This week we look at one of our old friends in a new way. There’s a first-timer going up on stage. Meet a friend’s new date and why we hate her. We round off with an update on a petty spat gone all wrong. Tune in…

Desperate times call for desperate measures! This can be rightly said of Adrian at this point of time. He’s desperate to save and buy Cathy a ring. Actually, Adrian is planning to propose Cathy on her birthday in June. Sensing that Cathy wouldn’t like something bought in a haste, Adrian has decided to curb on expenditures so that he’s able to accumulate enough dough. Staying up nights, he drew up a list of items he can cut down on. He’s no more insisting of buying branded clothes, as a start. He’s getting them off the flea market!

When Adrian was quizzed about it, he made some definitive statements about how he sees the future. He rattled off a list of things that he wanted to achieve in the coming months and years. For the first time since we know him, Adrian talked about his goals with some poise and control. It was not the carefree talk that we generally get out of him. Adrian looks serious about Cathy and there can be no doubt that it’s Cathy who has changed the perspective of Adrian. He’s no more someone who just lives in the present. He’s got a future with his significant other and he looks set to go up there.

Eleanor has reasons to be proud! Her grandson Andrew will be on the stage for the first time ever! He will be taking part in a short skit that his play school has organized. Andrew is playing the central part: he will be dressed as a pi! The costume designing has been done by his mother Lisa. Andrew has some lines that he will have to deliver. There is a slight problem with that because Andrew has a sort of stage fright. He cramps up when he is asked to recite a poem or something when people are looking at him. Andrew didn’t know what he was getting into. When he realized that he will be speaking before a packed audience, he was scared.

Eleanor received the call to ward off Andrew’s stage fright. Eleanor took him to the Green House that Frank built for the roses. Eleanor asked him to say his lines by addressing the roses. Andrew began to stutter and stammer and couldn’t do much initially. With Eleanor urging him on, telling him that the rose plants wouldn’t reply or laugh at him if he made a mistake. This gave Andrew the required confidence and before long, he was delivering the lines without faltering on a single word! Andrew’s next audience was his parents and grandparents. After much practice and words of encouragement, Andrew is now ready to put up his act! Good luck to him!

Steve, who has been keeping a low profile of late, is dating someone! We had no clue about his new love interest before he introduced us all to Chloe. Chloe greeted us all with a very friendly demeanor. We got talking immediately and Chloe seemed to blend in with us easily. Chloe talked about her life as a store manager. Being in a profession that relies heavily on interactions with customers, Chloe had plenty of anecdotes to share with us. We listened to her intently. Her wit and humor was definitely well above the average notch and we could see why Steve was taking an active interest in her.

It was only after a good half an hour that we realized that Chloe was doing all the talking herself. As soon as one story was praised with a round of laughter, Chloe jumped to the other. Megan was cut short on at least two occasions, and so was Adrian. That’s when it struck me that Chloe was keen on speaking but not on listening. Any story that someone else narrated was never good for her. It was immediately followed by one of her narrations. Things got so bad that after an hour, almost all of us pulled a long face and decided to disperse. I think Steve got it that we didn’t like his date. And we sincerely think that Chloe is bad influence for an introvert, sensitive person like Steve.

Lovers are divided into two groups. One supports the idea that you can be friends with your ex. Another says that no matter what, you just can’t be friends with your ex flame. After Rick’s preposterous comments Kaitlin was in a state of despair. And when that is the matter, you generally look for some comfort in the world around you. That’s exactly what Kaitlin was doing. Kaitlin went online, reconnecting with her old friends, some of them were from school! It was a nice little phase for her, took her mind off running a house and offered her time to redefine her relationship with Rick.

That’s when Kaitlin’s ex surfaced. Kaitlin was going through some old emails when she stumbled upon some mails that he wrote her. Kaitlin was not using that email id so never got to read them. I can’t say for sure what those mails contained, but Kaitlin decided to contact him again. They talked over the internet. Kaitlin was not secretive about it. But Rick couldn’t take it as he would have liked to, at least for the sake of their relationship. He freaked out badly, accusing Kaitlin of cheating on him. The fight that started over as trivial as something as weight, got momentum. Now things are really heading towards an unfortunate end.

I came across this anonymous quote on relationships that I thought will be a fitting sign off note for this edition: “We enter relationships as a somebody and leave them as a nobody.”