Tina and Ben(Marla) Tina had agreed to meet her boyfriend, Ben, at his apartment before going on their date and was about to knock on his door when she heard voices inside his apartment.

“She’s awful. I can’t stand her. You have to get rid of her.” Tina’s hand froze, still ready to knock. That was Ben’s mother’s voice. She’d met his mother for the first time only two days before.

“Oh, come on. She’s not that bad.” Ben responded. He sounded amused.

Tina could hardly believe what she’d heard. Not that bad! How dare he? Why didn’t he stand up for her?

“I want you to get rid of her. Really, Ben, why did you ever bring her to my house?” His mother said.

“All right, all right. You win.” Ben answered.

Tina’s heart sank. She turned away and walked as swiftly as she could down the hall. She pressed the elevator’s button and was relieved when the door opened almost immediately. Tina stepped inside, grateful that she was alone. She slid her hand over her eyes, trying to wipe away tears of hurt and anger. The door opened again, and she walked out, made her way to the exit of the building, across the parking lot, and finally to the sanctuary of her car. She was too upset to drive, so she just sat in the driver’s seat willing herself to calm down. A few moments passed before she heard the ping on her phone, alerting her of a text message. She read it. “Hey, Gorgeous! I’m ready whenever you get here.” A happy face emoji followed the text.

Tina scoffed. How to answer that? Angrily, she texted back. “Actually, I was just there. I was about to knock. That was an interesting conversation you had with your MOTHER!!!”

She watched as the dots floated on the screen before she saw his response, which was very unsatisfactory - just a series of question marks. She tossed the phone onto the passenger’s seat. A moment passed before it rang. Tina picked it up, almost pressed the button to ignore the call, but changed her mind. “Yes?” she asked as icily as she could.

“Tina, listen to me please. We weren’t talking about you just now.”

“Wow, Ben. I’m supposed to believe that?”

“We were talking a stupid doll that I put in my mom’s house. It’s a hideous doll. I did it as a joke. And she was telling me to get rid of it. I promise you that’s all it is. Are you still in the parking lot? We can go right now to her house, and I will show you before we go on our date.”

“I’m still here.”

“Stay on the phone. I’m coming.”

Tina heard only muffled sounds for the next few moments. Then she saw Ben come out of the apartment building. His mother appeared only seconds later, a worried look on her face.

Ben opened the passenger’s door and got in the car, closing the door carefully. They both turned off their phones.

“My mom is headed back to her house right now. Do you want to go there? I can show you the doll I was talking about.”

Tina looked at Ben. It occurred to her that he’d never lied to her, never given her reason to doubt his sincerity. “You were talking about a doll in your apartment just now?”

“A very hideous doll. She hates it, as I expected she would. My mom likes you. And even if she didn’t, I wouldn’t agree to not seeing you! You have to know that.”

Tina allowed herself time to take that in, and then she said simply, “Okay.”

Ben took her hand. “So, should we take my car? And do you want to see the doll first or not?”

She shook her head. “No, I believe you. And we can just take my car.”

About ten minutes later, Ben received a text message. “Umm, you might want to pull over. My mom texted a pic of the doll.”

“Pull over? Really?” Tina asked.

Ben smiled and nodded. Tina pulled into a parking lot and said, “Okay, safe now?”

He handed her his phone. Tina burst into laughter. This was no cute little doll. It was the result of somebody’s nightmare, some kind of prop that you find in the Halloween store that comes around for only a few weeks of the year. Ben had said it was hideous, and that was an accurate description.

“I think,” she said, “that maybe we should keep it.”

The date turned out to be one of their favorites.

---