The Misunderstanding
By GlosKat
- 148 reads
They dumped the last of the cardboard boxes on the apartment floor, and stood up.
‘Glad that’s over’, said Sarah. ‘Thanks Holden, much appreciated’.
‘You’re welcome’, said Holden, giving her his most winning smile and waiting for the offer of coffee and what that would imply ...
There was an awkward silence. Sarah looked puzzled, and then annoyed.
‘Excuse me not offering you a drink Holden, but I’m whacked. I’m not even going to unpack, I’ll do that tomorrow. I’m just going to go to bed now’.
Holden shrugged and spread his hands. The winning smile again, which never lost. ‘Works for me’.
Her face shut down so fast he could almost hear the slam. She strode over to the door and flung it open. A girl walking by stopped a second, then scurried off looking embarrassed.
‘Sorry Holden, I thought you were a friend’.
‘I was, I mean I am, that’s what I’m doing here, helping a friend’. In all his thirty two years he had never been in a situation where a woman turned him down and he was floundering.
‘Yeah, but I didn’t expect to get handed the bill’. She jerked her head. ‘Out’.
Holden walked past her into the corridor and turned. ‘Sarah, I –‘.
This time he really heard the slam.
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Comments
Nice IP response GlosKat -
Nice IP response GlosKat - hopefully fiction!
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Hi Kat,
Hi Kat,
I get where you're coming from with this story, I've been in similar incident, but at the time I was living on my own and being the weak person I was, gave into his charms. But thankfully he was a D.I.Y. Expert, and I did get a lot of jobs done around my new home and he wasn't actually that bad.
By the way, I had a letter back from the hospital, it looks like their current thinking is Sarcoidosis, but they're still reviewing, so I have to wait for another letter.
Jenny.
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aye, I've often been
aye, I've often been misunderstood too. Now I'm old I'm no longer worth thinking anything much about.
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Hey you!
You're thought of here whenever I look at the football results or read about Glasgow. I also think it seems a long while since I've read anything you've written about Glasgow. I hope there's a new release on the way.
Far worse things have happened in the world but that fire by the station left me feeling sad.
Turlough
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Cheeky, or not cheeky
There are different levels to this, in my opinion. At the bottom there's the dark threatening expectation of something intimate happening and at the top there's the cheeky innuendo.
Cheeky innuendo makes the world go round. When I was working, many of my clients were women in their eighties and nineties. I loved making them laugh and it would only take a few slightly risqué words to have them in stitches. And some would reciprocate, often making it necessary for me to down instruments a few minutes because I was laughing so much myself. However, it was important to know and understand how their minds worked before introducing this sort humour as it was something many of them had no experience of. And I think the big age difference between us made it safe and acceptable.
For a fair few months I had a bit of a fling with a woman slightly younger than me who was the receptionist of a care home where I worked once a fortnight. When telling my friends that I was seeing somebody, the expressions on their faces were priceless as I mentioned that I had met her in an old people’s home.
Turlough
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Shame
Knowing what to say, either way, is very difficult and explaining exactly what is expected or not expected from a simple meet up for a drink can take the shine off the circumstances that have led up to it. It's a huge shame that we have this problem in the world.
Turlough
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Congratulations, this is Pick of the Day Monday 16th March 2026
Short - anything but sweet - and very credible piece about something that must happen thousands of times a day.
[I must admit, I never even notice the signs and signals. (I might not be being sent any, of course)]
Anyway, that's why it's our Social Media Pick of the Day today. Well done.
Please share fellow ABCTalers.
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