White lie: a harmless or trivial lie, especially one told to avoid hurting someone's feelings.
I'm so rubbish at lying, even telling a white lie, and certainly without lots of time to prepare one.
One of those occasions was when I was going to the pub with a student Jackie and ran into someone en route who decided to join us.
This person had shown an interest in me before, which I was very keen to discourage. Being fellow university academics (but different colleges), I was interested in his work (which is not languages), but it probably gave him the wrong idea.
While drinking with Jackie and me, this chap kept saying that he and I should meet up again for a drink, as he hadn't seen me for such a long time, asking when I'd be able to go for that drink.
In a panic, I blurted out the first thing that came to my head, "I don't usually make appointments beforehand. I tend to just let things happen last minute."
Jackie never let me forget it after that, ribbing me endlessly.
(London, early 2000s)
No comments:
Post a Comment