[that awkward moment-] when you see that guy you used to email until you gave some lame excuse to stop because you thought you’d never see him face-to-face.
Let this be a lesson to all of us.
Of all my friends, Melissa is one of the most supportive of my desire to end my stylishly single lifestyle [shout out to Denise for that term] and the one most actively involved in helping that happen. That being said, last year she scoured northeast Montana for available men. She passed my email onto one said man and hoped I didn’t mind.
Gustav* and I emailed back and forth for a short while. But I didn’t have a clue about what I was doing. I didn’t know what could ever come of it. He lived in Montana; I live in Minnesota. There were a few other quirky things that I probably should have just let go of and not factored into my decision. [I mean, Jef with one F from last season of the Bachelorette proved that adult men who skateboard can be cool.] I didn’t want to lead him on or anything. Admittedly, I was probably not the most concise or polite person when it came to that last email.
I’d nearly completely forgotten about Gustav with one V until I was on the train to Montana and I told Paige about it. And then it all came screeching back again when we walked into church on Sunday morning. There was a gentleman in the front row that could possibly be familiar to the photos we’d exchanged.
Shit. Could it be?
We sat down across the aisle. I leaned over to Melissa. “Remember when I emailed that guy?” There was a slight pause, she smirked, and said, “Yeah. Gustav. He’s sitting right there.“
Double shit.
Who knows if he even remembered that one friend of his pastor’s with whom he shared his passion for skateboarding so many months ago? That pastor from MN who now feels guilty and shallow and mean about how she may have acted a year and a half ago. To his credit, he seemed very polite and nice and crossed the aisle to share the peace with us. He was wearing shorts in the middle of winter but I can’t dock him for that; I knew another great man who did the same.
* name has been changed.
there's no place like gnome. 
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