I’m not proud of the story that is to follow, but if it helps one person avoid a similar downward spiral, then I will take one for the team and throw myself into the flames. Either that or it’s just good for me to laugh at some of the stupid things I’ve done. Whichever…
During a Lifetime holiday movie binge one afternoon, something caused me to remember a guy I went out with once. I hadn’t thought about him in years. We met online (yes, it was through one of the best Christian dating sites that SingleRoots has reviewed) and after several phone conversations, we went on a date.
As I pondered our short time together, I recalled that we had an enjoyable evening and good conversation. I also remembered the reasons I turned down his request for a second date. He was a great guy; he just wasn’t the guy for me.
However, sitting alone with the glow of the Christmas tree lights on my television screen, I couldn’t be content with simply moving on from the memory. Instead, my mind wandered into that dangerous territory of love and the holidays and “what might’ve been.” Suddenly I found myself with a raging need to find out what had become of him.
So, I reached for my laptop.
His name was unique so I figured finding him Facebook should not be a problem. I could probably discover all I needed to know on Facebook without the help of Google. Except, it looked like he’d all but abandoned his Facebook account. The name was there, but not even a profile pic of his dog.
I could’ve stopped at that point but, let’s be honest, I was a girl on a mission. After all, the number of people who don’t update Facebook regularly is far less than those who do. Was he too holy for Facebook now? Had something happened to him? Was he…dead?
I switched to Google. I knew enough about his life to know he maintained a web presence. A quick scan of the search returns netted me some new information about him, but nothing that would answer any personal questions—namely, the question of his current marital status. I just needed to know.
And then I found his Twitter account.
It had an odd cartoon character profile picture that I couldn’t quite discern because it was so small, but that didn’t matter to me. He had recent activity. Jackpot. As I skimmed the tweets, I decided he must’ve been one of “those people” who quit Facebook for Twitter because clearly he was using this particular social media outlet.
As I scanned, I found words and phrases like, “one to two” and “update” along with a broken link to a blog post, but that was it. There really wasn’t any other information to go on. I cursed the type of person who wouldn’t put all his business out there on the Internet for my permissive eavesdropping.
I was about to call it quits and move on, but something told me to look at that cartoon profile picture again. It looked weird. Like maybe it wasn’t a cartoon after all. But what was it?
Were there two objects there? Were they made of clay? Or was it…fondant?
For. The. Love.
It was a cake topper. The bride was on the left and groom was on the right. And just in case my crazed mind caused me to wonder if it was some sort of brother/sister birthday cake art, the groom had a bright gold band on the ring finger of his left hand.
I closed my laptop, patted myself on the back for my stealth Internet skills, and considered a lucrative career teaching the dating public how to conduct online “research.” And, if I’m being honest, I might’ve paused at the fact that he’s married and I’m not. And by paused, I might mean that I yelled, “Shut up!” at the computer screen.
Okay, so it wasn’t my finest moment. I’ll give you that. And I don’t condone it as a way of life. But surely I’m not the only one to have ever conducted some sort of Internet eavesdropping…
Am I?
*Photo credit: CorieHowell
