So I had this dream last night — I think I was working out a scene in my head.

Girl meets guy. Girl is hot; sorta Amanda Peet with a little more meat on her bones. Girl is also gay — I got the impression this was a fairly recent realization for her. Guy is sort of dorky but not too bad and smart/funny. They are hitting it off and joking around and the guy, summoning up his nerve, asks her to dinner.

Not having been faced with this situation before, the girl has to think on her feet: how to tell the nice guy no and explain why without it getting impossibly awkward.

And she says, “I think I’ll have to take a rainbow check on that.” The guy frowns for a second, get it in a moment of eye-widened understanding, and the budding friendship continues.

I could feel how proud the girl was, both of handling the situation and of coming up with such a quirky little phrase. When I woke up I thought it was pretty nifty too.

Now, my question: what the hell? Is this just some phrase that I subconsciously picked up from somewhere and inserted as my own idea or was I playing word-games in my sleep? Curious minds want to know.

Also: how corny is that phrase? In this Harry-met-Sally scene in my head, it fit like a glove but I can’t help imagining every gay friend I have rolling their eyes and thinking “Jesus, straight white boy just doesn’t get it.”

Frankly, I think it's a remarkably clever phrase. If not in general circulation, it should be.

could be soon...

I need to work it into a story, I think. Seemed like an interesting scene while I was watching it, anyway.

sharp

I could see a girl using it, but not a guy. Not this guy, anyway. It's just too...Cute.

I'm still trying to get "mo" closer to mainstream adjective/noun use, but it's hard to tell whether this has picked up or not as I don't live in an English-speaking country.

Given general social trends, it's the sort of question that wouldn't likely be used by a gay guy. How often do straight women ask out gay men?

Or maybe I'm being naive.