Alisha has never been married, and her romantic resume reads like the basis of a soap opera.

First, there was Charlie, who she dated for seven years. He was a sex addict who convinced her that no other man would want her. Then there was Gage. They spent four years together. She loved him and almost married him. "He was almost perfect, except he was severely allergic to my cats and commitment."

And then there was Reese, who told her he was "legally separated." You can guess how that one ended. And then, she met a guy online, who went ballistic because she didn't look like her picture. She gave him $2 to pay for her diet soda and split.

After Reese there was Eddie. "He accepted me the way I am. He was very supportive of my dreams to be a writer and illustrator, and I can truly say he was my best friend and my love. By the way, my cats loved him too."

After six months, they got engaged: "I was his woman, and he was my man. I truly believed we didn't need anything but each other to make us happy."

Eddie broke off the engagement with a text.

After Eddie, Alisha stopped dating. "My love life had given me nothing but trouble, nothing but a series of jerks."

Then she met Rick. "We became friends and discovered we had a lot in common." Rick was "between apartments," while Alisha had a nice condo in a high-rise with a beautiful view. He wanted to move in. Alisha said "no." "My counselor told me I did the right thing. She said, 'You don't start a relationship with someone who is between apartments.'"

Alisha recently ran into Gage. "He's changed a lot, and so have I. He's noticed I'm much more my own person than I was when we first dated. The years we were apart did us both some good."

They've been seeing each other on weekends. "Gage is solid, hard-working and comes from a great family. But he has a landline, not a cellphone. The problem with cellphones is you never know where the person really is."

Which brings us to Rick, a cellphone guy if ever there was one. Rick, you remember, was the one who was "between apartments."

"A year after I broke it off with him. I found out that the whole time we were together, he was married to a Russian woman who needed a green card. He said he was sorry and he missed me.

"I said, 'Too late, my brother.' I'm with Gage for life, whether we marry or not. Gage is my soul mate, and even if we break up again, I wouldn't go back to Rick if he were the last man on Earth."

But the Ricks of the world don't give up easily. He hit on Alisha again recently. "He deliberately tried to infuriate me. He knows how to get under my skin."

By the way, in case you forgot, Alisha and Gage originally broke up because he was allergic to her cats. Alisha says he found a new allergy doctor, and his allergies are gone, "or at least in 100% remission."

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