Static kept buzzing from the other end of the line. Nothing she said was getting through and vice versa. So Aly disconnected the line. She sat, at the kitchen table, disappointed once again. She had been waiting to speak to Mik for months, and now that there was break in his schedule, he couldn’t get through and she could not hear anything clearly.
The phone rang again and she once again picked it up and the static was all she heard as well as some clicking noises, but no voice. Once again, she hung up and texted Mik that it was no use. Nothing was coming in clearly. Mik told her he could hear her just fine and didn’t know why she could not heat him as well.
Mik and Aly had been texting for months. Aly was desperate to actually hear his voice, though she knew it inside and out, from his films. Mik was an actor. Not hugely famous, but he had possibilities. The had come across each other one day when he commented on a picture she had posted, and their acquaintance began. On and off, they initially messaged each other a couple times a week, which then progressed to daily. Now, it had been months of daily taking over lines on a screen and they both wanted to speak in actuality, but obstacle after obstacle was preventing that from happening.
At first it was his schedule, while filming. Then his travel across continents made the logistics of time an issue. There were times when he was able and available, but she was busy with a book tour or a gallery showing and could not get a spare second for the call. It just never worked out. but the last few days, they were both in a place where time and distance were not an issue, and now the static was in the way.
Aly texted Mik to tell him what she was hearing on her side of the line and he just couldn’t understand why that was happening. So they spent another day just messaging back and forth, a disappointment to the two of them.
Aly had been pressing the issue lately because her friends had kept insisting that she needed to hear him speak the words, he had so eloquently typed to her a couple months earlier, when he told her he loved her. Initially, she was hesitant to respond and admit her heart as well, but in the last couple weeks had returned the feelings. Their love was blossoming and growing deeper every day.
Aly was seriously devoted to him, to the point that she often skipped out on her girlfriends in order to be home to actively text with him when they had the time to connect live. Her relationship with Mik was a bothersome and consistent obstacle for her friends, who kept insisting that she had changed, not giving any priority to them. She agreed some. but was so head over heels, that she dismissed their griping for a little jealousy.
Her besties insisted that the kind of relationship she was having with Mik was not normal, and while it was not common, Aly didn’t see a reason for concern. She was however growing weary of all the delays and setbacks to their attempts at speaking live to one another.
Mik sensed her discontent and had, today, sent her a video of himself, sending her a little message. He told her he couldn’t wait to speak to her and have a normal conversation, adding that he wanted to meet her in person.
Aly was over the moon with excitement and was actively engaged in making sure she would be available, by clearing her schedule of any travel for the next couple weeks.
Three days later, Mik texted her that he was being sent to Morocco on a press junket and would unfortunately be touring around the middle east for a month after that. He promised to find a way to call her and or see her, emphasizing that he preferred to see her in person.
He would be a couple states over from where she lived, for the next week on a fan greet and meet, and asked her if she would want to come see him there. Aly was thrilled at the prospect of being with him in person and she replied that she couldn’t wait to see him.
That Thursday, with two days left, before their date, so to speak, and while Aly was packing some things for the weekend, she heard the ding of an incoming text. She grabbed her phone off of the kitchen cabinet and saw it was a message from Mik, asking if she was available to chat for a bit. She jumped online and immediately responded that she was on. Her nerves and excitement were palpable and she welcomed the talk so she could settle herself.
Mik asked if she was as excited to see him as he was to see her. She was and told him so. They made small talk for a bit and then Mik told her that his management team was giving him grief about meeting her without a pass to the event. Aly didn’t see any issue with having a pass to the event, remembering the back stage passes she had occasionally had, as a teenager, to rock concerts.
Aly told him that it would be fine if she had to have one, knowing he would have no problem with getting her one. So, Aly asked him how he would send it to her. Mik wrote back that she would need to contact his manger and arrange it with him so they could clear her. She didn’t see a problem there so she agreed.
When Mik said that there would be an expense for her to get the pass,
she was confused. Surely, Mik would provide the pass and not expect her to pay to see him, right? Aly asked why she would have to pay to see him since they were seemingly involved, and Mik said it was a condition being placed by his team.
She asked the cost and was then told $500. She was shocked. Aly asked why she would be expected to buy a $500 pass to see the man she was in a relationship with, to which Mik responded, that if she loved him, she would have no problem paying it. He went on to say that she was making him feel like she was leading him on considering her hesitation and that he had spent a great deal of time on her, proving his affection.
Conversations with her friends flashed into her head about scenarios online where women had been swindled out of money by scammers preying on them, and her heart sank and felt sick.
She said she could not buy a pass, and waited for a reply. You don’t care for me as you said and to think I spent all my time on you. Tears fell from her eyes, as she realized, that she had become a cat fishing victim. Aly closed the chat and cried. Then she blocked him.