The Story

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In a quiet suburb of Chicago, there stands an idiosyncratic house known as the House of LaMach. Designed by the niche architect Holly West who was best known for one thing: designing and building homes that were almost impossible to sell once they came on the market. The house, at the end of a cul-de-sac on Maple Avenue, is home to the LaMach family: Arthur, the husband and father to two young sons, Randal and Guy; Elizabeth, the wife, mother, and founder of LaMach Dating AI LLC, a company that became a leader in AI dating technology. 
While Elizabeth became famous and was a sought-after spokesperson for the AI industry, her husband Arthur stayed at home with the children and created interesting recipes that he hoped to turn into a cookbook.

 

Unbeknownst to Arthur, his wife was using the company dating system to locate lovers she could date while on her extensive travels.  She had become the star of her own Up in the Air movie, and she was happy to play the Vera Farmiga character. And while she loved playing that role, she was intent on never finding the character played by George Clooney. No clinging guys for her. 

But it is funny how life can sometimes mimic art – on one of her trips to Paris she arranged a date with a handsome man, Daniel Cluzet, and before she could catch herself, she became the George Clooney character. Cluzet claimed to be the heir to a vast fortune but was nothing but a lowlife crook.

Elizabeth couldn’t stop thinking about him – she would make up excuses to go to Paris, and since she spoke perfect French, she arranged to teach a class in AI at the Sorbonne for a month. As time went by, she became lost in the passion that Paris can cast on one’s soul. 

That passion blinded Elizabeth to the truth about her Parisian consort. But luckily for her the Paris police were not blinded by this handsome crook’s appearance. They only cared about the fact that he was a despicable criminal and wanted by the police in ten countries. As Elizabeth and Danial sat in her suite at a luxurious Paris hotel drinking Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle No. 26 Champaigne, the police barged in and dragged his criminal ass to prison. Elizabeth sat stunned as the head police officer described the vileness of the man who set her heart spinning as if she were a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl. She spent the rest of the night crying over the shame she felt. She shuddered at the thought of what could have happened had the gods not jumped in and saved her from her own foolishness. It was time to stop these reckless affairs and confess to Arthur. He doesn’t deserve my deceit, she thought to herself. 

Back home in Chicago, Elizabeth moped around their home for weeks. Over and over she thought of what she could say to Arthur but coming clean was not as easy as getting dirty. One day she sat on a chaise lounge chair on the deck in the back garden when Arthur sat next to her. She couldn’t look at him because of the shame she was feeling. And once again the gods appeared when she least expected it. Arthur reached over and held her hand, looked into her eyes and said, “I forgive you. Nothing more needs to be said. Whatever you’ve done, it’s over.” The tears rained down from her eyes as Arthur put his arm around his wife and held her close. As she cried she thought to herself, it is done, it is over, thank you Arthur.

A year later, and after selling her company for a life-changing sum of money, Elizabeth and Arthur were on a plane headed to Boston and the beginning of his book tour for his now number one best-selling cookbook. She looked out the window and it reminded her of the movie Up in the Air, and breathed a sigh of relief knowing that that movie was now over for her. She turned to Arthur and touched his face, “I love you.” He looked deep into her eyes and replied, “And I love you.” The book tour was a great success. And nothing more ever needed to be said.