The answers came:
He preferred emotional expressiveness to emotional stability. He preferred casual dress to the latest style. She was bipolar, she dressed in jeans or leggings with t-shirts or sweatshirts with environmental messages on them. He preferred her. She could tell. He didn’t care about pornography either way. She wasn’t into pornography, but some of her music came from CD’s that had warnings of explicit language on them. Freedom of expression was important to her. He wanted a long term relationship or marriage, as did she.
He was the first match on this dating site to answer these questions to her satisfaction. She liked his picture, too. The dating site gave long questionnaires before introducing possible matches. These questions were about details that she could ask of the matches given of prospective romantic partners.
He hadn’t had a lot of luck with women he met in bars or on the more popular dating sites, but she answered him quickly. Her picture was beautiful. He thought there would be many steps to go through before they would contact each other outside of the dating site, but she wanted to go on a motorcycle trip through New England mountains that summer. It was already March. He checked to see that the picture he had uploaded really looked like himself. It did. They exchanged phone numbers and he called her.
“I’m in the Dakotas, and you’re in Mississippi. Would New England be the most logical place to have a motorcycle ride? You’ll have to take your motorcycle up there by yourself.”
“New England is beautiful in the summer. Where would you prefer to go?”
“I don’t know. Could you send me a map of where you would like to go together? I could make arrangements for rooms.”
“Rooms? We’ll sleep in the great outdoors. I’ll bring two separate sleeping bags.”
“We should have hotel rooms reserved, especially in case of rainy weather. I’ll book two separate rooms. That isn’t a problem.”
“How can we know where we want to go until we get there? I have a tarp with rope to shelter us from rain.”
“I knew I wanted adventure when I answered your questions, but I usually plan everything I’m going to do in detail.”
He had hoped they would recognize each other at the airport. When he left the security part of the airport, he recognized her. He would have recognized her even if she didn’t have a piece of cardboard stating “Natalie for Marlowe.” Natalie was even prettier than he had thought from her picture. She didn’t seem at all disappointed when he approached her.
“Hi! I’m Marlowe. You made it here with your motorcycle and yet you look fresh and lovely.”
Natalie giggled. “Thank you, but I don’t respond well to flattery. Maybe we should go somewhere for lunch before we head to the mountains of Vermont.”
Marlowe made eye contact. “Do you have someplace in mind?”
Natalie smiled at him. “I saw a pub that serves pizza.”
Marlowe took the cardboard from her and held her hand as they turned to walk out the sliding doors. “You’ll be driving the motorcycle, though.”
Natalie led him toward the parking area where she had left her motorcycle.“I’m not a drinker, actually, but I like the ambiance of pubs. I’ll just have soda.”
Marlowe tossed the cardboard into a trash can. “That sounds good, then.”
They were the only customers in the pub. They ordered a large cheese pizza and sodas.
“We don’t need straws,” Natalie said to the waiter.
She looked across to Marlowe. “Plastic straws are bad for the environment and turtles choke on them.”
Marlowe took a sip of his cola. “I see the environment is important to you.”
Natalie looked at him with wide eyes. “How could it not be? If we destroy it, we can’t live. So many animals are already going extinct.”
Marlowe nodded slightly.“I never thought of it that way.”
Marlowe got something out of his backpack. “This is for you. I’ve been looking forward to this trip ever since you first suggested it. Our email exchange since then has meant a lot to me. I feel we could be soul mates.”
Natalie took the small, wrapped box tied with ribbon. “Oh, I wasn’t expecting a gift.”
She opened the box. Inside it she found a gold necklace with a heart shaped locket.
Marlowe said, “It’s an old fashioned idea, but open the locket.”
Natalie opened the locket. There was a small picture of Marlowe inside. She squealed. “We are right for each other! I knew it when you answered the questions through the dating site. It is beautiful, not dated at all.”
She put it on her neck. “It’s love already, isn’t it?”
Marlowe reached out and took Natalie’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Yes, I think I’m falling in love with you.”
The waitress brought the pizza out.
Natalie said, “I’m so excited, I don’t know if I can eat. I’ve never felt like this before. It’s all so good.”
Marlowe smiled widely. “Don’t rush with the pizza. It’s better to let it cool first, so you don’t burn your mouth. This is all new for me, too. I’ve never been in love before. I’ve never been so adventurous.”
Natalie smiled. “I’m glad it’s love.”
Then she looked down and bit her lip. Natalie wondered if he would still love her if he knew she was bipolar and worked two jobs, one as an associate for a discount department store, and the other going door to door to raise money for a national environmental organization. She felt like she was going into a funk. Would he be understanding? He loves the cheerful part of her personality. Now seemed like the time to open up about those things, before it felt like he was falling for someone she wasn’t.
Marlowe looked at her and wondered if love was a loaded word and if she was thinking of a previous romance that broke her heart. He then thought she might turn away from him when she found out how he made his money. He loved her idealism. She might accept that was how he made his living if he told her he had already quit, having saved enough and then some to support him while he got a degree in nursing. He had always thought of himself as brave, but getting into a relationship and being open about himself was scary.
