Category: Awkward

  • April 23, 2020

    (department store loop / dessert outing / purchase hesitation)

    I’m at a 49-store department store, repeatedly passing around the bus stop out front.

    One of the floors is dedicated to restaurants, mostly very fancy places, all offering lunch and dessert sets.

    After a lecture one day, I go there with College Roommate S and we try cakes at one of the Italian places.


    At night, I return with Ex-boyfriend T.

    On the first floor, there’s a general store selling soft, fuzzy loft shawls. He tries on a blue one and hints that I should buy it for him for Christmas. I agree, but I don’t want to buy it in front of him.

    I go upstairs to look around the restaurant floor again, then come back down and usher him outside so I can go to the register alone.

    I buy a few other things as well, but when I’m checking out and trying to get my rewards cards ready, I realize I never put the shawl on the counter. I have to ask them to redo the receipt.

  • April 15, 2020

    (hotel inspection / unsettling discovery / casual conclusion)

    I’m in a fancy hotel with a group. My boss mentions that we’ve received a request for my dad to give a lecture. The location is supposed to be at a hospital room, next to a golf course. Everything—the room and arrangements—would be covered as reimbursements, and I’m sent to check out the room prepared for him to stay in.

    The room doesn’t match the pictures. It looks grimy. The closet, bed, and drawers still have a few things left in them, like it hasn’t been properly cleared out.

    I check the bathroom and realize the blueprint is wrong. Instead of a standard setup, there’s a large shared shower room with multiple shower heads, some still running. The bathtub, which was supposed to be a single unit, is actually an enormous one—about eighteen feet long.

    It becomes clear to me that the space isn’t meant for normal use, but something more private and unusual. I feel unsettled, imagining weird sex parties.

    As we head outside to a meeting, I ask my boss about it discreetly. He implies that the person who made the request used to court him, and that his interests have shifted over time towards lingerie. I briefly consider asking him for store recommendations related to that, but we arrive at the meeting building and drop the subject.

    We’re a bit early, so we’re told to get drinks at a juice shop inside. We end up getting frozen lemonades and other fruity drinks.

  • February 20, 2020

    (friend’s house / awkward family moment / celebrity visit)

    I’m at College Friend J’s house, which has the same layout as my apartment but wider. We’re sitting on opposite sides of the couch watching Hannibal. College Friend J keeps trying to catch his cat.

    I want to move closer to him but don’t want to seem clingy. I slowly shift over until my head is resting near his legs. He looks at me strangely, then tells me to scoot over and lets me lean on his shoulder.

    His mom comes in and out of the room, and before she leaves, she tells him to do the dishes. After a while, I remind him, and we go to the kitchen. He washes while I help put the dishes away.

    Outside, near the front door where the car is parked, College Friend J’s dad, mom, sister, and a transitioning person are standing. His mom doesn’t seem to trust the transitioning person. We make inside jokes about her behavior based on the show Hannibal.

    Something bad happens, and his mom immediately looks at the transitioning person and insists she knows they don’t have top surgery done.


    I’m in a school classroom. A visiting musician comes in. He’s short, almost dwarfish. He plays a couple of strings on a guitar and tries to make jokes while talking about where he’s been and where he’s from, but his talk isn’t very put together. He says he’s from Scotland.

    The jokes don’t land well, and many students become disillusioned, though some still go up for autographs. One girl has lined paper folded into four sections, filled with celebrity signatures.

    There’s a flashback to Catherine Tate signing something. She says her signature doesn’t look as good as another celebrity’s, possibly Hugh Jackman’s.

    I go up to the girl with the signatures and ask what it’s like to meet celebrities. She says most of her experiences are short and she doesn’t get much time to talk. I say it’s been the same for me in Japan.

    There’s some kind of raffle, and people receive a lot of perishable goods and share them around. One item is a kind of gel mochi with something inside.