Free Illusions of Love by Cynthia Freeman

the time we finished, I was terribly smitten with him and when he asked me if he could see me again I didn’t hesitate, though my hand shook as I wrote my name and number on a matchbox cover. Are you sure I’m not boring you?”
    “I’m sure. Goon.”
    “Well, when I got back to Aunt Blanche’s, I found he’d called. I called back and made a date for dinner that night. We went to a marvelous little Italian restaurant in the Fifties and, well, Martin, what can I say?”
    “What did your aunt say about all this?”
    “I didn’t tell her about it … I mean, about how we’d met. She’d have been appalled. After one phone call to California I would have been shipped out on the first train. Oh, what else could I do, Martin? I lied and said he was from Princeton.”
    “Well, you’re resourceful, Sylvia. I’ll say that.”
    She looked at him strangely.
    “What kind of thing is that to say to me?”
    “No, I really meant it in the most complimentary way.”
     
    She hesitated for a moment.
    “Thank you … I think. Well, anyway, after the pasta and that first glass of red wine, I knew Maury Orloffwas for me.”
    While Sylvia took a sip of champagne, Martin asked, “Do people fall in love just like that?”
    “That’s what the songs say.”
    “Maybe, but don’t two people have to get to know one another better?”
    “Not when the chemistry is right, Martin. People can know one another all their lives and never fall in love. Look at you and me.”
    “Well, that’s a little different. It would be like incest.”
    Sylvia took another sip of champagne.
    “If I tell you a secret, promise not to laugh?”
    “Scout’s honour.”
    “I was wildly, madly in love with you.”
    “You were?” he answered, secretly pleased.
    “I didn’t know.”
    “Of course you didn’t. When you’re thirteen and terrified that the object of your affection is going to find out, you act in a lot of strange ways.”
    “I would have never guessed you felt that way about me.”
    “Well, I did. But that was ages ago.”
    Martin wasn’t all that pleased at the way she relegated her affection for him to the past, but he smiled and asked, “Where do you go from here?”
    “Either the family accepts him or else.”
    “You mean it’s that serious?”
    “It’s that serious,” she said, suddenly on the verge of tears.
    If there was one thing that Martin couldn’t abide, it was a woman crying. For an unfathomable reason he felt responsible no matter what the cause of her tears. Worse than responsible, he felt guilty.
    Handing her his handkerchief, he said, “Please don’t cry, Sylvia. I hate to see you unhappy.”
    She looked up as a tear spilled down her cheek.
    “Do you really?”
     
    “Well, of course I do, for God’s sake!”
    She blew her nose and said, “I suppose I’m just sort of confused. It seems so difficult to break Mother out of her mould. Our parents are so rigid. My God, their ideas are almost archaic about our marrying our own kind. You know, Martin, we’re not exactly the Rothschilds.”
    “Still, even though we don’t always agree with them, we have to try to look at it from their point of view.”
    Sylvia looked irritated.
    “Gosh, I thought you were on my side, Martin.”
    “I am.”
    “Then why are you taking their side?”
    “I’m not. I just think it’s important to see their point of view to try and understand them.”
    Sylvia laughed, not happily.
    “You sound like a parent yourself.
    They’re the ones who should be understanding. This is not the dark ages. “
    “You still have to listen. Families are terribly important. They may be a little out of touch, but the point is that they’re trying to perpetuate a tradition … Sylvia, promise you won’t be upset at this.”
    “I can’t promise … but at least I’ll listen.”
    He smiled.
    “Good. Now let’s take it from your point of view. I suppose it’s possible to fall in love with someone the first time you meet. But it’s also