Mistaken Identity Mishaps

My husband and I pull into the grocery store parking lot and I see my cousin, we will call her Lucy, and my aunt, we will call her Alice, in a car.  Excitedly, I hop out of the car, tell my husband to hurry, and I run to catch them before they leave.  As I am running to their car, I notice Lucy's husband, we will call him Chad, returning the cart to the bay. I immediately change directions and run over to him giggling and laughing and begin telling him how good it is to see him.  I grab his arm, link my arm in his and start walking him to the car. Okay, maybe I was actually sort of dragging him to the car.  He was keeping up, though. I point out that my husband is in our car and we both wave to him while happily skipping along. I  motion for my husband to come on as Chad and I are chatting and chatting on the way.  As unbelievable as it is, it should be noted, that sometimes I fail to let people get a word in.  I tell Chad I will give him a hug later, but let's hurry to the car.  We arrive to the car with Alice and Lucy in it. I start telling Alice and Lucy how thrilled I am to see them, too, and motion for my husband again.  What is taking him so long??!! He is starting to be a bit rude.

I hit them with questions....how long will they be here, when did they get here, will we be getting together and other important questions.  Keeping an eye on my husband, I keep motioning for him to come join, but for some reason he is being all sorts of stubborn! The heck with him, I am excited.  I do not know what his problem is, but  let him stay in the car. I have  noticed that not just him, but everyone is acting sort of weird.  Except for Chad, we are arm in arm and still both smiling and laughing.  Strange that he is more excited to see me than the others because he is not as close to me, being that he is a new in-law.

Finally, Lucy asks who I am with. I am a bit puzzled and thinking she is odd  What an unusual thing to ask. Chad and I look at each other and we both laugh.  Aunt Alice and Lucy just shrug.  Chad and I laugh again.  They are so funny! We start talking about a good game of Rummy being started but Aunt Alice, a little perturbed, interrupts asking who the guy is. Chad and  I shake our heads and laugh.  Why are they continuing this charade? Seeming perturbed herself, again, Lucy asks who.  They are doing a good job playing this whole bewildered act because I am actually believing that they are.

Finallly, a bit annoyed, I  sigh heavily with something like well, duh...it is your husband.  Her eyes widen a bit, she is sort of looking a tad bit shocked and perhaps a little fearful.  I laugh and she widens her eyes more and shakes her head. I look at Aunt Alice with questioning eyes and she frowns. a little worried looking, and shakes her head.  Still clinging to Chad's arm, I look up to him and without missing a beat, he smiles and says, "Does this mean I am not going to get that hug now?"   HaHa! What a way to relieve an awkward situation!  At this moment, I realize Chad is a lot like me! He, too, just plows through an embarrassing moment! I could not have picked a better stranger to haul around with me!  I look over to see where my husband is and he is, of course, still in the car.  He holds his hands up like he is not surprised at all and shakes his head.

Instead of looking for that ever elusive hole to climb into, undaunted, here I go.... still smiling, I am like, "Well, what is your name?"  He says. "Joe."  I introduce him to everyone and question him as to why he came with me and let me drag him all over the parking lot.  He so politely smiled and said  that I never really gave him the chance to say anything. He said that I was so nice to him and seemed so happy to see him that he just could not embarrass me.  He indicated that  he had no idea I would find out otherwise as he figured I would finish talking and he would just be on his way.  He did not think I was going to drag him around to meet my family! What a good sport!  HaHa.  Well, just so you know, I did give Joe his hug!!  I think he was deserving after all of that!  

Now, to confront my husband!  I go back to our car and the first thing he tells me is that from the minute I went to get that guy he knew that I never knew him.  He added that he also knew that I thought I knew him.  Further, he enjoyed watching the whole thing and he knew the guy had no clue as to who I was. He preferred to stay in the car and watch all of this unfold. I was in such disbelief that he knew all of this before I even told him.  Did Mr. Know-It-All stop me?  No!! Why would he not come to me when I motioned for him and save me?  He said he wanted to see how I would get out of this one.  I may return the favor some day!

In retrospect, maybe I was a little confused myself because Joe did not really resemble Chad at all.  He actually looked just like Lucy's brother, Stevie.  I guess I was hungry for family! I have occasionally bumped in to Joe at the store and I still speak to him.  You never know how you will end up making new friends!