Anonymous (2/12)
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"Well, I guess that’s good enough for now," Kevin said, feeling slightly put out by the resentful attitude the other man had been projecting their entire meeting.
"That’s it?" Scotty asked. "You don’t want any truffles? Couple-hundred-dollar bottles of champagne, perhaps?"
"What are you talking about?" Kevin asked, sighing.
Scotty leaned forward. "You don’t think it’s just a little hypocritical of your boss to tell anyone who will listen how he’s trying to bring honor and character back to politics while charging $1,500 a plate from people who will be looking for something in return?"
Kevin paused, staring at him. Then he scoffed. "It’s called fundraising. You can’t run a campaign without money. Doesn’t matter what party you’re in."
"Politics as usual, right?"
"Yeah. And that’s my job. Your job is to make food."
"Fine," Scotty said firmly. "I’ll be sure to avoid seafood."
"Hey, seafood’s great. I eat all kinds, except shrimp. Haven’t you ever heard of allergies?"
Scotty paused, taken aback. Then he asked, "Why would someone with a food allergy eat something without knowing what’s inside it?"
"What kind of chef puts shrimp in a crab cake?" Kevin shot back without thinking.
"The five-star kind," Scotty said, offended.
"Yeah. Are those stars gold stickers?"
Scotty stared at him, biting his tongue. "I think we’re done here," he said after a long, tension-filled pause.
"Finally," Kevin said, swiftly closing his notepad.
***
Kevin covered his eyes in embarrassment as he clicked send. One of the matches the program had recommended seemed somewhat promising. There was no picture, but Kevin felt, as he hadn’t put a photo in his profile, that it would be unfair to judge someone for that. The profile description of S.W. sounded like someone with whom he could find things to talk about. So Kevin had written a fairly tame message - basically a hi, how are you - before hitting send. Now, there was no going back.
***
"He was honestly the most obnoxious guy I’ve ever met," Kevin grumbled as he added some creamer to his coffee.
"What difference does it make?" Sarah asked.
"The difference is I have to work with him for the rest of the campaign."
"It’s your job; deal with it. Besides, you’re a Republican - shouldn’t you be used to obnoxious by now?"
"Thanks for the sympathy."
"No problem. So, changing the subject..."
Kevin sighed. "What?"
"I thought you signed up for an account on the dating site."
Kevin looked around the coffee shop terrace, trying not to panic. "I did."
"Well, how come I couldn’t find you?"
"Maybe your search was off."
Sarah stared at him for a beat. "Kevin, I ended up searching for males in California between 30 and 40 years old. I waded through about a hundred pages of results."
"Why...why were you looking for me anyway?"
"I just wanted to - "
"Make fun of me?"
"No! To see what you wrote."
"Well...I don’t know why you couldn’t find me," Kevin said evasively.
Sarah stared at him, simultaneously confused and suspicious.
***
Scotty tossed his bag to the side as he walked into his apartment. It was bad enough that he had to participate in McCallister’s campaign in any way. Add onto that the fact that the contact person was so damned infuriating, he just wanted to reach over and (kiss) punch him. Scotty sighed, running a hand through his hair as he reached down to start up his computer. While it booted up, he walked around the apartment, first stripping off his shirt and tossing it in the general direction of his hamper, then going to the kitchen for a beer. He walked back over to the computer, tilting his head and cracking his neck before sitting down.
He started in surprise when he noticed he had a message from Kevin-33. What were the odds that someone he almost sent a greeting to would send him one instead? Scotty laughed, shaking his head in disbelief as he clicked on the message.
Hello -
My name is Kevin (obviously). I’m new to this, so I don’t really know what people write on these things. I saw your profile and thought you seemed interesting. Care to get to know each other?
Kevin
Scotty was smiling by the end of the message. It was simple and fairly typical, like the man’s profile, but he couldn’t shake the feeling he had the other night that there could be something there - despite his current dislike for all people named Kevin. He decided to put aside his usual ambivalence and give it a try.
