"Oh, Alice," Cindy exclaimed, laughing.
Alice, her neighbor down the road and longtime friend, chuckled as she recounted her story. "No, no, I'm totally serious," she giggled. "Andre refused to call the repairman to come in, just kept insisting that he could do it himself, too expensive to have someone do it, blah blah, blah".
"Yeah, sounds just like a guy. Men," Cindy said, shrugging.
"So I'm sitting in the kitchen, watching him going up and down, in and out from underneath the sink, running back and forth for some tool or whatever, and all I'm seeing is him getting more and more frustrated. He was such a mellow guy, you know, so seeing him pissed off that much was really something". Alice shrugged her dark and grey hair back, really getting into the story about her ex husband. "Literally two hours go by with things going that way until sure enough, shooosh," she exclaimed with a hissing sound. "The pipe burst and this ugly water just came gushing out, flooding the floor.
Cindy laughed, her light brown hair coming loose off her shoulder. "Oh my God! Oh my," she gasped between giggles.
"Well, as you can imagine, he was really embarrassed. But it did finally convince him to call the maintenance man and we left him to it. Had a nice first date. And it went pretty smooth from there since then." Alice paused and her light hearted tone became twinged with a little regret. "I do miss that man sometimes."
"I bet. He sounds like a nice guy really."
"Except he couldn't keep it in his pants. But you're right, I suppose other than that and he loved his booze and he lied about everything, he was pretty decent," Alice said sarcastically. "Never really was a good father to Chico."
Cindy winced. "Ouch."
Alice shrugged. "And what about you?" she asked her friend, changing the subject. "Don't tell me you don't have some war stories of your own. I bet lots of guys were chasing after you," she added, marveling at her friends' appearance. Even at 58, Cindy looked great. Always dressed up casually, but nicely. Makeup done lightly, but perfectly. Her light brown-and-blonde hair and clear blue eyes gave people the impression she was a lot younger than 58.
Cindy shrugged lightly. "I've dated one guy seriously since I was 15. He was Danny's father, I had him at 19. But his father didn't want the responsibility. Had plans to go to college and all, so we parted ways. I didn't date anyone until Alicia's father. Turns out he was already married. Since then, no one serious," she admitted. It wasn't the first time the two friends had shared their personal dating histories with each other, but it was always a relief each time they could speak with candor and not be judged by the other one for it.
Alice grinned. She loved to tease her older friend. "No dates?"
Cindy laughed. "Some, but usually just someone my coworkers set me up with. No one really stuck around. I'm an old lady, remember?" she chortled.
Cindy paused. "I did decide to start up a dating profile, though."
Alice gasped. "Aw, Cindy, that's wonderful. Any luck yet?"
Cindy shook her head. "Only activated it this morning. I guess there's been some views," she said, digging her phone out of her pocket and unlocking it. "But I can't see who without buying the premium edition." she shook her head in disgust. "Guess they need to make their money somehow, the people who make these things."
Alice peered at her friend's profile page. "Nice picture, but you sure you don't want to add a little more something something?" she asked, grinning, indicating her friend's more wholesome appearance. Cindy's response was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. "Oh, hey, Chic," Alice yelled out towards the hallway.
A young man, really still a teenager, walked around the corner. Chico, Alice's son of 19. "Sup, Momma. Oh, hey Ms. Walker," Chico greeted the two, his voice smooth and suave. Cindy smiled in response. She's known Chico as well as his mother for close to 12 years now. He'd always been very polite and respectful towards her as a kid when she sometimes had to babysit him and he had always been willing to help her out with odd chores around her place. She knew things weren't always easy for him at school, especially when he was going to high school. She knew he got misjudged by his overall appearance, partly because he was part African American, partly because he liked to dress sloppily and with his pants hanging low. But in spite of appearances, he was a very friendly, often charismatic guy. Graduated top of his class.
"How was it with Chad last night? You guys didn't stay up all night playing that GTA stuff, did you?" Alice frowned at her only son. "You know I hate how violent those games are."
"No, no, Momma, we just hung around Wing Park mostly. Chilled with our friends, then went back to his place and crashed." He changed the subject quickly, indicating towards Cindy's phone, still open on her profile. "Problems with your phone, Ms. Walker?" He was used to helping out with technology since both of her kids were moved out and had jobs and families of their own.
"Uhmm, yeah, actually. Do either of you know what these are supposed to mean?" she indicated the list of acronyms on her profile she could choose. "Like ENM and ONS? What do they even mean? GSOH?"
Alice shook her head, examining them. "No idea really. Chic, you've had a couple of girlfriends," she teased her son. "What's NSA and F2F?"
Chico hesitated. He knew all of those acronyms of course, but there was no way in hell he was going to say so in front of his mom or her fine friend. "Oh, umm, well, it's your dating profile. You should really...". He paused, thinking of the possibilities he had at hand. Suddenly inspiration struck. "Here, let me fill this out for you."
Cindy handed her phone over immediately. "Oh, thank you so much. My daughter told me about this app here, said she'd had the most success meeting actual normal guys on this app, but I don't know. But she thought I should at least give it a try. 'That's what all the people are doing nowadays, Mother'", she explained, imitating her daughter's more nasally tone. "As if there's any real successes on these stupid apps."
"Well, actually, Ms. Walker," Chico said while working. "This app does have a section you can read about other people's experiences they've had on here. Just gotta keep an open mind about it. And rule of thumb: the more things you add to your profile, the less it looks like a fake profile and the more likes you'll get." Chico looked up at his neighbor. "If I add more pics of you, you'll get more likes. Can I?" Cindy nodded. Chico opened up her photo gallery and scanned the possible pics. He found a folder that read "Summer 2024". Interested, he opened it up and to his delight, found many pics that showed Cindy in a swimsuit.