Five years ago this evening, I ended my post-work crosstown death march at St. Mark’s Bookshop chilled to the bone, and hoping my nose would unredden before meeting my latest online date. This was going to be the last for a while, I’d decided; the frustration of dating required a cleansing break a couple of times a year. And anyway, given the general length and creativity of the typical online dating gambit, this guy was lucky I deigned to respond at all to his mere two-sentence note that said, basically, hi and write back. But his ad mentioned a chaise longue, the strangeness of which piqued my interest, so I responded, and found myself here a couple of weeks later (after holiday travels and an all-night poker session on New Year’s Eve that I was still recovering from).

I looked over the selections at the design table up front and enjoyed the warmth of the store, hoping he might be a few minutes late so I could thaw a bit more. But he showed up on time (Considerate: check) and introduced himself. I put down my book and looked up, and up, and up. (Tall: check) He was […]