MAIL ORDER BRIDE
Author's note:
This one is self-edited, so all mistakes are mine.
This was designed to be at least a two-chapter story. As always, I hope you enjoy.
I was hung over sitting in my boxers and tee shirt trying to figure out which hangover remedy to take. I had not had much luck with any of them in the past. Usually, I just went with 'hair of the dog' remedy which may have extended my hangovers rather than cured them. On this particular day, I think it was fairly early in the morning and I think it was a Saturday. It didn't matter since I was on vacation for several more days.
The doorbell rang. That's a sound I don't like even when I'm sober. 'Who the hell would be coming to see me on a Saturday morning? I pay the rent on automatic withdrawal so it shouldn't be my landlord.' I stumbled to the door and peeked out the peephole. My eyeball almost popped out of my head. There was the prettiest young woman I had ever seen - standing there -- in front of MY door. And she looked too old to be selling Girl Scout cookies! I watched in lust as she rang the bell again.
Figuring she had the wrong apartment, I shouted, "Who are you looking for, Miss?"
She stammered with an accent I assumed might be Russian or eastern European, "Georgie Hansen."
"That's close but not me. I'm George Jensen."
"That what I say, Georgie Hansen." J-E-N-S-E-N, Hansen."
Shit! As much as I would like to have someone that beautiful in my apartment, my brain said I can't let her in this pig sty. "Wait a minute. I'll be right with you." If you've never been a guy with an apartment, you probably aren't familiar with the nuclear option to cleaning. Everything was dumped out of sight regardless of the location or the viscosity of the item being hidden. That means that liquid things may have been spilled in the process. No problem as long as the puddle was not visible. Next it was the bathroom for a quick shave, mouthwash, and gel on the unruly hair. I went to my bedroom put on yesterday's clothes from the floor and shut the door. One final pass by the bathroom for cologne, industrial dose, which stung where I cut myself shaving too quickly. It did help to wake me up. All in all, it only took seven minutes. I went to the door expecting to see that she had realized her mistake and disappeared. She had not.
I opened the door casually like drop-dead gorgeous women come by to visit me all the time. "I'm George Jensen. How may I help you?"
"Georgie, I'm Tatiana." She acted like her name should mean something to me.
"Okay, Tatiana, what can I do for you?"
"Georgie, I am here for to get marry you, of course." For a second, her accent took me back to the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons -- damn hangover.
I was not comfortable with the subject of this conversation, so I had to clarify what she said when she had answered, "Who exactly did you say you are you here to marry?"
"You, of course. You must like joke me. Please, I tired and starving. I need help with luggage. Bring in please." She carried one large carry-on bag over her shoulder and left two large suitcases for me to lug in.
I pulled the two suitcases into my apartment. Luckily, they had rollers. I left them by the couch. She was polite and lied about how nice the apartment looked. I invited her to sit down and asked if she wanted anything to drink. "Coffee, be nice." I went and made coffee for us. My drunken brain cells were being slaughtered by some of my 'scared shitless' brain cells in a battle to figure out what was going on.
She broke the silence. "Georgie, you know I coming this morning. I send you flight schedule. There was car at airport. Man had sign say 'Tatiana.' You look surprise see me now. Am I not for you pretty enough? I send you many pictures. You say I look pretty." She was beginning to tear up.
I couldn't think of anything to do but tell the truth. "Tatiana, you are very pretty, my gosh are you pretty, but I have no idea who you are or why you're here. There's been a big misunderstanding somewhere."
"But I have all emails you send me. You pay for me fly here. I bring almost no money because you promise take care for me." She started crying. I panicked and tried to think of something to salvage the situation.
"Tatiana, you say you have the emails. Can I see the emails, please?" She pulled out a clasp envelope which contained dozens of emails. All the emails 'from me' were from an email address that had my name as part of the address, however, it wasn't an email address I had ever used. The content from the emails had the correct information about me: the correct company I work for, my correct job title, my correct home address, and my personal photo from my agency's employee directory. My first guess was that someone had stolen my identity to trick this beautiful woman to come to the US with an offer to get American citizenship through marriage. I shuttered to think what those people might require her to do in exchange for helping her stay in the US.
The more I thought about it, the less that made sense. Why would trafficking perpetrators have a driver take her to my apartment? Sending her to my apartment could not be a simple mistake like getting her entry date wrong. There seemed to be only one choice: It must be some sort of a practical joke on me. I racked my brain for who would be so devious and have such a desire to set me up for a prank like this.
Then it hit me. Abraham, the self-named 'Jewish Jokester' from our office. He loved practical jokes, the more outlandish the better. I thought I could see it more clearly now. But how should I respond so as not to wind up the butt of the joke? I figured that Tatiana was an actress paid by Abraham to pretend to be a mail order bride. If I didn't immediately reject her, that must mean I intended to take advantage of her. Before figuring out a response, I wanted to find out how far she was willing to take the joke for Abraham.
"I'm sorry, Tatiana, it was making sure why you were here. It's hard for me to believe a beautiful woman like you would want to be with me. Of course, I was expecting you. I just didn't, however, have a chance to prepare my apartment like I wanted. I tell you what. You said you were starving. Why don't we go get something to eat and talk for a while? That will give you a chance to rest while my cleaning service comes over. Why don't you go freshen up now? The bathroom is next to the bedroom."
"Okay, Georgie. Alright I can change clothes before go? Long flight in same clothes no smell good."
"Sure, take whatever you need to the bathroom and get cleaned up and dressed. No need to hurry."
While she was in the bathroom, I called the regular cleaning service I used which also offered emergency services, for an extra price of course. I used the rest of the time to figure out what to do next. I had to try to think like Abraham. Let's see. A beautiful woman shows up on my doorstep and says she wants to marry me. My first reaction could have been to not let her in so Abraham knew the joke might go flat from the start. He had to be counting on me not doing that. But since I let her in and she gave me the story about me paying for her to come here, he must now think that I would try to take advantage of her because that's what he would do. She's probably on the phone to him now telling him I had accepted the first part of the prank. What would his instructions for her to do next?
I bet he would want to get me to falsely commit to marrying the girl so she would let me have sex with her or, even better, I would fall in love with her and actually offer to marry her. Once committed to marriage but before we had sex, they would spring the trap and I would look like a poor shmuck now heartbroken over what has turned out to be a fake fiancΓ©. That sounds like what Abraham would do. But how far will he let the girl go to get me committed? I imagined pretty far in order to do the most damage. Okay, I'll play along like I'm falling in love with her.
Tatiana and I went to the Waffle House nearby. I showed her what an American breakfast was according to me. She liked some of the food I ordered for her but not everything. As far as anyone could tell, Tatiana had never been in a restaurant like this. She feigned surprise that there was no fruit or yogurt served at Waffle House. Grits were a complete mystery to her. Frankly, they are to me too.