Hi Kevin,
Believe it or not, I was planning on sending you a "welcome to the site" message. Fate, perhaps? I’m fairly inexperienced at this myself, so perhaps we should both get used to the idea - just talk online for a while and hold off on anything TOO personal?
So, on that note...um, what’s the last book you read?
S.W.
Scotty read back over the message. He wasn’t too happy with it, but he didn’t know the best way to go about this. All he could do was just try to be himself and hope it worked.
Damn Jordan and Tracy.
***
Kevin’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as he read the messages in his inbox. The man he had written to had yet to respond, but several other guys had taken the initiative. One had asked for a picture, sending several, rather revealing ones in return. Another had skipped the formalities entirely and offered to blow him at a time and place of his choosing. Someone had sent him an e-mail telling him to repent and change his ways before it was too late. Someone else wrote what may have been a nice message, if Kevin had been able to get through the poor grammar, spelling mistakes, and texting abbreviations. He sighed.
"Oh, this was a great idea, Sarah," he muttered.
He leaned forward, moving the cursor to the sign-out button. Just as he was about to click it, the page alerted him to a new message. Kevin wavered, then decided to check it. He refreshed the page and nearly spilled his drink all over himself when he saw it was a response from S.W. Kevin exhaled slowly, his heart suddenly pounding. He swallowed and clicked on the message.
***
"The interview’s next week. We have to come up with coherent positions."
"Well," Kevin said, groaning as he stretched in his chair. "How about you just say what you think? That’s always worked for you in the past."
"This is bigger, though, Kevin. This is the governor’s seat."
Kevin sighed, lifting a hand to rub at his tired eyes.
"OK, gay marriage. Travis, go," Robert said.
"It’s a state issue, not federal. Gay couples have protected rights as domestic partners in this state. Also, marriage is a religious institution."
Kevin stared at Travis, mouth slightly open.
"Kevin, freakishly good devil’s advocate that you are?"
"Um...if it’s not federal, then why do you support the Defense of Marriage Act? Separate but equal is not equal. Separation of church and state."
"The Bill of Rights does not say - "
"Freedom of religion, then. Which also means freedom from religion. And people only argue against the idea of separation of church and state when their religion is the mainstream. And further, if it’s a religious institution, why do we have legal recognition of straight marriages then?"
"Travis?"
"You could mention the financial issues. Increased cost of health care."
"Kevin?"
"We don’t get to keep rights from people because it’s going to cost us more money. Of course there are financial incentives. Marriage cross-culturally and historically has always been partially, if not completely, about the political, economic and social benefits of being in a sanctioned, recognized relationship. And it’s a ridiculous argument anyway. A small business owner will have to cover spousal benefits for a straight employee’s new spouse the same as a gay one’s. What would you suggest they do? Hire only straight people? That’s illegal. Only hire people if never getting married is included as a stipulation of hire? The solution should be an overhaul of health care."
"What, now you’re arguing for universal health care? Socialist."
Kevin laughed in annoyance, shaking his head slightly. "Of course health insurance is a big factor here. How would you like it if the person you committed your life to got ill or was in a car crash, and you couldn’t help them without risking or selling everything you owned, or going thousands of dollars into debt? For that matter, how would you like it knowing that your partner might not get custody of the kids you raised together if something were to happen to you?"
"Gay people in California are - "
"That just brings us back to the state’s rights issue. Senator, I know this is not the last stop for you. You ever want to make it to the big seat, you’re going to have to answer to the country, not just California."
"Poll numbers indicate - "
Robert sighed, interrupting them. "OK. OK. Enough. Let’s table this and call it a day."
Kevin closed his folder almost immediately, standing up.
"Careful, Kevin," Travis said. "Keep talking like that, people are going to think you’re a democrat."
Kevin stared at him for a moment, then laughed uncomfortably. "Well...you’ve met my mother."
