Mistaken For Myself
A few weeks ago, I ran into an acquaintance I had not seen in years. We met up at a wine bar a few days after to catch up. Sara soon entered the conversation. Sara and I lived in the same freshman year dorm as did my acquaintance, but my acquaintance couldn’t distinctly remember Sara. I pulled up a photo.
“I think I remember her,” my acquaintance said. “Does she have a brother?”
“She does, but I don’t think you’d know him.” Sara is from Connecticut, her brother never went to college with us, and my acquaintance is from Virginia like me.
“I think she has a brother. He was hot.”
What a weird comment, but okay.
“Yeah, maybe.” I have met Sara’s brother multiple times, and he’s written for ATOB, but I was not prepared to publicly comment on his attractiveness nor could I conceive a situation where Sara’s brother and this acquaintance had ever met.
“I think his name is Casey,” my acquaintance added.
I froze.
For readers who have not suspected, Cazey is not my legal name. Professionally and with older friends, I use my birth name. This acquaintance knew me by my birth name. I had not mentioned I blogged under a pseudonym and did not feel myself approaching that necessary juncture in our relationship—until now.
“Casey?” I repeated.
“Yeah, he’s always in her photos,” my acquaintance went on.
Me:
My acquaintance:
“Do you mean Cazey?” I tried.
“No, I think Casey. It may be spelled weird.”
Confirmed. Ding ding ding!
“I don’t know if that’s her brother,” I said. I refrained from adding, “But you say he’s hot?”
“I thought it was,” she said.
How did I say, “I think you mean me? I am Cazey. Is real life me not as hot as me in Sara’s pictures? What am I doing wrong?” Instead, I smiled and looked down at my empty wineglass.
“Interesting,” I landed on. “Well, we should definitely hang out again. I’m going to this thing next week...” Blah blah. Especially because “you think my alter ego is hot; it’s sorta like being Clark Kent/Superman.”
Maybe in a few weeks when we hang out again, I’ll drop, “I sometimes go by Cazey.”
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