When You're Looking for Love and Life Gives You a Bag of Hammers... Look Inside the Bag

How can I get out of this gracefully? Carrie wondered. She and Max sat silently, side by side at the polished oak bar, both of them trying not to look at each other again. So this is how it ends? I was looking for love ... she stole one more secret glance at him in the mirror behind the bar... and life gave me a bag of hammers.

After months of e-mailing, then instant messaging, and eventually long, nightly phone calls, Carrie had finally agreed to meet Max face to face. But she was still not ready to let him know exactly where she lived. Instead, she drove three hours to meet him at a restaurant on the beach in his hometown. And just moments ago, they'd met for the first time.

"Carrie?" Max had asked, uncertainly. As he stared at her, he could not hide his disappointment. Carrie bore little resemblance to the outdated picture she'd sent him, though she had been honest about her age. Based on the photo, he was expecting someone leaner, with fewer lines around her eyes. For a brief second he even wondered if Carrie had sent her mother to meet him.

As for her, she knew this was Max. But he too, had sent a photo that had been collecting dust in a drawer for quite some time. Where was the youthful-sounding man she'd spent hours with on the phone? Who was this guy with the soft jaw, thick torso, and receding hairline? In his picture he looked kind of short, but in reality, he was even shorter, though still taller than Carrie.

If they hadn't been so excited about meeting, maybe their mutual disappointment wouldn't have crashed on them and been so hard to hide. As it was, they couldn't even try. Carrie wasn't much of a drinker, but at that moment, she needed one. She sat there by Max and stared into her drink, and recalled silently how all of this had started.

He loves dogs. She loves dogs. Could this be a match made in heaven?

Credit: Shylah

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