***
The last book I read? It was actually about the history of the wine industry in California. My brother’s opening a vineyard and, well, we drink a lot of it. Kind of boring, I know. OK, your turn. What are your plans this weekend?
*
Actually, it sounds interesting. I like good wine and learning history factoids. I’ll have to check it out. That has to be a scary business to go into, though.
What are my plans this weekend? Is that your way of asking if I’m free? I thought we were taking things slow. :) Just kidding. I’m going to lunch and a movie with my friends on Saturday. Other than that, I have to clean my apartment. What an exciting life I lead!
*
Opening a new business is pretty scary, I have to agree. My brother is hanging onto his sanity by a thread, I think.
And that’s not how I meant it! I kind of like this idea of staying anonymous for a while.
I hear you on cleaning up. My place is "cozy," so it’s controlled chaos most of the time. Your plans are more exciting than mine. Family dinner on Sunday, trying to get some work done the rest of the time.
You forgot to ask a question so I’ll pick up the slack. I see you’ve been a member of this site for about two months. How many "connections" have you made? Let me know what I have to look forward to (or rather, look out for)!
*
You mentioned a brother and family dinner - do you have a big family? Not me. Only child, and my parents live in Arizona.
Umm...my experience with this site. Well, let’s just say I was strong-armed into creating an account after a break-up. I’ve talked to several people online, and went out on a few dates. No sparks, unfortunately. My friends who convinced me to sign up say to never go out with a newbie. Let them go on at least two dates first to work out the nerves and the kinks. Nine times out of ten, you’ll look that much better in comparison to the duds they meet before you.
I was going to ask you what kind of relationship you’re looking for, but I suppose that’s too personal for us right now. So...are you into sports?
*
Does that mean I actually have to go out with some of these people before you’ll even consider taking it past the "anonymous" stage? And what happens if the opposite happens, and I go for one of these other guys?
My family is pretty big. I have two sisters, two brothers, a newly-discovered half-sister (don’t ask), a niece and a nephew, and another niece and nephew on the way (twins!). My father passed away, but my mother is still very much around, and my uncle lives in town as well.
Playing sports or watching them? I go surfing with my brothers occasionally, and I go to the gym. I don’t really watch sports that much. The occasional football game, I suppose. I’ll tune into the Olympics - usually diving or swimming.
And I’ll answer your other question too. To be honest, I don’t really know what kind of relationship I’m looking for. I’m kind of testing the waters right now, I guess, and waiting to see what happens.
*
Diving or swimming, huh? The fewer clothes, the better? :)
Testing the waters is good, though. And that’s why I suggested dating a few people, honestly. No need to limit yourself to just me, just yet. There’s no harm in dating around. And I think the curiosity of meeting me will keep you interested, even if you do get a few non-duds...
*
Cocky much?
*
Too personal. ;)
***
"Thank you, Senator."
"My pleasure, Ms. Walker. Thank you for having me on the show."
Kevin sighed in relief as Kitty concluded her interview. Despite her objections to getting him on the show, and hints that she would press him with tough questions, Kitty actually went relatively easy on him. Robert was able to get a few good sound bites in, and he came off pretty well. Even if Kevin (disagreed) had concerns with most of his answers.
"What’d you think?" Robert asked as he walked off the stage and up to Kevin.
Kevin shrugged. "Not bad."
"Kevin, you’re never satisfied with anything, you know that? It was a great interview."
Kevin smiled. "OK, you got a few good lines in there."
"That’s better."
Kevin led Robert down the hall backstage to the make-up room. As they walked, Kevin pulled his phone out of his pocket, turning it back on to check for messages. As he scrolled through several texts from Travis, Robert turned to him.
"I don’t suppose..."
"Hmm?" Kevin asked, distracted.
"Just...is Kitty seeing anyone?"
Kevin looked up at him, startled. He blinked several times before turning away from Robert and continuing down the hallway.
