Diary of an Oxygen Thief

Aisling shows up to dinner with the narrator a half-hour late: “so clean, young, and adult at the same time. From the moment she walked through the door, my biggest challenge was to hide from her how strongly she affected me” (81). The narrator thinks Aisling looks like the Virgin Mary. He does not expect her to be intelligent and is thrown when she is not charmed by him. He spends the evening playing catch-up, which he is not used to. He talks about himself and finds out she is much more cultured than he is: “I would never have realized that I’d mispronounced the names of all those foreign artists until she pronounced them” (83). She does not correct him rudely, but is gracious, though condescending, about it, talking about growing up wealthy while the narrator falls in love with her. The narrator tries to impress her and fails repeatedly. He thinks she is bored. She drinks Bacardi and Coke. He is charmed by her obvious old-school wealth and comfort with herself and being around men.

Aisling takes the narrator to a gay bar, which the narrator does not realize at first, leaving him alone for a long time while she goes to the bathroom.