The Conclusion - Chapter 3 - The Man Of My Internet Dreams?

We reached my condo finally. I couldn't unload Tobey's truck fast enough. I wanted the gear put away and I wanted him gone so I could concentrate on locating my boyfriend.

"Well, it was fun. Cool." Tobey spoke over his shoulder as he exited my place.

"Yep", I chimed in, grabbing the door and waiting for the appropriate second I could shut it.

"Have fun with your boyfriend", he chuckled as he swung his truck door open.

"K. You have fun with all of your ladies", I called back.

The second he shut his truck door, I shut my door, spun around and ran towards my phones. The cell phone, the land line - he had to have called one of them by now. There was a message flashing on my machine.

"Oh, this better be him", I said aloud as I pressed play.

"Hi Kristin. It's your dad...." My heart sunk. I love my dad, but that was NOT the man I wanted to hear from right this second. As the message played on, I grabbed the handset and began scrolling through the past calls. Not a single one was my boyfriend. He hadn't called my land line in a while. I grabbed my cell phone and began scrolling through it simultaneously. Nothing.

I dropped both phones on the floor, gritted my teeth and breathed heavy through my flaring nostrils. I could feel my head shaking. "Un-believable", I managed through my teeth.

"Whatever! I don't care", I lied and slipped around the corner to my bedroom. My computer. I decided to check my email messages - just see if anyone happened to leave me a message - just something to do while I passed the time. I still had hope that he might call.

I opened my email. There was a message from someone on LDS Singles Online. I had formed a profile for myself several times on that site. It was always the same pattern. I would make a profile, meet some guys, date them, things would fall apart, there would be no fresh meat, I'd get frustrated and remove my profile only to form a new one three months later. But I had met this boyfriend by other means and had completely forgotten about my online profile. Apparently it was still active and someone had sent me a message.

I quickly logged on and opened my message box.

Hey. You're cute. I liked your profile. My name's Doug. Just wanted to say hi.

I felt a grin form on my face. "He thinks I'm cute? I've gotta see this guy", I said aloud. I opened his profile, saw his picture and my heart sank again. "Hmph", I grunted. "Not cute". I sighed in frustration again. "Oh well. I have a boyfriend anyway", I reminded myself.

Then I noticed at the top of the page there was a new feature. You could actually see a list of who viewed your profile. People could no longer check you out anonymously. I clicked on the tab, instantly curious as to who would check me out. I began to scroll down the list of profiles. Nothing really stood out until - suddenly it grabbed me - a cute guy sitting behind a monster drum set. "A drummer", I whispered in reverence.

I had always had a thing for drummers. A year or so after Tobey and I formed our band we decided to expand and get a bass guitar player and drummer. We started auditions and I discovered that finding the drummer was the most fun. Those drummers all had that bit of a wild side I liked and there was something about watching them play the drums. It just got me. We had found a drummer at one point and things were going great. In fact, we got contacted by a small record company and it looked like maybe something would happen. Next thing I knew, our drummer had to quit at his fiancee's urging and everything fell apart. I remembered joking at the time that I would "just have to marry the drummer to keep him in the band".

I clicked on the drummer guy's profile. He was French. "Wow", I mouthed in silence. He lived in Utah. "Not too far", I said aloud, my excitement growing.

Boyfriend? What boyfriend?

My body took over and I clicked on "Send a message". My fingers worked furiously and a message appeared before me on the screen.

You're a drummer AND you're French? Oh la la. I like that.

Then, before I could gain control, I pressed send. I pushed away from my computer and pulled my hands up to my mouth, gasping and laughing. "I can't believe I just did that?" I laughed out loud. "He's gonna' think I'm a freak." I laughed again.

A message response popped up on my screen. My eyes widened and I sat forward, squinting to see where it came from. It was from him - the French drummer. He just happened to be at his computer, logged on to LDSSO at the same time. I scooted forward excitedly in my chair and clicked on it to open it.

Oh, you like that? Well, you should hear my accent.

"Oh yeah", I thought. The goofy grin was plastered across my entire face.

How can I hear your accent? I responded.

Call my number. And he typed it.

I jumped out of my seat, ran for my phone and dialed the number. Something had completely taken over me. This was so out of character for me. It was like I had snapped. The phone rang and rang. Suddenly a message clicked on.

"Oh", I thought, a bit disappointed. "He's not even going to talk to me, huh? Oh well..." I listened to the message. He had an accent all right. A heavy French accent. It was nice. I had always had a thing for foreign accents - particularly South American and European. When the message ended, I hung up right at the beep.

Nice. I like the accent. I typed on the screen and sent it.

Oh. You heard it? Wait. Did you call? He replied.

Yeah.

Oh. I didn't even hear my phone. Call me back.

My heart began to flutter a bit. He wanted to talk to me. Suddenly the thought of my boyfriend popped into my head and I hesitated. But only for a second. "Hey, my boyfriend's not calling me back. He's ignoring me. He has to be. I'm just going to have a little fun tonight. That's all. Serves him right for ignoring me". I was always an eye-for-an-eye kind of dater. Not necessarily the most mature way to handle things, but I was young.... Okay, I was just a bit immature.

I called the French drummer back and we engaged in conversation. It flowed so easily. So naturally. I was intrigued. I was mesmerized. And obviously I did something for him because we talked until 3:00 AM.

We talked about everything - our family, our childhood, our adolescence, our trials in our adulthood. We had both been married before. He didn't have any children. He talked about his conversion to the Mormon church and I was completely drawn in. It was an amazing story. This guy had been through so much, but he was so strong. His strength is what captured me. And when we talked about what we wanted out of life and out of marriage, it just matched up perfectly. I had never spoken with someone like this before - someone whose beliefs and desires were so dead on with mine. We both had a dream to pursue music. THAT was one of the major things that always prevented my relationships from going any further. Guys had always responded with, "I don't want a wife out every weekend doing concerts" or "I don't want my wife to be more successful than me. That's just weird" or "If you're a celebrity, we won't be able to go anywhere or do anything. I don't know about that". It was always so disappointing, but I couldn't lie. I couldn't deny that I wanted a music career. It was my passion. It completed me. It was my escape. Without it, I was nothing. And this guy wanted it too - just as bad as me. And he could complete the missing piece to our band.

Finally, at 3:00 AM, I couldn't stay awake any more. I would have been content to fall asleep with him on the phone, but I was at least coherent and mature enough to realize how ridiculous this was and so I ended our conversation. And hung up the phone. And closed my eyes with a smile on my face and began to dream about this handsome French drummer from the Internet.