"Kevin?"
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"Well, I guess that’s good enough for now," Kevin said, feeling slightly put out by the resentful attitude the other man had been projecting their entire meeting.
"That’s it?" Scotty asked. "You don’t want any truffles? Couple-hundred-dollar bottles of champagne, perhaps?"
"What are you talking about?" Kevin asked, sighing.
Scotty leaned forward. "You don’t think it’s just a little hypocritical of your boss to tell anyone who will listen how he’s trying to bring honor and character back to politics while charging $1,500 a plate from people who will be looking for something in return?"
Kevin paused, staring at him. Then he scoffed. "It’s called fundraising. You can’t run a campaign without money. Doesn’t matter what party you’re in."
"Politics as usual, right?"
"Yeah. And that’s my job. Your job is to make food."
"Fine," Scotty said firmly. "I’ll be sure to avoid seafood."
"Hey, seafood’s great. I eat all kinds, except shrimp. Haven’t you ever heard of allergies?"
Scotty paused, taken aback. Then he asked, "Why would someone with a food allergy eat something without knowing what’s inside it?"
"What kind of chef puts shrimp in a crab cake?" Kevin shot back without thinking.
"The five-star kind," Scotty said, offended.
"Yeah. Are those stars gold stickers?"
Scotty stared at him, biting his tongue. "I think we’re done here," he said after a long, tension-filled pause.
"Finally," Kevin said, swiftly closing his notepad.
***
Kevin covered his eyes in embarrassment as he clicked send. One of the matches the program had recommended seemed somewhat promising. There was no picture, but Kevin felt, as he hadn’t put a photo in his profile, that it would be unfair to judge someone for that. The profile description of S.W. sounded like someone with whom he could find things to talk about. So Kevin had written a fairly tame message - basically a hi, how are you - before hitting send. Now, there was no going back.
***
"He was honestly the most obnoxious guy I’ve ever met," Kevin grumbled as he added some creamer to his coffee.
"What difference does it make?" Sarah asked.
"The difference is I have to work with him for the rest of the campaign."
"It’s your job; deal with it. Besides, you’re a Republican - shouldn’t you be used to obnoxious by now?"
"Thanks for the sympathy."
"No problem. So, changing the subject..."
Kevin sighed. "What?"
"I thought you signed up for an account on the dating site."
Kevin looked around the coffee shop terrace, trying not to panic. "I did."
"Well, how come I couldn’t find you?"
"Maybe your search was off."
Sarah stared at him for a beat. "Kevin, I ended up searching for males in California between 30 and 40 years old. I waded through about a hundred pages of results."
"Why...why were you looking for me anyway?"
"I just wanted to - "
"Make fun of me?"
"No! To see what you wrote."
"Well...I don’t know why you couldn’t find me," Kevin said evasively.
Sarah stared at him, simultaneously confused and suspicious.
***
Scotty tossed his bag to the side as he walked into his apartment. It was bad enough that he had to participate in McCallister’s campaign in any way. Add onto that the fact that the contact person was so damned infuriating, he just wanted to reach over and (kiss) punch him. Scotty sighed, running a hand through his hair as he reached down to start up his computer. While it booted up, he walked around the apartment, first stripping off his shirt and tossing it in the general direction of his hamper, then going to the kitchen for a beer. He walked back over to the computer, tilting his head and cracking his neck before sitting down.
He started in surprise when he noticed he had a message from Kevin-33. What were the odds that someone he almost sent a greeting to would send him one instead? Scotty laughed, shaking his head in disbelief as he clicked on the message.
Hello -
My name is Kevin (obviously). I’m new to this, so I don’t really know what people write on these things. I saw your profile and thought you seemed interesting. Care to get to know each other?
Kevin
Scotty was smiling by the end of the message. It was simple and fairly typical, like the man’s profile, but he couldn’t shake the feeling he had the other night that there could be something there - despite his current dislike for all people named Kevin. He decided to put aside his usual ambivalence and give it a try.
