BOOK
INFORMATION
TITLE – Greater Expectations
AUTHOR – Alexander McCabe
GENRE – Romantic Comedy
PUBLICATION DATE – August 5th
2014
LENGTH (Pages/# Words) – 257
pages / approx. 90,000 words
PUBLISHER – Self published
ebook
COVER ARTIST – Kirsty C.
Maclauchlan
BOOK
SYNOPSIS
It is said that the course of true love never runs smooth -
even for us men. Yet it has never been easier to find love than in this modern
digital era where the mighty computer has all but rendered Cupid redundant.
Love is now to be found, quite literally, at your fingertips. Although love
also seems to have changed with the times. This new love is deceitful and
manipulative, cunning and untrustworthy. Love has gotten ugly. Thankfully, not
all the answers to life’s mysteries are to be found in the computer and Cupid -
battered and bruised as he may be - proves that he still has some game and a
few tricks up his sleeve…
BUY
& TBR LINKS
EXCERPT
When first I met my now estranged wife during our Master’s
year at university, I was seeing someone else too. In the main, this defines me
as a “bastard”, although I preferred to think of myself as a “player”. Indeed I
would argue that it falls under the guise of “sowing wild oats”. That’s the
phrase that makes the practice somehow acceptable, and mothers the world over
tell their sons that this is what they need to do before they settle down. The
rite of passage into manhood as it were. At least, it’s what my mother told me.
Women may argue this point - sorry, women will argue this point - but then they
become mothers.
Naturally, they just don’t want those “wild oats” sown with
their own daughters.
However, it is a fallacy to think that we men are completely
heartless. I realised that I actually liked the girl that I eventually married
so quickly ended all contact with the third party. In actual fact, she was a
girl that I had been seeing first but only by a matter of a few weeks. I got
the usual tirade of “bastard” texts, emails, and drunken voicemails. “I thought
you were different” being the obligatory phrase that she just had to use during
every one of these “opportunities”. In one particular instance, during which
she also branded me a “coward”, I foolishly responded. I explained to her that
I was merely being cruel to be kind as it was blatantly obvious to me that
there we had no future together. Furthermore, after everything that had been
said and done – more on her part now than mine - she would surely realise and
accept that there was no going back as any trust and respect that had been
built was now completely shattered.
I got the following reply:
“See, I knew you were different. That was lovely, you
thinking of me and my feelings and us and our future. Why can’t we make this
work? We can, you just have to trust yourself to trust me. Call
me.”
It took another six weeks of ignoring and blocking her
before she finally gave up. We had only been dating, if it could ever have been
called that, for three weeks.
It takes true courage and bravery to finish any
relationship. As my marital separation was only a week old, I understood that
there may be some element of hope that we could fix it and move on. Yet I knew
there was no way I could, or would, allow myself to stoop to such a level of
indignity. My sense of pride has taken a pounding and is undoubtedly battered
and bruised, but it is still there, standing tall and intact, however weakly.
It is also getting stronger with every passing day.
All thanks to “Hope”.
“Hope” is a very strange feeling that displaces others such
as “confidence”, “faith”, and “trust” and one that I have naturally gravitated
towards my entire life. We are old friends, hope and I. Never have I dared to
have “confidence” in my academic or sporting abilities, rather I always “hoped”
that I would perform at my best as necessitated in any particular circumstance.
When things had gone better than I had even dared “hope”, then I defaulted to
the notion that is was merely my “good luck”, and vice versa. “Luck” has always
provided me an excuse for all of life’s highs and lows and everything in
between. Now I wanted to change all that. Now I wanted to control my
existence.
Now I wanted to stir the stagnant pool that is my life
proactively to feel like I am living again.
So that may well explain why I am now sat in only my boxer
shorts in front of my computer, as the rain batters the window behind my
curtains, and trying to focus on completing an online dating profile that
includes a “personal statement” section. Apparently, its purpose is to allow me
to describe myself in as broadly generic terms as possible in order to seem
“normal” and “average” - and so maximising my appeal - whilst also trying to
ensure that I am unique enough as to stand out. The logic of the concept is
irrefutable and yet fantastically ridiculous.
It is also proving so challenging to the point of being
quite impossible.
As a truck driver, I work most weekends and so this job
commitment removes the more conventional ways of meeting women. Using a dating
site makes far more sense in this new age of technology as it allows for an
immediate connection without the need to wait for the weekend, or the demand of
a decent chat up line. It cuts to the chase, so to speak. The site has posted a
statistic that states over 28% of couples now “meet” online, so I am still
happily in the minority. However, it is utterly galling to me that I should
ever try to be “normal” or “average” to anyone as I have never considered
myself as such.
It seems to me to be morally
fraudulent.
Online dating. It really is quite an absurd concept yet
totally in concert with the modern era where people are too busy with work and
life to take the time and make the effort for actually dating. Yet where is the
romance of it? You will never hear a love song that refers to such sites. Can
you imagine Rod Stewart singing “The Algorithm of my Heart”, or some such
like?
No? Me neither.
AUTHOR BIO
After graduating with a couple of useless degrees in law, I
left my Scottish homeland and wandered nomadically around the globe to
experience the rich diversity of culture that the world has to
offer.
On my travels, I met my Canadian wife in New Zealand, we
were married in Scotland and now live in Canada with our newborn son. Although
we currently call Toronto home, this is not yet a permanent arrangement and,
rather alarmingly, we are perfectly happy about that…
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