Chapter 7/ Internet Dating

CHAPTER SEVEN

Internet Dating

It’s been months now since we have seen Melissa, Craig, Whitney and Harland. Stacy is on a hiatus from work these days. She received a small severance package, has some savings and is spending her mornings at Starbucks, her afternoons at the gym, a surf shop and in the ocean. It is early fall and the weather is nice here in Florida.

Stacy is feeling lonely and in the midst of a dry spell.  She has been divorced from Jeff several months and there is no full time man in her life.  Stacy craves companionship. She has been married or living with someone most of her adult life.

 She has taken to internet dating.  She has been coming to Starbucks in the morning with her laptop. While many people like me use our laptops at Starbucks for our mobile businesses, she mixes the crossword puzzle with peeks into various internet dating sites.  Web pages are open to Match.com; JDate, and Yahoo personals. 

Stacy has her dating and internet responding criteria.  There is a mold. 

All of the guys seem to be physically fit, look like they spend a good deal of time at the gym and are socially active.  Most have hair. And although race is not a prerequisite, most are Caucasian and non-Jewish.

I am shown several of the candidates and some of their messages. We smile about the back and forth banter between Stacy and her potential suitors.

There is internet foreplay before a first date. It starts out innocent enough.  The exchange is usually very complimentary and inquisitive. Then it turns a bit comedic to sexually suggestive.  Sometimes there is a telephone call before the first meet and greet as well. The meet and greet is usually someplace where there is an out, like a Starbucks. They will rendezvous with people around so that when the drink is finished the couple can disperse or continue chatting and make plans for a second encounter or official “first date”. 

Stacy does not have her true name on any of the sites. Instead, she goes by the name “Stephanie”.  She gave her reasoning:

“If someone sees me on the street and instead of calling me Stacy they say ‘hey Stephanie’ then I know they only know me from the internet dating sites and I can ignore them or talk to them if I want”.

Stacy shares the details about her suitors with Jackie.  She tells Jackie, “I need to date someone that wants to wine and dine me.  I am tired of seeing Tony”.     Tony is a weight lifter from the gym that Stacy sees on occasion.  Tony is more of a booty call, or Stacy is a booty call for Tony. Tony is a late 30’s black man.  He has a great physique.  And according to Stacy  he has a great "attribute".   And the "myth" about black men is no myth. Nevertheless she needs a date not a booty call.

Stacy’s on line suitors range in age from the late 20’s (Mrs. Robinson syndrome), to the late 50’s. Some are employed and some are supposedly retired.  Even if there is no date, the foreplay is very entertaining.

Halloween is approaching and Stacy needs a date for a party Gary invited her to.  She also needs a costume.  “Jackie will you help me pick out a costume for the party” she asks. “There is a costume store on Federal you can go to” she responds.  “Yes, but will you come with me?” Stacy pleads.  “Sure” says Jackie.

The costume is one thing, the date is another. Stacy ponders going with an internet friend, Tony or someone else.  She decided to call Jeff.  At least she knows him the best.

Stacy’s costume is a military nurse’s outfit. The costume shows off Stacy’s legs and her chest and she is very happy with how she looks in it. She decided to post her picture in the costume on Facebook even before the party.

Jeff picked Stacy up for the party at around 9:00 pm.  By 10:00 they had their first argument. By 11:00 she regretted asking him to go with her. By 12:30 Stacy was too drunk to remember why they got divorced.   When the party was over Jeff took Stacy home and spent the night. Stacy woke with a smile on her face.  At least the dry spell was over.

It took several weeks of internet dating and Stacy must have been on at least a half dozen meet and greets before she met Kahana.  Kahana is a part Hawaiian, mid 30’s heavy set guy.  He is also part Asian, part Hispanic, and several other nationalities mixed in.    The name Kahana aptly means “turning point”.  And meeting Kahana was definitely a turning point in Stacy’s life.

Kahana did not fit the mold by any means.  However, he did know how to surf and Stacy and Kahana had that in common.  Kahana is a big teddy bear.  He is about 50 pounds overweight and smokes cigarettes. He is in need of serious conditioning.

They met on line.  But, their meet and greet was at a surf shop they both frequented.

“I can’t believe I am going out with this guy”. Stacy said at first. “He is so not my type”. She told us all at Starbucks. She did not even bring him around for several weeks.  She did show Jackie and I his picture.  She was right, Kahana was so different than anyone else she had dated or met.

Stacy brought Kahana to our morning coffee after the third date.   This big guy with a smile on his face from ear to ear, shook hands and sat quietly as Stacy introduced him and practically spoke for him.  “This is Kahana, he knows my friend Carol that owns the surf shop”.  She actually was restating several of the things she had told us about him after they first met.

Jackie and I made small talk with Kahana.  Richard ignored him.  In fact, other than shaking his hand Richard did not acknowledge his existence.  Richard would not speak to Kahana even after several weeks of him appearing at Starbucks as a regular, until Jackie confronted him about it.

“Richard, you are ignoring Kahana. Why are you being so rude?” She asked.  Richard, shrugged his shoulder and said “I did not realize I was ignoring him. For you Jackie I will try to be more social”.   Richard said in a patronizing tone.   After that, at least Richard said hello to Kahuna.

I commented to Kahana, that he should pay no attention to the fact that Richard was ignoring him. It was not personal.  I told him, “it is simply because you don’t have a vagina”.  Richard I told him only socialized with the women at the Starbucks tables.  I explained to him that Richard’s small talk with me for almost a year was usually limited to two sentences about a game that he figured I might have seen; Nothing more than that. 

Kahana joined Stacy for coffee with us at Starbucks intermittently for weeks.  He got to meet, not only me, Jackie and Richard, but also Debbie and Unice.  Everyone liked him. Kahana just tried to fit in and not be the center of attention.  He let Stacy be the leading lady.

At the convincing of Stacy, Kahana signed up for Weight-Watchers.   It was not long till Kahana was a tag a long where-ever Stacy was going. 

We took bets on how long it would last.