We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarassingly, A True Story

Sundquist and Sasha have been talking every day. She asks him about why he no longer wears his prosthesis. He tells her that the prosthesis is too uncomfortable and that he can no longer wear it because of nerve damage. While Sundquist prefers not to talk about his amputation with girls he is attracted to, he has learned from experience that people are naturally curious about what is different. Sasha asks whether people treat Sundquist differently because of his leg. He replies that people expect him to be shy and self-conscious and that “they are amazed by my charisma […] but it’s only because their expectations were so low in the first place” (289). Sasha shares that people assume that she is dumb because she is a beautiful blond beauty queen.

Sundquist often travels North Dakota, but he still has not kissed Sasha or had a talk with her to define their relationship. He is reserving the talk for a high-octane event like the Miss America pageant.

Sundquist is certain that Sasha is going to win the Miss America pageant and, also, that she likes him. He turns up to the pageant hoping to surprise her, funding his way there by giving a motivational speech. However, when he arrives at the event, Sasha seems shocked and disappointed at his presence. She does not win the pageant and Sundquist walks around Las Vegas hoping to hear from her. She does not text or call him then, or later. He does not call her either. As his semester at USC finishes, he wonders how he misjudged the situation to such a degree.

Sundquist hypothesizes that Sasha’s behavior at the pageant indicated that she was not interested in him. However, he is confused by her spending so much time on the phone with him, and decides on a face-to-face interview to clarify matters.

Sasha and Sundquist meet a few months after he has interviewed the other women, in a sushi restaurant in North Dakota. She claims that she was distant with him because she was embarrassed about her elimination in the first round of Miss America. When he tries to comfort her, she likens her defeat to his coming 34th in the Paralympics—a finish with which he was disappointed. Her shame prevented her from calling Sundquist, although she liked him and would have wanted him to be her boyfriend. She points out that Sundquist did not call her either.

Sundquist initially thinks there may be a chance for him and Sasha to get together; however, she has another surprise for him. Since they last met, Sasha has become engaged to a man she met three months earlier. She tells Sundquist that “when you know you know […] you just have to meet the right person” (312).

His investigation now complete, Sundquist dislikes its inconclusiveness. There is “no answer, no single unifying explanation as to why I could never find a girlfriend” (315).

One night he goes to a movie where a character loses a limb at the end of the movie. Afterwards, Sundquist sits in a parking lot and cries. He realizes that the movie has brought up the grief he feels over his own lost limb, and that he conducted his investigation to avoid the obvious explanation for his lack of romantic success. It is not the girls he has tried to date who have had a problem with his disability, but Sundquist himself. He admits that he harbored the belief that “the way my body was shaped disqualified me for a romantic relationship” (317).

Sundquist is out dancing in Washington D.C. with his brother and some friends. He wears a tie so that girls will approach him and start a conversation. The strategy works, as two girls in succession approach him. He feels more attraction toward the second girl, who tells him that he is awesome. Sundquist is embarrassed about walking away from the first girl, and fears that he has lost his chance with the second forever. When he finishes speaking to the first girl, he panics that he has let the second girl walk away, as has been his pattern with all the previous women to whom he has been attracted. When he next sees the girl, another guy is hitting on her. He approaches her on the dance floor, just as her friend is trying to lead her away. He catches her name, Ashley Samsonite, before she leaves.

He finds her on Facebook and sends her a bold and friendly message. On their first date, when he sees Ashley for the second time, he feels that she is almost out of his league. However, he remembers his experience with Liza Taylor Smith in high school and decides he will no longer use such an excuse to prevent him from pursuing a girl. On the second date, Sundquist finds that he and Ashley are clicking and he feels comfortable enough to suggest the spontaneous idea of throwing paper airplanes off the roof of a tall building. Sundquist feels that the moment is right to kiss her and does not demur as he usually does with girls. Sundquist feels as though “I had found my girl, and her name was Ashley Samsonite” (337).

While Sundquist is eager to define the relationship and secure Ashley as his girlfriend, she says that although she is committed to him, she would rather wait a while, as Sundquist has never had a relationship and she does not want to be his “guinea-pig girlfriend” (338). She wants to ensure that he is dating her because he likes her and not just because he wants a first girlfriend. While Sundquist feels hurt, he determines to hang in there until the girl he likes is certain that he is the right guy for her.

One night, when they are out on a date, a stranger asks Sundquist when his leg will grow back and offers to buy him a drink when he learns that the answer is never. Sundquist is relieved to see that Ashley thrives in this awkward situation, without becoming too uncomfortable about it.

On another occasion, a waiter informs Sundquist that Ashley has referred to him as her boyfriend. He is delighted at the realization of a dream and concludes that he is the same person as ever, “the one who was always worthy of a relationship, always worthy of love” (345). He and Ashley later become engaged.