OK, OK, you know you want to. Just get it over with.
Bracing herself as though for a dental appointment, she marched to her laptop and tapped the keyboard.
Clickety-clack, clickety-clack . . . bring it on, destiny!
Her Yahoo account appeared, and her heart leaped when she saw the NEW MESSAGE. The sender was from BIG BEAUTIFUL DATING and the subject matter read: ‘Hi, would like to get to know you better’.
Jessica’s excitement mounted. No man had ever said those words to her before. Careful, she told herself, even though her pulse was suddenly pounding. Don’t get your hopes up.
She seated herself before her laptop and clicked the message open.
‘Dear Jessica,
I read your profile and I was very touched by how honest and humble you are. I love eating baked goods, taking romantic walks in the park, on the beach, everywhere . . . and reading too. Additionally, I love fast cars and someone with whom to share rides in them.
I am not the sort of guy who would try to change a woman. Why else would I be dating her if I wanted her to be someone else? I’m very much into monogamy as well and am looking for ‘the one’ who will change my life forever.
Please write me back and I hope we can meet.
Kyle.’
She was stunned.
Meet?
Her?
Someone wanted to meet her! She should be spinning hoops!
But wait. Perhaps he was a troll. She shouldn’t get too excited just yet. He might be really ugly, and this might be the only way he could get to date any woman. She clicked on the link to his profile and it led to the website.
You should be talking about trolls! You are in no place to judge or pick and choose.
His profile appeared.
This time she was floored.
Of course, she reminded herself that ‘Kyle’ could have posted a stock photo he derived from the net. And when she finally met him, the truth would be revealed. Because the man in the photo staring back at the camera was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen on an online profile. What was a guy who looked like this doing on any dating website, let alone a Big, Beautiful Dating Website?
‘Kyle’ had dark, just-out-of-bed hair which was mussed up sexily and the most blazing blue eyes Jessica had ever seen. His nose was as sculptured as a statue’s, and his cheekbones were something a plastic surgeon would put on a display model. His mouth was wide, generous and very alluring. He could have been a model, an actor, or a member of a boy band.
His neck was thick but graceful, and the slope of his shoulders and chest underneath the tight white tee he was wearing suggested that he worked out.
OK.
He was an illusion.
She should delete the email right now and forget all about this. Trash her account and put it out of her mind as one bad dream. But his caption arrested her:
‘KYLE, 24.
Looking for the special someone who will make my life complete. I love big, beautiful women. I always have. I think I owe it all to my late mother, who was a BBW herself. She taught me to see both inner beauty and the larger package which contains it. I know this may sound trite but it’s true. So give me a chance to prove it.’
She blinked, and then read it again. Something about the way he wrote ‘inner beauty and the larger package which contains it’ struck a chord with her. She didn’t think it was just a line.
She stared at his photo again.
Should she reply to him? Should she meet him?
Every fiber in her was screaming to ‘REPLY’.
But wait. She shouldn’t be so hasty. She should ask the love expert, Lyla. Lyla would know what to do.
MEETING
“Are you crazy?” Lyla’s shriek almost splintered Jessica’s eardrums.
She clapped her hands to her ears.
“Let me look at him again.” Lyla grabbed the laptop and blew up ‘Kyle’s’ photo. “Oh my God, he’s surreal. And he lives in the same city as we do!”
“I know. That’s why I’m so reluctant to write to him.”
Lyla let out an expletive. “If he’s a troll, you’d be reluctant to write him. But he’s not!”
“That’s why I’m convinced he’s too good to be true.”
Lyla set the laptop down on the bed and seized Jessica’s shoulders. “There’s only one way to find out.”
“I know you’re going to say that – ”
Lyla had already frantically typed something on the keyboard.
“Huh? Wait, what’re you doing?” Jessica stammered. “Hey, you’re not writing to him, are you?”
“If I left it up to you, you’d ruminate till next weekend and someone else will get him.”
Jessica peered over Lyla’s shoulder. Lyla was on her Yahoo account and she was typing a message: