Dear Goldman,
Thanks for welcoming me into the JDate community! After careful deliberation, I have decided to plunge head first into the dating pool. Your email has indicated you have done likewise. In other words, I won’t tell if you won’t.
Your Comrade in Singledom,
Sara
P.S. Just remember, I have plenty of info I could use to blackmail you, too!
It only took him five minutes to respond.
Dear Sara,
Please be careful to check the depth of the water before you plunge head first into the dating pool. As some of us have learned, the water can be shallow.
Your Comrade in Singledom,
Adam
I laughed out loud when I read his email. Comfortable now that my personal life would remain personal, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
CHAPTER 3
FEBRUARY 27, 2012
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
WEIGHT: 185 LBS.
STATUS: SINGLE
On Monday, I returned to the boring routine I called my life, treating dramatic girls for their teenage angst. I shared an office suite with my mother, also a psychologist, although she only treated adults. Sometimes she saw the mother, while I treated the daughter. When we initially made the arrangement to share an office, I worried we’d quarrel, as we had when I was younger. Yet, it had worked out rather well over the last two years. I didn’t see much of her, despite sharing office space.
Because my clients tended to be in school for most of the day, I didn’t see my first until three in the afternoon. I spent the few hours prior doing paperwork and other mundane tasks.
I used an answering service for emergency calls, but clients could leave a message on my voicemail, if they chose. Today, the flashing light on the telephone informed me I had at least one. Sitting in my comfy chair with a can of Diet Coke, I listened to my messages.
“Hi, this is Megan Trenton from Detroit Channel Four. We saw the video on YouTube and we’d love to do a segment on you. Please call me back at (248) 555-2455 at your earliest convenience.”
“Hello, Ms. Friedman, my name is Jackson Coulter and I’m calling from the Morning show in New York. We have a proposal we’d like to discuss with you.” He laughed after he said proposal.
I listened to five more messages, all about the wedding video, which, as I’d feared, had made its way onto YouTube. I pulled out a giant-sized candy bar out of my purse and ate it as I waited impatiently for my computer to warm up.
To my horror, I found the video right away on YouTube’s homepage, listed under Most Viewed. It had nearly a million hits in two days and it wasn’t even funny! Why would anyone care about a fat Jewish girl from Michigan? I cringed as I watched myself talking about soul mates and true love. I didn’t recognize the username of the person who posted the video, but with camera phones these days, it could have been anyone from the wedding.
Curiously, plenty of people posted comments in response to the video. I read some negative ones, which commented on my weight and accused me of being desperate, but most comments fell into the supportive category. Apparently, plenty of women could relate to my plight. I had hundreds of women wishing me luck in reaching my goal and even got a few marriage proposals.
For an hour, I debated whether to call the news stations. I worried my name would forever be associated with the lonely single girl desperate for a husband.
I couldn’t make this kind of decision by myself. I needed to ask Missy for her advice.
I dialed her work number, and she answered on the first ring. After filling her in on the video and the media’s phone calls, she hollered at me to call them back and hung up.
I called the local station first and agreed to an interview the following morning, figuring it couldn’t hurt to get my name out there. Maybe I’d even get a few dates out of the publicity.
Then I called the Morning show, choosing it over some of the other ones, because that’s the one I watched. I spoke to Jackson, one of the producers of the show. They wanted to follow my story for the year and offered to throw me a wedding if I succeeded on meeting my soul mate!
I thought about how romantic it would be to have all of America watch my wedding on television. Naturally, I accepted. Jackson said they’d send the paperwork and advised me to have an attorney review it before I faxed it back to him.
Only one attorney came to mind.
Goldman.
I may dislike him, but I knew from my brother that Adam was an excellent attorney.
I studied his bio from his firm’s website. He practiced corporate and real estate, so he could review a contract for me. I tried to ignore the picture of him that accompanied his bio, but I couldn’t help myself. It had been taken recently, because he wore his hair shorter now in a feeble attempt to rid himself of his head of black curls. He used to wear it longer, and I always imagined playing with the ends of his hair that fell on the back of his collar.