Better Off As Two

Love Short Story – Better Off As Two
Photo credit: cohdra from morguefile.com

Ally couldn’t explain to anyone what she was going through. Five months ago Ally had joined a book review group on facebook. She had found this man’s reviews who went by the name “EG Deejay” to be far more than interesting . She had found his reviews to be classy and his attention towards details were legendary. She had sent him a friend request and it had been accepted, but her request was from her fake account which went by the name “Zaly Smith”. She thought it was childish but she didn’t want to change it or reveal her true identity either.

All day and all night they chatted. Ally in her fake account listened to all the things EG had to say. He was an amazing philosopher. He said things that weren’t ever said by any famous writer before. She wrote down some of his quotes and used them on her friends, who in turn would marvel at their friend’s new found philosophical knowledge. She poured out her heart to him, forgetting that he was a complete stranger.

In the big four roomed house where only she and her husband lived, she felt like she had a companion now. She was stuck in a marriage which she disliked, she was too young to be married and so was her husband. He was a workaholic. She sometimes thought he was cheating on her but she didn’t care.They had nothing in common.. He was an accountant. He loved numbers and he was too calculative.He had never completed reading any book and he specially detested philosophy. His favorite genre was blood thirsty action movies. On the other hand Ally lived on books, she loved romantic comedies and she hated math. She had dropped math as her subject and had not dealt with numbers since she was 15. She was more spontaneous and never thought much about anything.

EG on the other hand, was her alter ego, he said that he couldn’t survive without his books, he told Ally that his friends teased him often that he was a girl on the inside because he was a die hard romantic and that he had a degree in Arts and Literature. And best of all, he was single.

She hadn’t believed him at first, she knew better than to fall in love with weird strange men on the internet. He could be a bald 75 year old man for all she knew. But there was something about him which changed her mind. He was her soul mate. She knew it and one day during her long chats with him she discovered that he too had feelings for her.

Ally didn’t know what to do. She would get a divorce, sooner or later, her marriage had been on the rocks ever since the first day, but to get a divorce because she had fallen in love with some guy on the internet seemed absurd. She wouldn’t do it. Social networks were platforms for pedophiles, racists, rapists and all sorts of other psychologically disturbed people to target their prey. She had to get a reassurance that he was indeed a single 30 year old writer.

She asked for his photos but he would refuse, saying that she would never accept him after seeing his “ugliness”. He wouldn’t even give his name or phone number because he feared she would track him down too early. Ally gave up asking him any more details. She was sure he was the one for her, even if he were blindingly ugly; she knew that she wouldn’t find another man who was closer to her heart.

Ally didn’t want to cheat on her husband, she felt a sense of obligation towards the sanctity of marriage and she refused to tell EG how she felt about him. She didn’t even flirt with him… Neither did he. He never tried to flirt with her nor ask her any personal details which were none of his business. They were alike, even in that matter.

Time flew by and so did Ally’s patience. Frustrated with her life going nowhere Ally gave an ultimatum to her soul mate one day, he had to prove himself to be real or she would walk out of his life forever. EG agreed to comply with her requests (or orders), but only partially. He gave her his phone number and he told her that he would upload pictures of him but would not reveal his face.

Ally agreed. This was a start she thought and waited for the photos. A few weeks later she went through his album again, it had pictures now…. Of his house, his car, his family, his cat… But nowhere a photo of him or his face. Finally, EG changed his profile picture one day and when Ally saw that she felt a chill run down her spine.

It was a man in an overcoat, whose face was cropped out of the photo. She stared at the photo, the overcoat…. It was hers. She had given it to her husband on his birthday 2 years ago. . It was a navy blue colored Chesterfield over coat. Ally had seen her grandfather in one of those coats and she had always admired how sophisticated it made him look. She wanted to get one just like that for her husband. She had even gotten it customized for him. It had “AZ forever” stitched to one of its right pockets. It was hardly noticeable because the print was very tiny, but if somebody were to observe it they would see it clearly. AZ stood for their names- Ally and Zain.

When she had presented it to him, Zain had not even smiled properly. He had hated the coat the moment he had laid his eyes on it. He hated its color and he argued that it was too big for him. He even went a step further and said that only a lunatic would wear that outdated garment in public. For the sake of manners, he thanked her for it and accepted it, only to throw it away far back in his closet. She hadn’t seen that overcoat in 2 years. Now every memory came flooding back to her. Tears welled up in her eyes.

She called the overcoat company and inquired as to who else had bought a similar overcoat, they replied that it was one of a kind and that she was the sole owner of a chesterfield navy blue overcoat. Ally felt her mind go blank when she heard that.

The stranger who was her virtual soul mate was her hubby. She was cheating on her husband with her own husband. She couldn’t believe it. It was him all along. He was her knight in shining armour. But how could that be? She had always viewed her husband like a beggar in an aluminium foil. Finally, her life had turned upside down. All these years had she misunderstood him?

That evening when Zain returned home, Ally hugged him. She kissed him and hugged him even more. She apologized to him for being insensitive towards him and she started crying. Zain always thought his wife was not right in the head but now he was sure she was a lunatic.He hugged her back and excused himself to go to bed.

When he started to leave Ally stopped him “Honey, I just want to know one thing. Do you remember that overcoat I gave you two years ago….” Zain interrupted her midway through her sentence – “yeah, I remember that ugly thing. I discarded it off recently. My friend wanted to borrow an overcoat the other day so I gave it away for himself to keep.”
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