untitled (transactional)
John told Mary her breath was beautiful after she had been eating onion sandwiches. Mary said she didn't believe him because, and she stressed this, she had been eating onion sandwiches. John was momentarily dumbstruck. Very few people had ever openly disbelieved him, especially after he had paid them a compliment. John gathered himself and asked Mary if she was calling him a liar. Mary laughed and said yes, she supposed she was, but not in any sort of aggressive way. John just looked at her, so she took it upon herself to explain, though she really didn't know why she should, that she had, really truly, been eating onion sandwiches, that she appreciated the compliment even though they both knew it wasn't true. She further explained, much to John's bafflement, she felt that human interactions could benefit from more openness, more honesty. John interrupted her and said he had never heard anything so ridiculous in his life. Mary was taken aback, and John continued. Human interaction, he said, was absolutely defined by deception, simply because all interactions were transactional, and no one in their right might would or should ever give the farm away, as doing so would give the other person entirely too much power over the first.