almost see Maeve shrugging as she replied:  “We can’t be sure about anyone, can we?”

What a depressing thought!  Navigating the social scene, even in this day of the Internet, had so many layers of complexity that it boggled my mind.  “Maybe I should just forget about it,” I moaned.  I pictured myself curled up on my sofa, reading books and watching TV and movies.  Eventually I would turn into an old crone who never left the house.  I giggled at the image.

“What?”  Maeve’s chuckle reminded me that she was still there, on the other end of the phone.

“Oh, I was just visualizing me as an old crone, a hermit who never leaves the house.  That’s what my life is going to look like—I’m sure of it!”

“Well, since you do occasionally have to go to clients’ homes, I don’t foresee the ‘hermit’ thing happenin’.  So maybe your social events will keep comin’ from your client files.  Come on!  They can’t all be like Zach…murderous.”

“Okay, Maeve.  He might not even be guilty, you know.  At least not of murder.  He was definitely guilty of deceptions that left at least two women hurting—maybe more.”

“We could say the same about anyone we meet…anywhere.  Remember that old college boyfriend I had…that time that Buzz and I were takin’ a break?  Wow!  He was somethin’ for the books.  Wonder what ever happened to him?”  Maeve’s voice took on a hint of something; I couldn’t exactly describe what I heard in her voice.

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