Hi Kevin,
Believe it or not, I was planning on sending you a "welcome to the site" message. Fate, perhaps? I’m fairly inexperienced at this myself, so perhaps we should both get used to the idea - just talk online for a while and hold off on anything TOO personal?
So, on that note...um, what’s the last book you read?
S.W.
Scotty read back over the message. He wasn’t too happy with it, but he didn’t know the best way to go about this. All he could do was just try to be himself and hope it worked.
Damn Jordan and Tracy.
***
Kevin’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as he read the messages in his inbox. The man he had written to had yet to respond, but several other guys had taken the initiative. One had asked for a picture, sending several, rather revealing ones in return. Another had skipped the formalities entirely and offered to blow him at a time and place of his choosing. Someone had sent him an e-mail telling him to repent and change his ways before it was too late. Someone else wrote what may have been a nice message, if Kevin had been able to get through the poor grammar, spelling mistakes, and texting abbreviations. He sighed.
"Oh, this was a great idea, Sarah," he muttered.
He leaned forward, moving the cursor to the sign-out button. Just as he was about to click it, the page alerted him to a new message. Kevin wavered, then decided to check it. He refreshed the page and nearly spilled his drink all over himself when he saw it was a response from S.W. Kevin exhaled slowly, his heart suddenly pounding. He swallowed and clicked on the message.
***
"The interview’s next week. We have to come up with coherent positions."
"Well," Kevin said, groaning as he stretched in his chair. "How about you just say what you think? That’s always worked for you in the past."
"This is bigger, though, Kevin. This is the governor’s seat."
Kevin sighed, lifting a hand to rub at his tired eyes.
"OK, gay marriage. Travis, go," Robert said.
"It’s a state issue, not federal. Gay couples have protected rights as domestic partners in this state. Also, marriage is a religious institution."
Kevin stared at Travis, mouth slightly open.
"Kevin, freakishly good devil’s advocate that you are?"
"Um...if it’s not federal, then why do you support the Defense of Marriage Act? Separate but equal is not equal. Separation of church and state."
"The Bill of Rights does not say - "
"Freedom of religion, then. Which also means freedom from religion. And people only argue against the idea of separation of church and state when their religion is the mainstream. And further, if it’s a religious institution, why do we have legal recognition of straight marriages then?"
"Travis?"
"You could mention the financial issues. Increased cost of health care."
"Kevin?"
"We don’t get to keep rights from people because it’s going to cost us more money. Of course there are financial incentives. Marriage cross-culturally and historically has always been partially, if not completely, about the political, economic and social benefits of being in a sanctioned, recognized relationship. And it’s a ridiculous argument anyway. A small business owner will have to cover spousal benefits for a straight employee’s new spouse the same as a gay one’s. What would you suggest they do? Hire only straight people? That’s illegal. Only hire people if never getting married is included as a stipulation of hire? The solution should be an overhaul of health care."
"What, now you’re arguing for universal health care? Socialist."
Kevin laughed in annoyance, shaking his head slightly. "Of course health insurance is a big factor here. How would you like it if the person you committed your life to got ill or was in a car crash, and you couldn’t help them without risking or selling everything you owned, or going thousands of dollars into debt? For that matter, how would you like it knowing that your partner might not get custody of the kids you raised together if something were to happen to you?"
"Gay people in California are - "
"That just brings us back to the state’s rights issue. Senator, I know this is not the last stop for you. You ever want to make it to the big seat, you’re going to have to answer to the country, not just California."
"Poll numbers indicate - "
Robert sighed, interrupting them. "OK. OK. Enough. Let’s table this and call it a day."
Kevin closed his folder almost immediately, standing up.
"Careful, Kevin," Travis said. "Keep talking like that, people are going to think you’re a democrat."
Kevin stared at him for a moment, then laughed uncomfortably. "Well...you’ve met my mother."
