"The AB Lunch Club: Failed relationships or Higher Intervention? - "Another shot hits the gullet"

Have you ever wondered if there's such a thing as true love? Does such a thing actually exist or is it more of something only found in fairy tales that makes most people wading through of the very real frustrations of finding "the one" more able to cope with the constant disappointments (or at least can feel to be) that faces them almost on a daily basis?

This post is about 3 very different women, each with very unique backgrounds and life experiences, but shared one common struggle - experiencing the frustrations of finding "Mr. Right" and not another "Mr. Dud," and how the "universal powers that be" conspired to making everything work out in the end...........well kind of. ;-)

In the middle of a wintry Saturday afternoon, three women, not knowing each other, walked into an Applebee's, all within a few minutes of each other. One was a 32 year old woman, named Sonya who was native to India and moved to the U.S. when she was 18 years old to avoid the "arranged marriage" set-up typical for her culture. The second was a woman, named Shareen, who just celebrated her 54th birthday, born in Indianapolis, Indiana and dealing with a current and emotionally draining (lopsided I must say) love triangle. The third lady was 39 years old, and who's name was Reagen, and at that time has been divorced for almost one year and doing her best to relearn to balance her life as a single mom.

There were no tables available so each of the women were asked by the hostess if they would be okay sitting at the bar. All responded when asked, "yes."

It was as if a "grand plan" was being put in place and initiated, starting a reaction from the moment each of these women walked through the front door and were seated at the bar. Sonya when seating herself at the bar received an incoming call. Shareen, with a heavy heart and wiping tears from her eyes, trying to regain her composure, observed the immediate emotional distress that Sonya was displaying caused her to move next to Sonya - which started a conversation between the two women. At this very same moment, the third woman Reagen receives a not-so-nice text from her ex-husband making her feel guilty for simply going out and finally doing something for herself. Reagen is seen by Sonya and Shareen placing her cell phone down on the table and then placing her face into the palms of her hands and begin crying. It is then that Shareen and Sonya walk over to Reagen with concerned expressions on their faces. As the three women all begin talking to one another, a table behind them opens up and they quickly occupy the seats.

The women soon realize they all were dealing with "love issues" with the bottom line being - all were on the search for "true love," but to them seemed as if it was nothing more than unobtainable hopes and dreams.

Sonya discussed how she upset her parents for every suitor they find she literally wants to vomit - she said, "apparently they're so desperate to marry me off that finding me someone who's even remotely attractive no longer matters." She picked up her cell phone and brought forth a picture of the current suitor that her parents chose for her to meet. Both Shareen and Reagan started giggling which then turned into outright gut-busting laughing. Sonya responded, "I know right?! I mean would either one of you be interested in that?!?!" Both Shareen and Reagen instantly shook their heads and wrinkled their noses in disgust. Sonya then added, that what was sitting heavy on her thoughts was the man she was in love with chose another woman and opted to marry her instead. She said, "Even though I loved him and he said he loved me, he chose to go along with an arranged marriage for there was more financial gain and family wealth involved."

Shareen chimed in stating that she could feel the heaviness in all of us and opened up saying that she raised her now 24 year old son since he was an infant, since his father left her when she was 7 months pregnant, for a much younger woman. She added that she avoided dating for a very long time to work on bettering herself as a mother and person in general, but to work on enhancing her career and going back to school. When she decided to open back up to the possibility of finding love she found herself falling in love with a married man who confessed his love to her, but she could not and would not move forward with him out of respect to his wife and "their" marriage. Shareen became emotional when she said, "Who is going to want me now? I am getting old and by now, if I haven't met someone who is "real" in their words and actions and will stand by me through thick and thin, the chances of me finding love is getting pretty slim."

A few moments of silence passed, and now both Sonya and Shareen were looking at Reagen with wondering stares. Reagen cleared her throat................."I suppose you are wanting to know my situation now?" Both ladies nodded. "Well I am divorced, and have been for almost a year now. This was my first serious relationship, meeting my ex-husband when I was 29 years old. I soon learned what I was feeling wasn't love but really it was relief from not being single and alone so long that I avoided all the warning flags. The relationship/marriage was more business-like, never warming, but often cold and disconnected. I was the head of the household and often considered 'money bags' since I financially held the home together and my ex-husband was always financially undependable. On top of that buying and hoarding random things and his clutter became a large issue. I tried for 7 years, and felt guilty for wanting out, but realized that I shouldn't stay in a "loveless" relationship and one that was becoming constantly stressful."

More silence passed. Then Shareen looked up with a glimmer in her eye and said screw this, if we want the warm and fuzzy feelings than we need one of these.....................pointing to the 3 images of goblet sized long island iced teas - peach, blue Hawaiian, and top shelf. The pictures looked of pure "spiritual" bliss......that's right.......alcohol. We each ordered one and decided to indulge in cheese and pretzels and salsa, queso, and chips. To later add onto our food order, hot lava chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream to add to our junk food and alcohol indulgence.

The women who entered Applebee's that afternoon with heavy hearts and wet eyes, wound up with lifted spirits ;-) and tears from laughing so hard for several hours. In fact, the women had such a great time they exchanged phone numbers afterwards and planned to meet every other Saturday at that exact Applebee's for "girl-time discussions."

Apparently the divine intervention that occurred here was forming new friendships through life's strains, the quest for true love, booze, and food. :-) And cheers to you Applebee's for being the place of choice for divine intervention to take place.

So does true love exist? LoL! From this story I'd have to say........"I have NO frickin' clue." But I am a hopeless romantic and have to believe it does exist somewhere out there. It's just a matter of becoming one of the lucky ones who actually get to experience it and validate its existence.

I wish all of you luck to whom are still in the search of finding "true love." Stay strong and be diligent for it can be a difficult and emotional road but never underestimate the importance of your friends, old and new, along your journey - and this goes for all "bros" and "fem friends."

Thanks for reading!

Note: All characters based in this post are based off of real life people, but the material in this post are semi-fictional with some elaborated content.