Girls need their BFF’s. It’s a fact of life. We don’t always understand guys. I needed some help figuring out Philip. So I called my best friend, Mitzi.

I met Mitzi at a bar while having dinner with my brother. The three of us began chatting and I discovered Mitzi was a writer. That was our connection. She asked me to read the memoir she was working on and give her my opinion.

I’m no expert writer. I read her piece and gave her some suggestions. What I learned about Mitzi was the she’d had a lot of trauma in her life. She’d been abused by her father and brother. Her ex-husband left her following her mastectomy. She suffered from migraines and anxiety. In a nutshell, her life was somewhat of a shit show. 

Mitzi is a beautiful woman who hid that fact behind wire-rimmed glasses and by tying her hair back in a bun. I often studied her features, wanting to tear down that protective façade. She was lonely and wanted someone who’d love her. But she was scared.

I called Mitzi to invite her to have dinner with me at a local restaurant. She lived close by in a one-bedroom apartment with her cat. Her response to my invitation surprised me.

“How can we go out?” she exclaimed. “There’s a pandemic! Aren’t you afraid?”

“We will be outside,” I calmly told her. “We’ll wear masks. I’ll pick you up,” I coaxed her and she finally agreed.

Our table for two was outside on the establishment’s front lawn, far away from the other patrons. It was a warm, early-summer evening.  I watched Mitzi observe the masked staff bustle in and out carrying trays of food with gloved hands, spraying down vacated tables each time they emptied.  Once I saw she was comfortable, I told her all about Philip.

“He’s just an ass,” she said. “Forget about him.”

Good advice. So we set about focusing on Mitzi as she hadn’t been out of her apartment for three months.

“You’re going to go nuts with nothing to do,” I told her. “Why don’t you get on the Sexy Singles website?” I suggested. “You don’t have to physically meet anyone. But you’ll have guys writing to you on a daily basis. You’re gorgeous,” I told her.

“I don’t even have a picture of myself” she responded. With that, I grabbed a clear-glass, cubed-shape vase that held one hot-pink hydrangea blossom and set it in front of Mitzi. Then I told her to let her hair down.

“What?” she exclaimed. “I’ll look like a mad woman. My hair is untamable.”

“Humor me,” I begged. She removed the hair tie that held her hair up. Cascades of honey-blonde waves fell down almost to her shoulders, framing her face and taking at least ten years off her appearance.  “You look beautiful,” I exclaimed.  “Don’t you dare put your hair back up ever again.” Then I began taking pictures with my iPhone. I must have taken at least twenty. And some of them were great. She picked the ones she liked and I sent them to her. By the end of dinner, she was almost done setting up her profile on Sexy Seniors.

“I’ll let you know when I’m online,” promised Mitzi after we finished dinner. I drove Mitzi home. I felt very good about that evening.  I’d done a good deed for my bestie. She left my car smiling.

A few days later, Mitzi called me.  

“Are you online yet?” I asked her. 

“Yes,” she responded, hesitantly.

“How’s it going?” 

“Well…umm…did you say when Philip first contacted you, he used the name Matthew?” she asked.

I knew where this was going.

“Yes,” I responded.

“And he was from Patterson?” she asked.

“Yes”

“He wrote to me on Sexy Singles. Oh my God, Mimi, I feel terrible.”

I wasn’t surprised.  As mentioned, Mitzi is beautiful.  And for all intents and purposes, Philip and I were no more. There was no reason for Mitzi to feel bad about it. Actually, it was kind of amusing.  You do a good deed for someone and BAM—you get a swift kick in the ass.

I didn’t need to contact Philip again. Mitzi told him off for me. And THAT was the end of Philip.

© Miriam Greenberg, and the blog Love In The Time Of Corona, beginning April 2022 to the Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Miriam Greenberg and Love In The Time Of Corona with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.