***
The last book I read? It was actually about the history of the wine industry in California. My brother’s opening a vineyard and, well, we drink a lot of it. Kind of boring, I know. OK, your turn. What are your plans this weekend?
*
Actually, it sounds interesting. I like good wine and learning history factoids. I’ll have to check it out. That has to be a scary business to go into, though.
What are my plans this weekend? Is that your way of asking if I’m free? I thought we were taking things slow. :) Just kidding. I’m going to lunch and a movie with my friends on Saturday. Other than that, I have to clean my apartment. What an exciting life I lead!
*
Opening a new business is pretty scary, I have to agree. My brother is hanging onto his sanity by a thread, I think.
And that’s not how I meant it! I kind of like this idea of staying anonymous for a while.
I hear you on cleaning up. My place is "cozy," so it’s controlled chaos most of the time. Your plans are more exciting than mine. Family dinner on Sunday, trying to get some work done the rest of the time.
You forgot to ask a question so I’ll pick up the slack. I see you’ve been a member of this site for about two months. How many "connections" have you made? Let me know what I have to look forward to (or rather, look out for)!
*
You mentioned a brother and family dinner - do you have a big family? Not me. Only child, and my parents live in Arizona.
Umm...my experience with this site. Well, let’s just say I was strong-armed into creating an account after a break-up. I’ve talked to several people online, and went out on a few dates. No sparks, unfortunately. My friends who convinced me to sign up say to never go out with a newbie. Let them go on at least two dates first to work out the nerves and the kinks. Nine times out of ten, you’ll look that much better in comparison to the duds they meet before you.
I was going to ask you what kind of relationship you’re looking for, but I suppose that’s too personal for us right now. So...are you into sports?
*
Does that mean I actually have to go out with some of these people before you’ll even consider taking it past the "anonymous" stage? And what happens if the opposite happens, and I go for one of these other guys?
My family is pretty big. I have two sisters, two brothers, a newly-discovered half-sister (don’t ask), a niece and a nephew, and another niece and nephew on the way (twins!). My father passed away, but my mother is still very much around, and my uncle lives in town as well.
Playing sports or watching them? I go surfing with my brothers occasionally, and I go to the gym. I don’t really watch sports that much. The occasional football game, I suppose. I’ll tune into the Olympics - usually diving or swimming.
And I’ll answer your other question too. To be honest, I don’t really know what kind of relationship I’m looking for. I’m kind of testing the waters right now, I guess, and waiting to see what happens.
*
Diving or swimming, huh? The fewer clothes, the better? :)
Testing the waters is good, though. And that’s why I suggested dating a few people, honestly. No need to limit yourself to just me, just yet. There’s no harm in dating around. And I think the curiosity of meeting me will keep you interested, even if you do get a few non-duds...
*
Cocky much?
*
Too personal. ;)
***
"Thank you, Senator."
"My pleasure, Ms. Walker. Thank you for having me on the show."
Kevin sighed in relief as Kitty concluded her interview. Despite her objections to getting him on the show, and hints that she would press him with tough questions, Kitty actually went relatively easy on him. Robert was able to get a few good sound bites in, and he came off pretty well. Even if Kevin (disagreed) had concerns with most of his answers.
"What’d you think?" Robert asked as he walked off the stage and up to Kevin.
Kevin shrugged. "Not bad."
"Kevin, you’re never satisfied with anything, you know that? It was a great interview."
Kevin smiled. "OK, you got a few good lines in there."
"That’s better."
Kevin led Robert down the hall backstage to the make-up room. As they walked, Kevin pulled his phone out of his pocket, turning it back on to check for messages. As he scrolled through several texts from Travis, Robert turned to him.
"I don’t suppose..."
"Hmm?" Kevin asked, distracted.
"Just...is Kitty seeing anyone?"
Kevin looked up at him, startled. He blinked several times before turning away from Robert and continuing down the hallway.
"Kevin?"
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