Story by – Story Man

Mallory sat on her bed, staring out at the blowing palm trees, a smile crept on her face.  Today would be one year since her entire life had changed.  A black car pulled up the driveway and Mallory finished buttoning her blouse and as she picked up a card off the nightstand she ran down the stairs to the front door.  The envelope read, “Happy 1 Year My Love”.

Mallory was in her early forties, lived alone, had a great job, great friends, but no one special in her life.  It really didn’t bother her too much, she had a few long term relationships that ended and she wasn’t really sure that she wanted to get involved again.  Her friends urged her to join the online dating world, but she didn’t believe in it and didn’t think it really worked.  Belonging to an age group that was on the outer edge of online technology, she dabbled in and out of the current trends.  Here thirty year old friends were completely immersed in it and dated online, belonged to social networks and tweeted their every move all day long.

Eventually, Mallory succumbed to the pressure to at least put up a profile on one of the most popular social networks – MySpace.  All her friends were on there and they were always telling her how great it was to be able to keep in touch and up to date on what everyone was doing, not to mention reconnect with old friends and even meet new ones.  At their urging, she finally took the plunge one night.  Sitting home alone on her computer she thought, “what the heck”, and created her online profile.  What Mallory didn’t know what that this would mark the day that one of her greatest journeys was about to begin.

“Wow, I can’t believe it”, were most of the comments Mallory received on her first day as a social networker.  As the weeks passed, all her regular friends sent her friend requests and posts were going back and forth.  Mallory had to admit, it was fun!  She could see pictures of her friend Marcia’s baby and Diane’s trip to the Netherlands.  She became privy to some cool gossip and soon couldn’t wait to get online to see what new and interesting things were going on.

Since her profile was public, she would also receive emails from random people asking to be her friend.  Some were old schoolmates, old colleagues or people with common interests.  And some were guys, sending a shout out, trying to strike up a conversation and a possible date.  Mallory usually deleted those pretty quickly, but one night she received one where the subject line, for some reason, caught her attention.  It wasn’t the usually “hey baby”, it was just a simple hello.  When she opened it she loved the style of what he wrote.  “I came upon your profile picture and was quite struck by you.  I would love to get to know you better.  If you want to chat here is my instant messenger id”.  He signed it simple ~C.  Mallory click on his picture and the page opened to his profile.  She looked around a bit then clicked on the photos tab.  The pictures were beautiful.  It looked like he was a model or something, strikingly handsome. “This can’t be him”, she thought.  She remembered how some of her friends who dated online had told her about guys they met on the dating sites only to find out that they used model pictures that were not even them.  They would then meet them and the guys would just say that the pictures were taken a while ago, or they gained weight or changed their hair.  Mallory thought that is what this was and closed the page.  That night she couldn’t stop thinking about M.  He kept popping into her mind.

The next day, filled with curiosity she clicked on his profile again and began to read more about him.  She had a lot in common with him and he seemed really genuine.  She began to probe and click around on his friends.  Sure enough she found pictures of him with his friends.  All kinds of different pictures with different friends on a bunch of different friend pages.  He seemed legit.  Those pictures of him, really were him.  Mallory was amazed.  But then her heart sank.  She looked at his age and he was only 25.  Disappointed, but flattered, she decided to write back.  “Thank you for the compliment.  You are quite handsome and I am very flattered that a young boy like you would find me attractive.  Did no happen to notice how old I am?”, she wrote.  He returned her email by simply stating that age didn’t matter and would she like to chat.  Mallory didn’t know what to do.  Not only was he way too young, he lived all the way across the country.  Mallory was a New Yorker and lived in Manhattan on the lower west side.  He was all the way in Los Angeles.  She decided to just let it go.

A week passed, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her mysterious young pen pal.  One night, feeling particularly lonely, she read his email again.  She saw his instant message id and decided to see if he was online.  She typed his id in and said “hi, this is Mallory from MySpace”.  Hesitating for a second, she hit send.  She waited a few minutes and nothing.  “This is crazy”, she thought.  She went about her nightly ritual, making some dinner, tidying up the house, and getting her clothes ready for the next day.  All of a sudden the familiar ding of a message received rang in her ears.  She stopped in her tracks.  “Oh my God, it’s him”, she said out loud to her self.  She ran to the computer and there it was.  “Hi Darlin’, how are you?” is stared at her on her screen.  Hands shaking, she could barely type, “I am great, how are you doing?”.  They began chatting and the conversation flowed very smoothly.  Mallory was surprised at how intelligent and mature he seemed and how much she enjoyed chatting with him.  An hour passed quickly before she realized how long they were online with each other.  She didn’t want to reveal too much about herself, for fear of all the horror stories she heard about meeting guys online.  The conversation was pleasant, but had a sensual tone to it.  For some reason, Mallory didn’t feel uncomfortable about this.

They said goodnight and he promised to write her again soon.   In about a month’s time, the two had chatted at least a few times per week.  Whenever Mallory heard the tone of her instant messenger sound, she would run, heart pounding to her computer to chat with her mystery man.  In the month that passed she had learned a lot about him but still felt she knew pretty little.  She wanted to keep it a fantasy and they never exchanged numbers.  The conversations began to get more and more sensual and she could not believe how much she began to desire him.

