It was a boring evening. All I was doing was stare at the television in a blue funk. The Mets were losing; crime was up, and much like my love life, the stock market sucked. Nothing new or exciting. And then the telephone rang.
I answered it to a woman on the other end. “Hello,” she said, “This is Mary. Is Kevin there?”
How nice! I thought, a sweet sexy sounding woman’s voice to talk to. But she was asking for another guy.
“Sorry, ma’am,” I answered, “but you’ve got the wrong number.” I hung up. But that voice stayed on my mind and I wondered what she looked like.
Minutes later the phone rang again. When I answered it I was surprised and pleased to hear her voice again. She asked the same question. Only this time, I thought I would be a bit flirtatious, and see what happened.
“No, Mary…. Kevin isn’t here but if you don’t mind my saying, I truly love your voice and I’d love to entertain you even though I’m not Kevin.”
She laughed at my response and asked my name.
“I’m Roger. But you can Rog.”
She giggled a little and said, “Well, Rog. Your voice sounds pretty sexy.”
We ended up talking for hours that evening. We learned a lot about each other. Mary told me that she was a 39- year-old office assistant and part-time personal trainer at a gym franchise. She explained that she just had her divorce of 5 years finalized and that she was looking for her friend, Kevin, to spend a few hours with to relieve her of her misery.
However, our telephone conversation managed to do the trick. I kept Mary laughing and in a good mood. That one evening turned into a daily, 2-hour telephone conversation between Mary and I.
Two weeks after our first conversation, Mary called feeling depressed because it was her birthday and she didn’t have her husband or friend to spend it with. I suggested to her that I would be happy to take her out for her birthday. But she said, “Rog, I am a bit older than you baby. I doubt that we would have anything in common.”
I am 25 and work as a department store manager. I explained to her, “But Mary, this doesn’t have to be a romantic thing if you don’t want. This is a simple Happy Birthday ‘get together’ to bring in your 40th birthday.”
She was somehow convinced so we agreed to meet at a public location and celebrate her birthday. But I had a great surprise for her.
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