23 Comments
User's avatar
Olga Godim's avatar

Love the story. Made me laugh. Also made me realize how much misunderstanding we could avoid if we just talk to each other.

C. Lee McKenzie's avatar

Isn't that the truth! I agree 100%.

MP Bottega's avatar

Had me chuckling from the get-go. 🙂

A.C. Cargill, All-Human Author's avatar

Cute story. And I'm actually going to take part in the writer's circle thing. By coincidence, I posted this about rejection and the short story that inspired the article. https://accargillauthor.substack.com/p/what-does-that-rejection-really-mean

C. Lee McKenzie's avatar

I enjoyed your story and your post about rejection. Perfect!

Crystal Collier's avatar

Haha! I love it. It's truly interesting what is going through a person's head and what comes out their mouths, eh? Some days I wish we could use telepathy and other days I'm glad we don't.

C. Lee McKenzie's avatar

Telepathy in the wrong situations would be a disaster! Great comment, Cystal. Thanks.

Michael Boyd's avatar

Re: “Misunderstanding” - On the way home from the movie, she tells him she’s going out of town for a few weeks, so he needn’t bother to call her.

C. Lee McKenzie's avatar

So she beats him to it! I like that idea.

Alex J. Cavanaugh's avatar

I don't want to read my earlier books either!

Jeff's avatar

Nice job of imagining what's going on in their heads. I'm not sure he's the one, he sounds very self-centered.

Reading old stuff can be a mixed bag. Sometimes I'm surprised, other times I wonder what was up with it.

C. Lee McKenzie's avatar

We change as we experience and "mature." I see my early writing as a time capsule of the younger me.

H. R. Sinclair's avatar

Ah yes, the unspoken can get you every time!

L. Diane Wolfe's avatar

I've enjoyed reading some of my older works although yes, I really wanted to change stuff when I did.

Natalie Aguirre's avatar

Fun reading your story. It's interesting how our thoughts aren't always on the same page.

C. Lee McKenzie's avatar

I always wonder what the person across from me is thinking.

Rebecca Douglass's avatar

Fun to build scenarios about other people that way. As for rereading my earlier works… I’m with you. I avoid it, in part because if I do I KNOW I’ll have to do revisions.

A.C. Cargill, All-Human Author's avatar

I re-read unpublished works but not published ones. Typos deserve a life, too. Hee!

C. Lee McKenzie's avatar

I so agree with you. If something has been published, it has been vetted, so when it went out into the world, it was as good as I could make it at the time. I need to move on and make my next book or story better than the last.

Janet Alcorn's avatar

That story seems so realistic. OMG people, communicate!

K.C. Knouse's avatar

This little gem is a case study in the different mindsets and expectations of women and men when on a date. I'm glad I quit dating forty-five years ago. And yes, Lee, many of my story ideas have been sparked by overheard conversions or observation of others in public.

Larry Mihm's avatar

What you wrote made me realize I like rereading my very early stuff more than my more recent stuff, because I have no urge to revise it. The latter stuff I'm tempted to revise, and that's work.

C. Lee McKenzie's avatar

Interesting. I've always thought I'd want to make changes to my early writing. I should investigate and see. Thanks for the visit.