yliva admitted to herself, but never to anyone else, that she had been
too gullible in her love for her cyber-boyfriend, Frederick. Within a
very short time she had proven that she was a woman - so to speak. Just
as he had proven to her that he was a man. Their cyber-love making had
surprised her as she found quite new and unexpected physical feelings
being set free.
However, she never thought of recording his
"performance", but he, on the other hand, proved to have several
recordings of her right from their first meeting before they - or at
least she - had had any idea of anything special. To her this
cyber-affair was LOVE, yes, genuine love, also because it wasn't
exactly what she was used to after 27 years of a stale marriage. No
sweet words in that relationship, but three handsome, but distand sons,
Peter, Paul and Martin. Sadly enough they had been taught by their
father that she was "weird" and couldn't always be trusted. Their only
daughter, Sheila, had been her joy ever since her birth and the sole
proof that the marriage also had had its sweeter moments.
Frederick
seemed to be a magnet for women. Ladies of all descriptions adorned the
friend-list of his pages. No males - or almost no males - but many,
many women. It wasn't something Sylvia liked, but what could she do?
Nothing, except accepting or inviting men to her sites to make him
jealous, just like she had been taught to get proof of love many years
ago. The problem was that he never was and slowly it dawned upon her
that what she felt for him was something quite different from what he
felt for her.
- What an idiot I've been! She thought. And I even
considered paying for his airline ticket to come here to see me.
Stupid, stupid me!
Her husband, Oliver, had no idea of her obsession
with Frederick. To him she appeared vulnerable, but super-faithful -
and boring. Not much had happened in their marriage for quite some
time, but he had consoled himself with his secretaries. First Judy,
then Eline and now Alice. Fine for him, but maybe not for the women who
seemed to love him dearly until he dumped them and thus risked to turn
their love into hatred. Something which in two cases had led to
blackmail-revenges. This development really surprised him as he never
would have thought that someone who says "I love you" just a moment
later would say "I hate you, pay me or else ..." In his own way he was
as romantic and naive as his wife because both of them believed all the
sweet words.
As to Sylvia then she also believed Frederick when he
in his cyber-lovemaking seemed to be a close relative of Superman. When
he said he did this or that to her it was taken at face value and she
never even suspected a Viagra-induced lovemaking in "real life", i.e.
his life outside of the world of the net. Not even when he admitted
that he preferred his love-life on the net to the real one in flesh and
blood that he might have had or had experienced before she - and other
women - came along.
She didn't ask herself how he could prefer
this make-believe love making to the reality of a warm, loving woman in
his arms. Had she done so - and if he had answered her question - she
would have learnt a lot about men and the male ego-trap of
performance-hysteria. However, being what she was she never did ask him
any embarrassing questions about his private life. Only about one
subject: His married life. Was he married, did he have kids and what
about his job?
It seldom occurred to her that his answers to her
questions might be less than true. When he said "divorced" she didn't
know whether this was true or not. The same went for the question of
kids. He said "two girls" which might or might not be true. The
job-question he evaded as long as possible, but then he told her that
he had been a school teacher and that he right now was out of work.
Actually, that was true, but omitting to tell one crucial detail, i.e.
that he was sacked over his sexual interest in his young, female
students even turned that truth into a lie.
Elinor, who had been
Sylvia's friend since childhood, also had had a couple of flings on the
net. One of them she had actually met and married and she really felt
that this Frederick-character was perfect for her friend. She had
browsed his pages and read some of his blog entries, as well as seen
his photos and eyed his female contacts.
"Well," she said, "he may
have something going with two or three of them, but I'm not sure.
Besides, being a flirt isn't criminal and haven't you flirted with
others too? I think you did some time ago ..."
Sylvia was shocked.
She loved Frederick, he was the man in her life, not someone who might
be exchanged with another cyber-guy and she had not flirted with anyone
important to her. To her Frederick was a mixture of Superman, The Pope,
some nice saint and a new, hot actor she had seen on TV. Elinor smiled
at her gullibility. She found it endearing that her friend really
believed in his sweet words.
