THE MOMENT
"Is my height an issue?" Minerva asked. She'd been looking forward to meeting someone nice, and took a chance on a friend of an acquaintance. Except, her supposed date seemed not only surprised, but possibly put off by her size. As soon as she greeted him, he turned toward the one that introduced them and started grumbling about apples while pointing up at her. She was annoyed, but not remotely offended. And, it helped that they were in a restaurant chosen by her; she felt entirely at ease while the stranger complained to his friend.
"What? No, sorry," he shook his head at her. They hadn't even been seated yet and he was forced to look up to meet her eyes. "It's just, this..." he raised his hand over his head as high as he could reach. "... wasn't what I expected. Conway, here, apparently has no idea how big apples are. But, uh.. it's alright," he nodded. "Let's see if there's a chair here that'll support you." Minerva decided she didn't need to see how the rest of the date would turn out after that. But, before she said anything, Conway, her work acquaintance, interrupted.
"Wait," the lean man chuckled nervously. "Did you think I was serious about her being five apples tall??" he asked.
"Well, what kind of answer is that if it wasn't serious??" Frances asked.
"It wasn't out of the blue," Conway shook his head. "We'd just had a whole conversation about how you wanted to be surprised. So I said, 'Hey, I know someone,' and you said 'Alright, surprise me'. So, when you asked how tall she was, I said 'five apples' as complete nonsense. You laughed and went along with it, without asking me to clarify... I thought you understood I was kidding."
"Well, I misunderstood is all," Frances replied curtly.
"Oh," Minerva's eyes widened. "Then, I'll be leaving." She turned to leave and Frances interrupted.
"Hey, what about our date?" he asked.
"No thank you," she shook her head. "You misunderstood Conway's comment," she added.
"Misunderstandings happen! That's not a big deal!"
"They do," Minerva nodded. "And, I'm not holding that against you. However, I am obviously not your type, if you showed up to this date genuinely looking forward to meeting someone only five apples tall," she looked him up and down. "She'd be barely up to your knees."