They’re virtual friends only, men and women scattered from here in Fort Myers to Virginia, Ohio and Pakistan.

Yet, somehow we’ve connected on Facebook and exchange book and movie recommendations and discuss journalism and the weirdness that is Florida.

At the moment, I’m sitting in the corner of a Starbucks typing away on my MacBook, trying to fashion this post into something coherent. If any of my Facebook Friends I’ve Never Met walked by I wouldn’t recognize them.

Not cousin Rita from Alexandria, Va.

Not Connie, who lives across the state in Hollywood.

Not Craig, the crackerjack Tampa Bay Times environmental reporter.

Not Mary, the photographer from Columbus, Ohio.

Not Ahsan, the Pakistani journalist who lives in Lahore.

Not Stephen, an actor here in Fort Myers.

Yet, they are among my favorite people in the world, virtual or real. Of these the only one I may have theoretically met in person is Stephen, who resides only a few miles away from me. I may have seen him on a local stage but I don’t recall if I have or not.

All these virtual friends share traits with me, such as a love of movies, literature, journalism and a heightened sense of the absurd. Rita and Stephen are also baseball fans.

Somehow, someway, I wonder what it would be like to gather all of them together in a restaurant or Starbucks for a chat.

How would it go?

How would it happen?

Would they be as engaging and intelligent in person as they appear on Facebook?

Would we ever run out of things to talk about?

Would we ramble on from morning coffee and through lunch and then dinner?

What would everybody order?

Maybe the best plan would be to meet with these Facebook Friends I’ve Never Met one at a time.

But the thought of gathering them all in one place is appealing. It might be another version of the Calusa Round Table, a group of writers I meet with for lunch every Friday at Gwendolyn’s Café in downtown Fort Myers.

The Facebook Friend I’ve Never Met I most want to meet is Rita, my cousin from Virgnia. Her last name is Mattia. My paternal grandmother’s first name was Roma and her maiden name was Mattia.

My sister and Rita somehow connected on ancestry.com and now Rita and I are the best of virtual friends. We love books and exchange recommendations and mini-reviews. Did you read this? What do you think of that writer? What made that book good or that book disappointing?

Plus, Rita is a big baseball fan. So the books, baseball and shared bloodline makes her the first among equals among the Facebook Friends I’ve Never Met.

When our imaginary lunch plans are made, Rita will have a seat of honor at the table.

Of course, I’d be honored to sit at any table anywhere with any of my Facebook Friends I’ve Never Met.

There is Connie, who attended high school in St. Petersburg about the same time as me. She lives on Florida’s east coast with her husband. She reads and comments often on my blog, making intelligent, insightful and downright profound comments.

I’m honored not only that she reads this blog but also takes the time to comment. We connected through mutual Facebook friend Jeff Klinkenberg.

I imagine Rita and Connie would hit it off famously over coffee or lunch.

Jeff wrote for many years at the Tampa Bay Times, where my Facebook friend Craig now works. Craig is an expert on the wackiness that is Florida and often posts amusing comments on Facebook and Twitter.

Plus, like my other Facebook Friends I’ve Never Met he is a big reader. Craig often posts mini-reviews of books he’s read and I then comment on his comments.

Then there’s Mary, far away Mary in Ohio. She’s a photographer and I believe once worked at the Fort Myers News-Press before I started there in 1987. Mary is smart and funny and knows journalism and loved her job at the paper.

I’m sure she’d fit right in with the rest of the gang, the other Facebook Friends I’ve Never Met.

Mary used to live here in Fort Myers and Stephen lives here now. Like Connie and I, he attended high school up the road in St. Petersburg. We went to different high schools within a few years of each other.

Connie is an alumna of Boca Ciega High and Stephen graduated from St. Petersburg High and I somehow or other was able to make it through Northeast High. The hometown connection isn’t why I’d like Stephen and Connie at lunch.

Like the others on this list, Stephen is smart and knows movies and history and the theater and sports and the law. I’m pretty sure he’s a lawyer because whenever a legal issue arises on Facebook, he’s able to cite a precedent that is pertinent to the discussion.

I imagine Stephen will get along famously with everybody else at our gathering.

Finally, we’ll need to find a way to get Ahsan to the states for lunch unless the rest of us can find our way to Lahore, where he works as a copy editor for the Dawn Media Group.

I’m sure Ahsan knows many fine restaurant in Lahore.

Like all the others, I’ve never met Ahsan and know him only through Facebook posts. He’s also one of my loyal blog readers.

I can’t begin to tell you how flattered I am that somebody in Pakistan takes the time to read this blog and make nice comments. That is Ahsan.

I’m sure Ahsan would enjoy lunch with all my Facebook Friends I’ve Never Met.

Someday, maybe, that will happen. Not likely but it is nice to conjure up the idea of such a get-together.

I have one question, though, if that unlikely event happens.

Who is going to pick up the tab?