One night she decided to bite the bullet and agreed to speak on the phone.  She took his number and blocked hers and then made the call.  His voice sounded so amazing and he was everything she expected him to be.  The way he wrote and the way he spoke, just filled her with such a giddy feeling.  She had done some research on him by searching his friends, looking up his name and seeing what type of comments his friends left for him.  He seemed very well liked, family oriented and well educated.  Mallory just felt like this was too good to be true.  But to her it was a fantasy that she was living out in her own head and nothing that would ever materialize.  She asked him why he would want to be speaking to someone in their 40’s when he could get any hot girl in her twenties.  His simple response was, “I enjoy our conversations, we talk about stuff that 20 year olds just don’t get.  I have always liked older women and I think you are great!”  Mallory’s heart soared.  But she became increasingly more frightened by the feelings she was beginning to have for him.  He filled most of her thoughts, often making her stop and smile.  She dreamed about him at night and woke up looking forward to speaking with him.

Months passed and she hadn’t been out on a date.  All she wanted to do was talk for hours on the phone to her far away lover.  Cuddled up in her bed they would often talk all night, sometimes venturing into forbidden territory, which added to the mystery and excitement of their relationship.  Mallory knew this could never go anywhere, but she was becoming obsessed.  She couldn’t let it go.  She tried to go a day without speaking to him and realized she missed him.  “I miss him?”, she thought.  “How can I miss him, I never even met him.”  This is when Mallory came to the realization that maybe she should just meet him once.  It had been 6 months and she genuinely enjoyed him.  He had told her he wanted to meet, but she always changed the subject.

One night during their phone calls he mentioned that he was coming home to visit his family in Connecticut.  Mallory jumped at the chance.  He asked if she wanted to meet for a drink in the New York City one night while he was in town.  “Yes!  Let’s do it”, she exclaimed.  Happiness with her decision soon turned to fear as the day neared.  She began to doubt herself.  “What if he thinks I look old in person”, she thought.  “What if we don’t hit it off and it is awkward.  Then the whole fantasy will be over”, she worried.  But finally the day arrived.  They agreed to go to a local bar in Manhattan, close to the Union Square station.  She stood on the corner shaking and watching people come up from the subway station.  She knew what he looked like from all the pictures she had seen.

Then, there at the bottom of the stairs, she saw a fedora black hat and a dark wine colored leather jacked.  Her heart raced, she knew it was him.  The figure started up the stairs and as he got closer, he looked up and there they were.  Those amazing blue eyes, bluer than she had ever imagined, sparkly and piercing, and there they were, looking right at her.  It was him!  He looked exactly as he did in his pictures, only better!  Without realizing it she ran towards the top of the stairs and threw her arms around his neck as he lifted her off the ground.  “Wow you are a gorgeous little thing Darlin”, he said as he put her down and stepped back a bit to look at her.  Blushing Mallory looked down.  She couldn’t look directly into those amazing eyes, it physically melted her.  He grabbed her hand and they began walking towards the bar.  Amazingly, the conversation flew.  They had so much to talk about that all her fears slipped away.  He was so easy to be with and she felt immediately at ease.

They both ordered a drink and never took their eyes off each other.  They talked about everything and anything and he complimented her immensely, which made her feel great.  She new he was a bit of a playboy, but he seemed so very nice.  Mallory could feel herself falling for him already and she knew she was in trouble.  What was she going to do with this young stud?  She felt like this was a dream and could not believe that it was happening to her.  Did she just meet someone online that she really connected with?  She thought it was impossible.  How could she, Mallory, Miss skeptical, have met the most amazing person she ever met in her life – online?

A tap on the shoulder brought her out of her thoughts and back into reality.  It was a bouncer.  As she looked around the room she realized it was now empty.  The bouncer was telling her to wrap it up and that the bar was closing.  She was so wrapped up in her guy that she didn’t even realize what was going on around her.  She didn’t think he did either because he seemed just as surprised.  As they exited the bar, Mallory didn’t want to part ways.  She quickly invited him back to her place for some coffee.

Back at her apartment, they sat on the couch waiting for the coffee to brew.  Colton slid his arm around her and with his other hand pulled her chin towards his.  He placed the softest kiss on Mallory’s lips.  A chill of excitement went up her spine.  She hesitated and then kissed him back.  The kissing was amazing.  She never wanted it to stop, but soon realized that things were going too fast for her.  How could this young guy be so experienced and so smooth?  This was just a dream to her and she felt herself drifting way.  Suddenly, she came back to reality when she heard the coffee pot gurgling.  She looked him and said, “We better stop, this is going too far for me, I don’t know what to make of it and I need some time to think.”  Colton was very understanding and got up to leave.  He told her he was in town for a week and that they should plan to get together again.

As she ran down the stairs and out the door holding the envelope in her hands, her heart still raced when she saw him even though a whole year had passed.  She jumped into the car and planted a big kiss on Colton’s soft lips.  The night was warm and breezy outside their Malibu home.  He told her she looked exquisite as he backed out of the driveway.  “Wait, open your card!”, she squealed.  “Now?  Ok”, and he took the card from her hand.  As he opened it, his eyes widened and he threw his head back in laughter.  The card was a picture of his face on a computer screen.  It read: “I saw your face on MySpace and I didn’t know what to do, but now here I am, here with you!”  He pulled out of his pocket box and handed it to her.  She opened it slow and a tear fell from her cheek.  In the box was Chinese symbol for Hope on a chain.  A little card lay beneath it that read: “Sometimes what you are most skeptical of, is what you hope for most!  Happy Anniversary Darlin”.   They sped away down the Pacific Coast Highway holding hands and glad that the internet bridged the miles between them to bring them together.

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