Dating : REAL LOVE

ALTHEA & FRANKIE

Frankie Cohen was having a very average day. He had spent his morning cleaning up his Condo in South Florida. Living alone was sometimes a real pleasure and other times he could feel the pangs of loneliness surging through his soul. There was however no reason to let the Condo get dirty, so after washing the floors, vacuuming the carpet and squeegeeing his shower’s glass door, he was ready to get to work.

As a contracted speechwriter he stayed busy putting together words for Chief Executive Officers who wanted to impress their employees, the media and the world at large. Frankie always believed that if the CEO practiced his words instead of reading them off teleprompters, their speeches would come across as authentic and heartfelt, but nine out of ten times that’s not what happened. Frankie couldn’t count the number of times he cringed when he heard an overpaid executive mispronounce words and throw in poorly timed inappropriate adlibs.

Today’s speech was about revolutions in Home Heating equipment. New Sensors and advanced heating coils would lead to warm homes and cost reductions. The best part of everything and the unique selling point was the Furnaces were being assembled in the good old USA. Frankie smirked when he read the specs from The American Heating Life Corporation, they didn’t mention to consumers that all the heating parts were being manufactured in Mexico and China. Frankie turned on his computer and began to write.

He had finished the first paragraph which was the introduction of the Chief Executive Officer by the Marketing Director when he decided to check his Business In Touch Network.

Frankie had ended up doing some good business with people he had met through the BIT site. Unfortunately, there were no new messages but a bunch of his associates had connected with a woman named Althea Clarke. She had created an app that allowed for quick and easy financial transactions from your phone. There was something about her profile picture that intrigued Frankie so he sent a request to connect.

Two minutes later he was accepted as a connection so he thought he’d write a quick note. ‘’Hi Althea, Your app intrigues me. I thought your profile was amazing and I hope we get a chance to work/do business together. All the Best, Frankie. Ps. I know this isn’t very professional, but I thought you had a great smile in your picture.’’

Frankie went back to speech writing and made some great progress. He was having a bit of a problem fitting in the benefits of the space-age heat retention and dispersion coil in the third paragraph when he hit save and decided to look at his BIT account again.

Much to his surprise and delight, there was a note from Althea. ‘’Hi Frankie, I thought your profile was pretty impressive as well. I love South Florida, my friends have a Condo in Hallandale, Beach. I am planning to visit this winter. Do you ever get to New York City? Maybe we can meet for a coffee someday. Ciao for Now, Althea’’

Frankie responded that he was hoping to meet her before the winter and the messages between them accelerated. They were writing back and forth like they had known each other for years.

Frankie had lost all interest in writing the speech he had been hired to do for The American Heating Life Corporation, all he could think about was having his next interaction with Althea. She had captured his mind and his heart in record time. In fact, he started looking at flights to New York City.

Althea made the suggestion that maybe they could FaceTime and when they did, Frankie was completely and totally speechless. For the first time in his life, he was at a loss for words, Althea was without a doubt his dream woman, he was one hundred percent in love. He didn’t know how it could have happened so fast as he really didn’t know her, but there was the ‘’ J’nai sais qua’’ element that made his heart sing.

She talked about how she had met a guy and married him because she thought he was the real deal. She had grown up in a broken home and all she ever wanted was real love. She had one child from the marriage. When she created her app big money came in, and life changed dramatically. She caught her husband having a sexual relationship with their nanny and a messy and ugly divorce followed. Now she was nervous about a new ‘’could it be true’’ relationship but she was ready.

When Frankie told her about the speech he needed to finish, she was encouraging and asked if she could help, and together they wrote (at least in Frankie’s mind) a masterpiece. It was verified, when the Public Relations people from American Heating Life Corporation called to tell him ‘’The CEO loved, loved, the speech.’’

Things could not have been better. Every night at eleven o’clock, Frankie and Althea had a FaceTime conversation and things started getting more and more intimate. Althea put on lingerie that made Frankie salivate. This was the most perfect woman he had ever met. His heart raced when he saw her and he could never get enough of talking to her.

One night Althea told Frankie she could see them spending the rest of their lives together and Frankie agreed one hundred percent. He had been in love before, but it wasn’t anything like he was feeling when he spoke with Althea. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was. He couldn’t believe she was interested in him. He had never been involved with anybody like her before. She was smart, sexy, and had an amazing sense of humour.

