My mind decided that I should run pell-mell in whatever direction Nigel* wasn’t. But, my heart wanted to stick around for some explanation.  It fluttered about, wanting to know why he told me his daughter was nine, when she was actually fifteen going on sixteen.  Initially, when I’d caught Nigel in the stumble, he feigned innocence. He tried to convince me that he’d indeed told me that his daughter was a teenager.  He tried to make me doubt my memory.  But, I reminded him that I was the younger of the two of us (and also the one whose memory wasn’t being eroded by the stresses of having a teenage daughter!)

With nowhere to hide, he came clean.  Yes, he did lie about his daughter’s age. And he did send me an old photo to support that lie. But, he was so fearful that owning a daughter, almost a woman, would have scared me off in the beginning, when we were just getting to know each other.  He begged me not to go.  He begged me to understand that the first stirrings he felt for me were real and that he was so eager to explore them that he lied about the thing most precious to him in the universe- his daughter. My mind rolled its eyes and shook its head in understanding that this simply would not do. It saw Nigel as the cheesiest bastard of the moment and accepted, quite firmly, that it was time to move on.

But, my heart reasoned (reasoned- ha!) that we were all prone to making mistakes and fouling up a good thing. Particularly, when we find ourselves so very close to something we think we must have.  It wanted to give Nigel another chance.   And, since it reasoned so very soundly, I decided to do just that- give this Daddy another chance.  (At least he came clean in the end- and it must have been his conscience which made him stumble on the very subject he lied about?)

We decided to make a fresh start of it. Nigel was relieved.  He was so glad the lie was over and that he could be with me- like he wanted, with no secret casting a shadow over our relationship. For a while after the ‘big revelation’, things weren’t the same. I wasn’t as keen as before to keep our messenger dates. But, we tried our best to continue as before. 

During this time, as if to compensate for his past dishonesty, Nigel opened up even more than before. He sent me a new picture of him and his daughter, with his daughter as she really was- quite a lovely young lady, marching steadily towards womanhood.

He also shared his pesky misgivings that he was what I truly wanted; he wasn’t that educated or that young. He even shared some details about the sort of marriage/ relationship he’d shared with his ex-wife. He shared how he felt about his daughter being away from him.  And, he shared even more about some of the tensions residing within his immediate family- one brother gay and one sister a witch.

Amidst his apologies and his attempts to be better, Nigel still hadn't declared that he was head over heels in love with me. Of all my online relationships, he was proving to hold out the longest on muttering the fatal- “L” word.  I didn’t mind in the least; I was enjoying the change and enjoying learning more about him.

The bad was behind us. 

 *Name has been altered.

Coming Next Saturday:  The Worst is yet to come…