Virtual Reality

I had just had enough of 2020. This was supposed to be the absolute best year ever! My friends and I had so many things planned for the year. We were all planning to venture out with our careers, just to see where it would take us and we were planning to travel more. We swore that we would do less partying in the clubs and get more serious about dating. Then, BAM!!! All of a sudden, out of nowhere everything that we were planning was canceled and placed on the backburner. We were all unaware of what was taking place. We were being hit with a pandemic. Not just a state pandemic, but one that took over the entire world. Many were in fear of their lives right along with their loved ones. Everyone was in a frenzy including myself. The world was changing right before our eyes and we were all powerless. Being that I am what I like to consider a social butterfly, my entire life felt like it was being ripped away from me layer by layer. I’m always at the center of attention, not because I chose to be, but because I am the one chosen. It’s been like that my entire life. As a result of the pandemic, I was forced to stay inside of my apartment day in and day out. I lost my job that I’d been on for the past 7 years. Then my aunt was one of the first people to get real sick from Covid. At first, things weren’t so bad. I took advantage of down time by doing a massive job hunt and researching all that I needed to do in order to get my business off of the ground. When everything started going crazy, I was dating this guy that I had met maybe four months before the pandemic. I was under the impression that we were still in the discovery stage. You know, learning as much about each other as we could. Every morning, I’d wake up and have a beautiful text from him. He made it a point to bring me smiles throughout the day as well as every night. We didn’t spend much time actually talking on the phone. He was a firefighter and attending college online to be a nurse. I completely understood that his time was limited and was alright with that. As long as he made time to make me smile daily. Before long, I grew to be excited about having a future with him. From what I gathered, he was everything I wanted in a man. He was indeed a charmer and I was loving everything about him. My friends had their suspicions about him but I didn’t let their judgement influence my decisions. They warned me that he just seemed too good to be true. And I soon learned, he was. Two months into the pandemic, things changed between us. He was going days without texting me and seemed to be agitated whenever I’d ask what was going on with him. His patience was short and his temper was getting bad. I was clueless as to what was going on. I thought that maybe he was stressed out about having to stay inside 24 hours a day. Then it dawned on me that he was a firefighter, and was not inside all day. Then I just assumed it was his job, until one day I texted him with concern for his well being and things went all the way left. He demanded that I stop texting him. He said that his girlfriend was dying from Covid 19 and that he had no time for me or any other nonsense. I was completely blown away by his response. Only because I was under the impression that we were working towards starting a relationship. This was a horrible way to find out that I was hallucinating. Of course after going back and forth with him via text, I blocked him, deleted his number from my phone and unfollowed him on social media. I was over the whole dating scene. Everyone I crossed paths with was a bit untrustworthy. At that point, all I wanted to do was get a bottle of Merlot, sit in front of my television, and watch reruns of “The First 48” until I fell asleep. A store run was needed. I got myself together, put on my mask and headed to the store. Rushing through the store, I picked up a few items that I needed along with a fine bottle of Merlot. As I approached the register, my wallet fell on the floor. Someone picked it up, handed it to me and smiled. I wasn’t feeling too pleasant, I returned the smile and thanked him. I was hoping that he couldn’t see my unhappiness through my fake smile. I paid for my things and tried to leave as quickly as I could, just to see the same man standing there holding the door open for me. I looked up and gave him another fake smile and a sincere thank you. I did appreciate him being a gentleman and although I was upset with all men, I didn’t want him to know. At my surprise, the guy asked if he could walk me to my car. He said that he wanted to make sure that I was safe. In return, I told him that I didn’t think that was a good idea. I said that we are in the middle of a pandemic and I was practicing social distancing. I was not in the mood for more bs from manipulative men. He looked a little disappointed, but still determined. As I walked off, he asked me if I would follow him on social media. I told him yes, as long as he didn’t have a weird, hard