Awkward Encounters

Okay, I had a rather awkward encounter the other day that I thought I would share. I can’t call this a “funny” story, just an awkward one. For the sake of both our privacy I will not be sharing the name of the lady in this story. We’ll just call her “Mary”.

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I saw a few of Mary’s posts of a website I use a couple of weeks ago and thought they were rather witty, so I decided to reply and flirt a bit. She is not based in my area, but she travels. So I though it might be good to establish some rapport in case she should visit my town. She looked quite nice in her pictures. Our messages back and forth were nicely flirtatious and I found myself liking her quite a bit.

So a couple of days ago she tells me she’ll be visiting near me and that we should meet up. We set things up, but as I driving over to see her yesterday, she texts me to tell me there is something wrong with her hotel room and that it might take a couple of hours to get things fixed (maintenance issue), but she still wants to at least meet. We decide to meet at a Starbucks.

When I arrive I see her sitting in a corner at a pair of those good chairs they have. I walk over, say her name and tell her “I’m ValleyScott”. She gets up and hugs me. Pretty lady. But then she stares at me a bit, with an odd look on her face.

As we are chatting she keeps looking at me weird. I starting to think that I have something in my teeth. I’m getting a bit self-conscious here. Why is she looking at me funny?

Finally she asks: “Have we ever met before? You look very familiar.”

I say that I don’t think so, but in my mind there is something oddly familiar about her. More in her voice, the manner in which she talks, than her looks. But also a bit of familiarity in her rather pretty eyes. We launch into some questions, trying to see if we’ve crossed paths. Not in the CTS community. And she’s far too young to have been at school with me. So we get down to places we’ve lived. That is where the commonality is found. A city we lived. And then a church we both went to.

Oh, shit. We both figure it out at the same time.

“Mr. Scott?”

Turns out, many years ago, I was her Sunday School teacher at church. The last time I saw her she was nine! Holy crap. Now things are awkward. All of a sudden the 22 year old in front of me looks like a little girl to me.

Our conversation shifts from the hobby to how her family is doing. And how mine is. And all the life over the last 13 years. But it is forced now. I just can’t get past the idea of the little girl I once knew. She is not a woman in my mind.

And then she confesses that she can’t get past the idea of me, her teacher from church.

Thankfully we are able to get very honest with each other. There will be no session. It is just too weird for both of us. We hug good-bye and part. An awkward reunion.

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Often in our world we wonder what would happen if we end up bumping into someone we’ve met “professionally” in our regular, daily lives. How should a client act if he sees a provider he knows at the grocery store? What should a provider say if she comes face-to-face with a client where he works? These can be awkward moments, and they do happen. Usually they end up be quite uneventful as both parties have the good sense to pretend they don’t know each other.

But we don’t often think about coming across a provider or client that we already know from of personal lives. I’m guessing this is more likely for the providers. I’ve heard a few stories over the years. Some meetings have been awkward, others good. But this was very unsettling for me. Mostly, I think, due to the circumstances under which I originally knew her. It is certainly nothing I had ever expected. Honestly, I hope nothing like this ever happens again. Perhaps it was fate that there was a problem with her room that prevented us from meeting there. It would have been even more awkward if we had discovered our past association after the session.

As is, I just have to chalk this up as another odd story in the life of a hobbyist.

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