She started mentioning that her friends didn’t believe he was real. That Frankie was some kind of apparition, a FaceTime mirage. She said he needed to book his tickets to New York and be prepared to spend real time with her. They would make love every morning and every night and they would make up for all the time they had been apart.

If things went right when they were together, they would get married and spend the rest of their lives together, enjoying every minute of every day.

Frankie was all in. He called Althea and couldn’t contain himself. ‘’I have loved you before I met you. You are the woman I have spent my entire life searching for, you check off every box. You’re smart, funny, beautiful and I can’t get enough of you. I want to be with you forever and ever.’’ Althea smiled back at him ‘’Well, put on your big boy pants and hop on the plane, I’ll pick you up at Laguardia. My Condo’s on the Upper West Side. I can’t wait Frankie, I can’t stop thinking about you either. I am truly, totally in love with you. I know you are my soulmate and our feelings are real. Please call me with all your flight details. Love You.’’

After hanging up, Frankie went online and started looking at flights to New York from Fort Lauderdale, he had found one with Cheapo air when his phone rang, he didn’t look at the call display, he just grabbed it and said ‘’Hi Honey, I’m just looking at flights, why didn’t you FaceTime instead of audio calling.’’

The voice at the other end wasn’t Althea, it was Jodi, Frankie’s sister. ‘Hi, Frankie, who is your honey? Have you reunited with Sandra? Anyways, you need to book a flight immediately, I have some bad news, are you sitting down?’’

Frankie stared at the phone, he had gone from elation to concern. ‘’No, not Sandra we haven’t talked to each other in months. She met a guy who was in property development and decided to go away with him. They went for a weekend together to the Turks and Caicos. I found out about it when Sandy and I went out for dinner, and when we went back to her place, her travel companion and new lover showed up for dessert. That’s when the confession happened. I was hurt and shocked but slowly the pain has gone away. I haven’t dated anyone for a while, but I met a woman online who I’m completely crazy about. She’s everything I have ever wanted. I think I’m completely in love.’’ There was a long pause before Jodie spoke ‘’Listen, Frankie, you’re vulnerable, the Sandra thing was tough, you were involved with her for five years. You might be rebounding, we’ll talk about it. But you have to come back to Toronto as fast you can. It’s Mom, she’s not well. I don’t want to scare you, but the quicker you get here, the better. She’s at Mount Sinai Hospital. She’s had a seizure.’’

Frankie Cohen almost dropped the phone. His Mother was his everything, she had always supported him emotionally and when the situation called for it, financially. He was able to mutter a goodbye and hang up. He immediately booked a flight to Toronto for the next morning. He knew he had to get back as soon as possible, he had to see his Mom, he would never forgive himself if he missed letting her know how much he loved her.

He looked at the clock and wanted to FaceTime Althea but he felt drained. It was the first time he had talked about what had happened with Sandra, and it was painful. He was extremely nervous about his Mother and even though he had feelings for Althea, he didn’t want to discuss the situation. He just couldn’t explain his emotions. He felt it was very important to just be by himself. He sat out on his balcony looking at the Ocean feeling a tremendous sadness. It was hard to believe that it a matter of minutes he went from happy-go-lucky to feeling beaten up.

The flight to Toronto was uneventful and Frankie arrived at the Hospital to find his Mother completely out of it. He knew things were not good. He spent the entire day and night. The next morning he went home to his parent’s house to sleep for a couple of hours before going back to the hospital.

When he woke up he called Althea who was very bubbly and up and he relayed his sad news. She was very compassionate and lovely but wanted to know when he thought he was going to get to New York. Frankie knew that was the last thing on his radar and tried to explain that he needed to find out how his Mom was going to be and take it from there. He was at a point where making plans was beyond difficult. She said she understood and Frankie went back to the Hospital.

Frankie stayed till eight-thirty pm and left. He walked out of the room when Nurses were looking for ways to take blood. He had mixed emotions, he felt he should have stayed but Jodi had suggested they would go together early the next morning.

At two am the phone rang to tell Frankie that Mrs. Cohen had passed in her sleep. The blow was devastating. Jodi called the Funeral Home and Alan headed over to the hospital to stay with his Mom until the Funeral home picked her up.

