After a long period of singlehood, I let a friend talk me into trying online dating (for the sake of not getting hate mail I’ll withhold the actual name of the site). After a number of strange men sent me emails with pictures of varying levels of nudity I actually met someone that wasn’t frighteningly weird. We met at a Barnes and Noble and talked about our mutual love for sci-fi for more than two hours. It was wonderful. I wasn’t afraid to be my usual nerdy self with this man and it was wonderful. As a black woman, I find I have to hide parts of myself to fit in with my ethnic peers. To find someone that didn’t seem to need that fakeness to be okay with me – very nice thing! He was tall and muscular, with closely cut salt and pepper hair due to early graying. He had a big smile that seemed to shine even on bad days and bad weather. His soft touch and careful view on life always made me feel protected – and I could lose myself in his eyes for days on end.
And our relationship grew slowly and happily. He was everything I wasn’t and we had all the right things in common He’s frugal where I am a huge spendthrift, but he never made me feel silly or superficial. He’s quiet and unassuming where I tend to be loud and he could instantly calm me down when something set me off without making me feel belittled or crazy. We could talk about things for hours and even have a happy disagreement.
Too bad he was actually a snake…
