"Dial L-O-V-E" features a young woman named Fran who recently moved to the big city for new adventures. But things aren't going great for her. She's lonely, she has few friends, and she can't meet any guys.
But she eventually meets a guy named Ted while chatting on their party line. He ends up asking her out on a date -- and she gladly accepts! It turns out that they're both small-town transplants and have a bunch of shared values and experiences.
All is going well until Fran gets on the phone one night to call Ted. To her surprise, she hears two voices on the party line: Ted's voice and another girl's voice(!!): "Stella, Sweetheart... I miss you so!""You Angel Boy, you! I miss you!" Furious, Fran slams down the phone receiver and immediately cuts that cheating Ted out of her life!
Then one day Ted interrupts her at her record store job and make her listen to some records that he'd produced earlier in day. He plays one of the records for Fran, which says "Fran, do I sound like Ted? Sure I do! I fool everybody... But I'm not Ted... I'm his brother, Bill! We sound alike on the phone, too!"
Ted then plays the other album, which says "Hi, Sweet... This is Ted... The guy who loves you! Bill says you slammed the phone down last night, while he was talking to his girl from my place! That right?" He then proposes to Fran and, completely ashamed, she instantly accepts his proposal!
Which is such a silly idea. I mean, who's to say that Ted didn't record both albums? If I were writing this story, I would have a despondent Ted tell Fran that his brother Bill suddenly fell down an elevator shaft or something equally final. He would tell Fran that his family held a quickie family-only funeral and she would completely believe him.
And Ted would know that he got away with cheating on Fran with Stella! I would have loved that ending...
"Dial L-O-V-E" featured pencils and inking by Vernon Greene.