On the way over to the hospital, he called Althea to pass on the news, and she was very warm and loving and expressed her deepest sympathies. She asked if he wanted her to fly in for the funeral, but Frankie suggested it would be better if she didn’t. He didn’t want their first in-person meeting to be at a funeral.

She also mentioned she had been admitted to an MBA program at NYU but would take a pass as she wanted to devote herself to their relationship. Frankie told her he thought it would be a bad idea. She shouldn’t pass up a tremendous opportunity for the sake of someone else. He would feel terrible if she didn’t get her MBA because of him, she might regret it later in life. Althea said it was her choice, but Frankie was insistent she continue her education. He didn’t want to be the one who stopped her amazing progress.

In the Jewish faith, there is a seven day Shiva period. After the funeral, everybody comes to the family home to pay respect. There’s a prayer service in the morning and the evening and guests came during the day. Meals are sent in for the family every day, and love is showered on those in mourning. During the seven days, Frankie called Althea a couple of times, but it was quick calls and more or less updates on what had been happening. He just couldn’t find the strength to talk.

Once Shiva was over there was a thirty day period called ‘’Shloshim’’ that Frankie intended to honour. That meant no intimacy and prayer services twice a day. Men also don’t shave. After thirty days, Frankie started looking like a member of ZZ Top.

Althea called a few times at night, sometimes wearing lingerie to make Frankie feel better but it was difficult. Looking and not touching had become a harder task for both of them.

During the thirty days, Althea called and asked Frankie why he couldn’t come to New York and stay at her place and go to prayers from there. Frankie tried to explain that he just didn’t feel it was right, he needed to be with his family and it was the start of a chasm forming. Something was off and Frankie didn’t know why. He had super strong feelings for Althea but he also needed time to feel like himself again.

After the thirty days instead of flying to New York, Frankie went back to Florida. He promised himself he would look after a couple of speeches and book a flight, but before he could do it, Althea called via FaceTime and told him he was causing her tremendous embarrassment as people were questioning her credibility and if their relationship was even real.

Frankie said he didn’t know how to answer, he just didn’t know when he could get to New York, He still felt raw inside and that was it. Althea bid him goodnight and was gone.

At Three Thirty in the morning the phone rang and it was Althea. She vented. She was frustrated and shared everything she had been feeling. She had felt excluded from the family at the funeral, and couldn’t understand his reticence to come to New York to be with her. She didn’t believe he was real and honest and felt he had been leading her on since he met her. His early morning response was weak and not convincing. He tried to tell he had genuinely fallen completely and totally in love with her but was dealing with a lot of tough situations. It came across as insincere and Althea wanted more, she wanted actions, not excuses. The call ended with a thunderous ‘’Fuck You for breaking my heart and wasting my time’’ and it was over.

Frankie and Althea were done as quickly as they started. Over the next few weeks, Frankie stayed away from BIT and didn’t even want to think about Althea but it was impossible.

After months of no communication, he shyly went online to check out what Althea was up to, and couldn’t find a clue. However, when he looked at her daughter’s facebook page there were huge congrats to Althea for entering the Executive MBA program. Frankie felt a strange satisfaction knowing she was pursuing her degree. He knew she was brilliant, with or without the degree but this degree would be one more indicator of how intellectually amazing she really was. He knew she would do very well, and felt a sense of relief.

Its been five years since the relationship fizzled out, and there is not one day that goes by that Frankie doesn’t think about making a FaceTime call and telling Althea how much he regrets what happened to them. His love for Althea is for all time. Their short relationship was the essence of pure. There was no subterfuge, it was honest and caring. It was one hundred percent real. Frankie cherished every second he communicated with Althea. Frankie knows he will always carry Althea in his heart and his feelings for her will never disappear. There is no one who will ever compare with the most incredible woman he had ever met.

Sometimes in life plans don’t go as expected. Frankie Cohen is proof positive. He thought he had found his true soulmate but for reasons, he will never understand it just wasn’t meant to be.

Today, Frankie is still writing speeches, but he is a different person. He doesn’t have the same joie de vivre he used to have since he and Althea went their separate ways. A great writer Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote ‘’T’is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’’ When Frankie Cohen thinks about his relationship with Althea he completely disagrees, he will never get over the lost part.