To make sure that he was OK and to
protect Sylvia she let herself be added by him under another name which
nobody knew except herself and with a wonderful photo of some Italian
beauty. As she had suspected he came on to her in a rather direct
manner and she decided to lead him on and then to cut him off in a very
abrupt manner. All in the name of friendship and the same feeling made
her hesitate to tell Sylvia what she had found out and to send her the
proof she had got. Also, she had to admit to herself, Sylvia might both
resent what she had found and herself for being the one who found it.
However, she kept what she had got like a well hidden weapon of some
kind.
As to Sylvia something happened that was a shock to her.
By a mistake she opened a letter to Oliver and found a threat by a
former secretary. She intended to post a video of them together on
YouTube and "to send the link to his wife". It didn't appear to be a
video take of their hottest love making, but she made it clear that
that would be next.
Sylvia felt the hair on her head stand erect
with the shock. - How could anybody do this to a former lover? she
thought. She felt how she involuntarily sided with Oliver right away
although she didn't exactly rejoice at his infidelity. Before he came
home she put all his mail on his desk and the letter she had opened on
top of it. She hadn't tried to hide that it was opened, on the contrary
it was placed in a way that made that obvious and it took a little
while before he came in to see her about it.
He sat down beside
her in the couch where she sat reading and then he said in a shaking
voice: "When has it become your custome to open my letters?"
"The moment I receive an envelope from Alice in an illegible writing ..."
He
mumbled something beneath his breath and it was obvious to her that he
was opting for time so that he could regain the upper hand with her.
That didn't make her budge and she sat quiet and tranquil until he
spoke again:
"Well, did you read it then?"
"Of course ..."
"That's beyond anything ... that's too low, even for you ..."
"Even for me - what about you, is this too low for you?"
"I ... I ...," he sputtered. "Oh, you're impossible!"
"Let's talk it over," she said, "after all, both of us are grown-ups and we have to find out what to do now."
"Perhaps you want her to pay her?" he said, sounding very sarcastic.
"Yes,
after apologizing to me for making a fool out of me then you pay her,
not for losing you, but for being sacked without any form of
compensation. You owe her, just as you owe me."
He stared at her
in disbelief, red in the face with shame and anger, but when he met her
calm and not unkind eyes he bowed his head. "You're right," he said,
"we ... eh, I ... should solve ..."
"We," she interrupted him, "we should solve this problem as best we can ..."
And
so they did: The wronged secretary got her compensation and also the
necessary reference to get another job. That stopped her and Oliver and
Sylvia got to respect each other as they hadn't done before this
episode.
Sylvia even decided to break off with Frederick. She had
witnessed his public flirt and pursuit of Eleanor without knowing that
this Italian beauty was her own and quite ordinary friend from Missouri
and she hadn't liked what she saw. However, when she told him he went
berserk. Now he threatened her with YouTube and other sites for posting
videos and she had to make a mental list of the times she had done or
said anything that could criminalize her or ruin her reputation. Hand
on heart, she had to admit there MIGHT be something that nobody would
want to see on the Internet, least of all her who was in a sort of new
honeymoon with Oliver.
In her deep worry she confided in Eleanor
although she all of a sudden feared a knife in the back even from her.
However, Eleanor told her to relax as she knew that Italian beauty whom
Frederick had been so crazy about and she would make her stop him.
This
surprised Sylvia, but no matter how many times she asked her friend she
wouldn't tell her the identity of this mysterious femme fatale from
Europe. When she returned to see her after being away for some hours it
was obvious from e-mails that Frederick had given up his dastardly
plans of making Hell hot for her.
"Oh," she said, "give your
friend my love and thank her from the bottom of my heart. It's really
nice in her to stop him, but I wonder how she went about it."
"Well,
I've promised not to tell anybody exactly WHAT she did, but him being
so persistent as he was he also got careless. Mind, that's all I know
..."
Sylvia looked at her a little too plump, middle-aged friend who
at that moment looked like a Botticelli-angel grown to maturity and
wisdom.
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Originally Posted On Site: 2010-03-03 07:13:48
Last Login: 05.22.12
Visits as of 12-12-07: 132
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