to find social media name. I thought to myself that it was the least that I could do for him considering how much of a gentleman that he was. I also knew that if he got annoying I would block him just as quickly as I followed him. I followed him immediately. Before I could even get out of the parking lot he followed me back. By the time I got home, put my things away and unwined, I had several notifications on my social media. All 24 notifications were from the guy from the store. He was on my page liking all of my pictures. Not that I was interested in him, I was just curious to see what he had going on in his life and decided to take a look at his page. The first thing that I noticed was that his status was single. I rolled my eyes and thought to myself, “they all say they’re single, until their girlfriend is lying in the hospital dying from covid. Then they’re in a relationship.” But I continued to analyze his page. The first picture I saw was of him at a lake fishing with some of his friends. I liked it because fishing is one of my favorite pastimes and they all looked as if they were having a really good time. The next picture was the guy from the store at some sort of event. My gosh, wherever he went, they were blessed to have his presence that night. He was looking like he fell right out of the finest dinery, ready to be eaten like an entire entree. That was more than enough for me. I had to hurry up and get off of his page. I felt myself becoming weak and in need of just a touch of him. I was vulnerable but I did not want anyone to take notice of my vulnerability to try and take advantage. I sat my phone down on the end table, grabbed my remote and blanket from right next to me and poured myself the biggest glass of Merlot and tried to start binge watching my favorite tv show. Just as I got good into the second episode, I was receiving a video chat from my social media. I was hesitant to answer because I saw that it was the guy from the store and I was still not in the mood to be bothered, but my instincts told me to answer and to be nice. That’s just what I did. I didn’t want to come off as rude or unkind so I gave a warm and friendly hello as soon as I answered. In return, the guy from the store said, “Hello beautiful. My name is Chris. I noticed you earlier at the store and wanted to ask you on a date. It was obvious that you were a bit uneasy and didn’t want to be disturb. I respect that, but I refused to allow your captivating beauty to slip right past me without acknowledging your presence.” He then continued by saying, “Normally, I’m not this aggressive, but I knew that this would probably be my only chance. I couldn’t help but wonder if you would like to tell me all about your day over a glass of Merlot?” He was sitting at his dinner table. He'd sat it up with two wine glasses, two candles, and two yellow roses. I even noticed the fireplace was lit as the sweet tunes of Anita Baker was playing in the background. I was speechless. Although it was awkward to be experiencing this, I was ecstatic that a complete stranger took time out of his schedule to, if nothing else, allow me to vent. He sat aside anything that he was going through and made this night all about me without even knowing me on a personal level. I felt so special that I could not decline his offer. I sat straight up on the couch and tried to push my hair in place with my hand without wasting my glass of Merlot on my blanket. I introduced myself to Chris, told him that it was a pleasure meeting him and without thought, dived straight into venting. I told him about my life being at a complete halt and how I just lost who I thought was my boyfriend because of Covid 19. He sat there giving me his undivided attention while he sipped on his glass of Merlot and listened to me vent. After I was done talking, he simply said in a calm tone, “I truly apologize for how things have been going for you, but I thank you for allowing me to be your personal therapist in your time of need. I enjoyed sitting here learning so much about you in such a short amount of time. I wish there were something I could do to help you feel better.” I looked in the camera, smiled at Chris and said, “Thank you so much. Little do you know, you’ve done enough by allowing me the opportunity to release and recharge. I feel so much better now that we’ve talked. Well, now that I’ve talked.” We both laughed out loud, then Chris replied, “It was a pleasure. This wasn’t too bad for a first date huh, on that social distancing side?” and laughed again. I looked puzzled at first but then I realized that it was nice of him to set up a virtual call that we were able to make into a date. I replied, “Nah. You didn’t do bad at all.” as I blushed and smiled at him. Chris noticed that I was tired and said, I’m not going to take up anymore of your time. I hope that we can vibe again over a second virtual date.’’ I agreed, we said our goodbyes and before I knew it, I was knocked out on the couch.