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"I am actually. Which is more of a surprise to me than anyone else. I feel happy and carefree again for the first time in a long time. Your love consultancy is working. I'll have to hire you more often." Cristina grinned and stared more closely at the screen.
Sally frowned. "Great. Well, it's not all good news I'm afraid. I went through all the responses, more come in every day so it took forever to get through them all. And, I narrowed the list down to the most suitable candidates, if you will. Thing is, I contacted a few of them and each one sent me weird replies so maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all."
"Oh, really? I though you said this site wasn't like the other ones. Are we wasting our time in that case?"
"Cristina, I asked Mary, one of the girls in Manchester, about it. I told you about how they met their husbands online. And she told me the secret is to write a profile that limits the responses you get. Otherwise you get inundated with messages from perverts and the guys with beards like a bush."
"Which is exactly what we're dealing with. So, how do we fix my profile?"
"Mary checked out your profile and edited it for me. She's amazing with words and your profile reads completely differently now, plus it should only attract attention from guys who are looking for a serious relationship.Take a look."
Cristina leaned forward and scanned her new profile. "Wow, that's amazing. I'd date myself after reading that. So, any hot guys want to date me since that was changed?"
"The changes only went live early this morning so it's too soon to tell if it's going to work. You did get one new message an hour ago though from NewToThis. He sounds hot. Here, look…"
Cristina played with her hair absentmindedly as she read the message. "Hey, you're good, really good. He does sound like my kind of man. but there's no photo. Oh, it says he only joined the site today and his profile hasn't been completed yet. Okay, once I see what he looks like I'll put him at the top of the maybe short list."
"So, what have you been up to Sally?"
"Nothing much really. Working like a dog as usual. I saw my sister yesterday and I had a blast playing with her kids. They are 3 and 6 already. I spent all afternoon getting chased around the garden. I was completely and utterly exhausted afterwards."
"Sounds like fun. So, how does your sister handle life without her career?"
Sally took a sip of her coffee. "She adores it. As I mentioned before she was the last one in our family any of us thought would be the maternal kind but she surprised us all. She's a great mother and although she feels like pulling her hair out at times, she says, she wouldn't take her old life back for all the money in the world."
"And she was a big shot too. The one most likely to be running the consultancy a few years down the road. That's quite a turnaround. Well, good for her, I'm happy for her." Cristina paused and played with her coffee cup before continuing. "And what about you Sally? Any new guys on the scene?"
Sally rolled her eyes. "Not right now I'm afraid. I'm just snowed under with work. I reckon if I just keep my head down for a few more years I'll be set up for life. I just don't have the time for a man. I don't even have the time to look after a goldfish. Seriously."
"Oh great, so while you're putting my neck on the line and expecting me to fend off the weirdos, you're officially off the dating scene. That's just great Sally," Cristina teased.
"I do have a good excuse though," Sally laughed.
Cristina stared into space for a moment and then looked back to Sally. "I've been doing some serious thinking since you helped me get out of that misery I was wallowing in. I started to remember that when I was happy with Greg and when I was unhappy had very little to do with anyone else but me."
"What do you mean? Spill the beans Cristina, enough riddles."
"I mean, when I look back over the years with Greg I had some of the happiest moments of my life. And then, other times, it seemed like no matter what I did, it just wasn't enough. I didn't get the love I needed so badly. I blamed him for that. And little by little we stopped talking about our needs and we just coasted. We assumed everything would work itself out. Now I can see I was completely wrong. There was one glaring difference between when I was happy and when I was unhappy in the relationship."
"There you go again. More riddles. Come on, get to the point or I'm walking out of here," Sally groaned.
"The big difference was this. When I was loving I was happy. But when I was craving Greg's love and attention I was miserable. No matter what he did for me, I just needed more and more reassurance. And the next day, even more. He could never care enough or tell me often enough that he loved me.
"I never noticed this before. I guess it's a decision to be loving and happy. A moment to moment decision. When I chose to love I was happy, we had harmony in our relationship and he loved me deeply. That was the irony of it all."
"Hmm. Interesting. Very interesting. Maybe you should write a book," Sally joked. "Or maybe you could reveal the secrets to finding love online, you certainly get enough interest."
"Yeah right Sally. Hey, back to that site for a minute. Can you send a message to that guy for me?"
"The one with no photo? What was his nickname again? You mean that guy NewToThis?" Sally raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, he had an amazing profile, could be a good match, you never know. Ask him if he'd like to meet up for coffee, that way if he does look scary I'll be able to escape after a quick espresso, ha ha." Cristina decided not to mention it but this guy was like her ex, maybe she had a type after all even though she'd never noticed before.
"Okay, consider it done SundayCoffee. And unfortunately it's time for me to go Cristina, see you next week," Sally got up to leave and hugged her friend before dashing to the train station.
Cristina enjoyed a leisurely walk to the local boutiques and was soon lost in a sea of silk scarves when twenty minutes later her phone buzzed. The text from Sally confirmed a date with the photo less guy for Monday at 6 p.m.
Cristina stormed out of the shop and click clacked quickly down the street, she needed to think. Oh my God, tomorrow! What was Sally up to? Okay, I 'll just text her back and cancel that. Is she completely nuts? I know I said I was ready to move on, but, come on, give me another week to get my head together, really. Anyway, I don't even know what this guy looks like. This is sheer madness. I must be more desperate than I thought to be going ahead with this.
