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Matt met Suzy at the Barnes & Noble on Union Square North. It was the first time he’d set up an Internet date. They hadn’t exchanged photos online, but they managed to find one another. Matt bought coffee for them both — these were the days before the latté — and they talked about books. She had been an English major in college, as had he, and he was talking to her about Bierce’s The Ox-Bow Incident, which he had only recently read for the first time. When it came time for Matt to leave, he asked Suzy for her phone number and whether he could call her, and she said yes and gave him her number. Matt called a few days later, only to be told by Suzy that she wasn’t interested in seeing him again. Then why did you give me your phone number? he asked her. She said it was to be polite. Better you’d have been honest, Matt said. That would have been polite. She hung up on him.

About the Author
Marco Kaufman has published in several different fields, including literary criticism, medical writing, and Holocaust historicism and currently writes on The Big Book of Grievances, his weblog of short fiction, flash fiction, and works in progress.

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