Don’t you know you fool, you never can win
Use your mentality, wake up to reality
But each time I do, just the thought of you
Makes me stop before I begin
cause I’ve got you under my skin
-Cole Porter

“How can I put it –I fell for her, Marcello. Okay, it wasn’t a smart move. But it felt so good when she was around on the set. She showered me with compliments every time after my segment, always telling me how good I looked on air, how inspiring my delivery was. She would voice her admiration before the news anchor, the producers, the technical crew. Needless to say, her behavior drew disdainful sneers from the people on the set and in the control room. She told me that she had decided to get into journalism school after discovering me on TV. She also said that she wanted to follow in my footsteps and become someday a successful weather anchor, and that she couldn’t believe it when they emailed her announcing that she’d been selected as the new intern for the Spring session because the sole idea of getting to work for me was more than a dream come true. Isn’t it cool?”

“It’s cloying. It’s awkward.”

“Alright, Marcello. Let’s admit that the girl went way overboard with her concentrated precipitation of accolades on me. But –do you want to know something? I have long stopped getting compliments from my team. I guess they feel that the weatherman’s work lacks the excitement and glamour you find in other professions...”

“You perform a much valued service for the community. Many people watch your segment. I do it often.” Marcello waves at Anyushka, the new waitress at the bistro, and orders a Bellini.

“I love my job, Marcello. I really do. But, over the years it has become a routine exercise of sorts. Working with my team is no longer a thrill. I don’t get a star treatment, you know. I am just the weatherman. My people don’t show me the kind of appreciation I am expecting. A man like me, Marcello, needs to be shown some appreciation every now and then, am I right?”

“We all feel better when that happens.”

“So, here comes Nicole, fresh out of college, the intern with the doll’s face, the tall figure, the floral dresses, and a sweet devotion for me. I wasn’t used to it, Marcello. I mean, the other interns never made me feel admired. That’s what Nicole did to me.”

“I am pretty sure your network will consider an affair between one of its anchors and an intern as totally unacceptable behavior.”

“Well, yes. But it’s fair play if an anchor dates a former intern.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I need to talk about this with somebody I trust.”

“I can see it, Harold. A man in his mid-forties rejuvenated by the young flesh of a college girl. How many stories have been written based on that topic? Is yours a love story?”

“It began as such, or so I thought. Right after Nicole finished her internship a month ago, she requested me as her friend on Facebook. I couldn’t say no. I didn’t want to.”

“How old is she?”

“Twenty five.”

“And you became friends with her on Facebook?”

“I have hundreds of fans, mind you. But, as far as I was concerned, I wanted to find a way to communicate with Nicole, which we did through private messages on Facebook.”

“Did you seduce her over emails?”

“Well, actually she seduced me. I was in love with her.”

“But she’s only twenty five, ferchrissake.”

“I didn’t care, Marcello.”

“Did you have sex with her?”

“After five messages we did. And here is how this love story turned pathetic.”

“You are not going to tell me that she adopted you as her sugar daddy, are you?”

“That wouldn’t be so pathetic, Marcello.”

“You tell me.”

“Okay. It happened right after we made love for the first time. And I didn’t see it coming. We both were naked in my bed. Nicole was playing with her fingers on my chest, and then moved on my shoulders. The feeling was so nice. I turned to my right so that she could take on my back. And that’s when she found them.”

“She found, what.”

“The two tattooed names. The names of the two most important women in my life. Angela, the mother of my two sons, and Kristin, my one-time girlfriend, my one-time fiancée… The woman who broke my heart by dumping me for a news writer.”

“Deplorevole.”

“Predictably, Nicole asked me about the origin of the tattoos. And I told her the story behind them. I told her that I had loved Angela and Kristin very deeply, and that getting their names under my skin was a testimonial of my feelings for each of them. Each tattoo a symbol for what I once believed was love forever.”

“It’s quite interesting.”

“Nicole and I then started a discreet relationship. We didn’t go public because of her recent internship with my network. We’d make love almost every day. She’d stay the nights at my place and leave in the mornings. We’d talk about her career, her dreams and disappointments. She’d kiss me passionately before falling asleep. It was so good, Marcello. I was in love with Nicole.”

“I guess that’s the reason you stopped seeing me and your friends. You were so in love.”

“It’s not funny. I didn’t see you because I was demolished.”

“Why?”

“My relationship with Nicole lasted barely two weeks. It took me longer than that to recover from the devastating breakup.”

“I just can’t visualize Harold M. King, the senior weatherman, being devastated over an intern.”

“It all unfolded in a three-day span. One night after an intense lovemaking session, Nicole is looking at the tattoos, and she asks me, ‘Do you really love me, Harold? I mean, really?’ I said, Yes, I really love you, Nicole. Then she asked me when I was going to get her name in my body.”
“Oh my God.”

“Admittedly, I was out of my mind. I must be insane to reply that I was going to have her name tattooed on the following day. That was the extent of my mad love for her. Nicole, however, demanded that her name be in my groin area.”

“To which you refused, I guess, and that’s why she broke up with you.”

“Marcello… I couldn’t refuse her. I did exactly as she said. The following morning I had her name tattooed in my groin area.”

“This is so frigging insane…”

“Don’t rub it in, Marcello. Please, don’t.”

“I am sorry, Harold.”

“I met with her at my place the day after I got the tattoo. As she saw it I expected her to show some kind of excitement. But she was cold and detached. When I asked what was wrong, Nicole informed me that she had decided to terminate our relationship because she thought I was needy and clingy. She said that I was being tested when she had suggested –she did use that word, ‘suggested’—that I get a tattoo with her name. Doing that for her, she said, was the ultimate example of my catering to her whims. In the long run, she argued, a man like me is dangerously toxic. She clarified, however, that she had real feelings for me at the outset of the relationship. Then she wished me good luck and left.”

“Man, that must have been devastating for you.”

“You bet.”

“I am so sorry. What are you going to do now? With the tattoo, I mean. It can be removed, right?”

“Marcello, I am not going to get it removed. I want it to stay with me forever as a screaming reminder of my foolishness.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

“It’s funny. Yesterday I was reading a quote from Jack London. It goes, ‘Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past.’ Yeah, right.”