Free Talk a Good Game by Angie Daniels

nails when I felt someone staring at me.
    “ Nyree? ”
    My head snapped up to see eyes
that were familiar. “Yeah?”
    He grinned and then stuck out his
hand. “ Hello, I ’ m Alan.”
    What the fuck! When I rose to my feet, he barely reached to my nose.
“Wow!”
    He folded his arms. “Wow, is
right! You’re beautiful. ”
    His face was decent, but I wished
I could find something else attractive about him. He was shorter
than the six feet he’d indicated in his profile, with little arms,
and not to mention he was suffering from Dunlap Disease—his belly
dun lapped over.
    We followed the hostess to a booth
near the window. He waited until I was seated before he slid onto
the seat across from me. “You want to order something?”
    Hell
no . “I ’ m not really
hungry so maybe just an ice tea and an appetizer.” I figured
I ’ d order and get the hell outta
there. I was studying the menu when I spotted him staring at
me.
    “ What?” I asked
suspiciously.
    He was grinning. “You look just
like your profile picture.”
    “ And you look nothing like
yours.”
    Alan hesitated, avoiding eyes
contact. “I took that photo about ten years ago.”
    “ Then why did you post
it?”
    “ Because I wanted women to see the
real me.”
    “ The real
me ?” I repeated. Then who the fuck was
that sitting across the table?
    “ Yes, right now I got on my winter
coat. Like a bear, I shed this weight every spring.” He was
chuckling like what he said was funny. But it was already late
April.
    “ And I thought you were
six-five?”
    He looked confused then had the
nerve to start laughing. “Six-five? No, I ’ m
five-six.”
    And I ’ m
five-nine. “Then why did your profile say you were over six
feet?”
    I swear he gave me the most
sincere look, which pissed me off even more. “I just wanted a fair
shot.”
    Talk about desperation. “Are you
serious?” I put my menu down. This conversation was just going
around in a circle, always coming back to the fact he had lied.
“That ’s misleading.”
    He shrugged the way a person does
when they realized they’ve been busted. “Maybe. But there was no
way I would have had a chance to meet you.”
    I stared at him in silence. I know
I should have felt flattered but I didn’t. Instead I felt like I
had been played. I had spent hours fantasizing about a tall, dark
and handsome man. Instead I was sitting across from someone who
looked like he was related to Cee Lo Green.
    Our drinks arrived and I gulped down my iced tea
wishing it was something stronger. While he ordered tacos, I stared
at his little hands and shivered. There was no way in hell this
relationship was going any further than lunch.
    Thirty minutes later, I was peeling out the parking
lot when I called Janelle.
    “ Hey girl.
What ’s up? ”
    “ What ’s up is that short
mothafucka I
just met at El Jimador ’s !”
    “ What ?” she said with a
laugh.
    “ Jae, he was cut off at the knees
talking about he was six feet. Chile, he was barely five-three and
losing his hair. That picture he had posted was more than ten years
old.”
    “ Girl, you ain’t right!” She was
cracking up. And before I knew it I had started laughing with
her.
    “ I don’t know why I let
you convince me to join that damn site,” I said, sucking my teeth
for good measure. Men were all the same. Full of shit. It didn’t
matter who they hurt or that they were running
game.
    “ Everybody can’t be lucky like
me.” Leave it to Janelle to rub it in.
    “ Whatever. I was so disgusted I
barely ate my food.” I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the
image of his small hands and hairy knuckles.
    By the time she got done laughing
and trying to encourage me to give the site one last try, I hung up
and realized I was still hungry. I decided to stop at
McDonald ’s and grab a burger. It would
probably have me shitting the rest of the evening but right now I
was too hungry to care.
    I ordered a Big
Kid ’s Meal then moved to the side