They each quietly took pieces of the pizza and ate slowly. The waitress refilled their sodas.
Marlowe looked across at Natalie. “You’re crying. Why? Did I stir some bad memories?”
Natalie shook her head and wiped her eyes and nose with a paper napking. “No. I’m just afraid that if you knew everything, you wouldn’t feel the same way about me.”
Marlowe grimaced. “What could make me feel different about you? Are you a serial killer or something?”
Natalie chuckled and then sniffed. “I’m treated for bipolar disorder, and I’m not a career woman. I’m an associate at a discount department store in the morning, and I raise funds, door to door, for an environmental organization in the afternoon to evening hours. I got this t-shirt for meeting a fundraising goal.”
Marlowe shook his head. “I love your personality. A mental health diagnosis doesn’t change that. I respect that you work hard for a living. Is that better?”
Natalie smiled widely so that her eyes crinkled and nodded vigorously. “That makes everything good for me.”
Marlowe grinned. “I’m glad that you are eating. It will be a bit of a drive to get to the woods of Vermont. I arranged for us to stay at a nice bed and breakfast tonight. I know you were planning to sleep outside, but I think it can get cold at night, and I feel safer indoors.”
Natalie put her slice of pizza down. “I’ve traveled like this by myself, and I’ve never had a problem. I can’t afford rooms at night.”
Marlowe said, “The rooms are on me. They are already paid for. It will be nice to be in comfortable rooms and have breakfast taken care of. Could you indulge me? I’m sure you’ll like it. Let me take care of the check.”
Natalie frowned and picked up her backpack. “I’m not a freeloader.”
Marlowe waved her away. “I have money to spare and can pay the expenses without a problem. Let me be a gentleman, a gentleman in love.”
Natalie burst into tears. “You’re overwhelming me with your kindness and love. Everything is usually so hard for me.”
Marlowe took Natalie’s hand as she stood up and hugged her. Then he paid for the meal. They put their backpacks into the compartments on either side of the motorcycle and put on their helmets.
Marlowe turned to Natalie. “Do you know how to get to our route? I have a smartphone with GPS.”
Natalie shook her head. “I don’t need that until we need to go off the main road to get to the B&B.”
That evening, they checked into the B&B and ate at a diner. When they went back to the B&B, they sat in the comfortable living room, on a couch, with Marlowe’s arm around Natalie. They were the only people in the room.
Natalie said, “You seem to have plenty of money, but you haven’t told me what you do for a living, not that it matters to me, or if you came into an inheritance. I’m just curious.”
Marlowe took a deep breath. “You made your confessions earlier today. It is time for me to make mine. I’ve saved up money by working on oil rigs in South Dakota.”
Natalie gasped. “You work on oil rigs? Don’t you know what harm they do to the environment? How could you? Why didn’t you tell me when you saw my t-shirt?”
She jumped up and ran to her room. Marlowe followed her slowly. He could hear her sobbing.
He knocked on her door. “Natalie, please forgive me. I quit working on the rigs last month. I had saved up enough money to live for five years and to go to a community college for a nursing program. I want to make a right living, and be someone you can be proud of.”
Natalie opened the door, her face streaked with tears. “You’re going to be a nurse? You’re not working on the oil rigs anymore?”
Marlowe hugged her. “Even if I was still working on the rigs, I’d quit for you. I wouldn’t want to do something you would be ashamed of. The rigs are for young men, and they aren’t always safe.”
Marlowe kissed Natalie tenderly on the lips. They pulled back and looked at each other in the eyes. Marlowe took her hands in his. “Let’s get to sleep tonight. We’ve had an emotional day. Tomorrow will be even better. We both already know what we need to know.”
The next morning, Natalie woke up at eleven. She scrambled to get dressed and went downstairs, where Marlowe was sitting in the living room.
Natalie rubbed her eyes. “Why didn’t you wake me up? Aren’t we supposed to have left by now?”
Marlowe smiled and walked up to her. “Don’t worry, I made arrangements with the hosts, and was able to plan something else.”
He took her hand and kissed it. “We haven’t known each other very long, but I feel a special connection with you.”
Natalie blushed. “I feel that about you, too.”
He got down on one knee. “Natalie, would you marry me?”
Natalie put her other hand up to her mouth. “Oh! Why yes! This is so romantic.”
Marlowe stood up and held Natalie. He nuzzled his nose into her neck and then gently kissed her lips, and then hugged her again. They both sighed in unison, and Natalie started to giggle, and Marlowe laughed with her.
When they stopped laughing, Marlowe stroked Natalie’s face. “We’re going to be driving through New Hampshire, anyway. We can stop at any City or Town Clerk office and complete a Marriage License Application. Then there is a minister at a Unitarian Universalist church who will perform the ceremony for us.”
Natalie put her head against Marlowe’s chest. “I knew we were right for each other.”
LZ Short Stories 