Single bed

It's now, it is how it is now. She responds to the dead poets words in her head. I have to reach out for love. Where else am I going to meet someone? she whispers. Always "plugged in" to her Ipod she participated in the flirtations on the train. But always, at the station the relationship ended.


She is a youthful looking 'Cougar' they call her though see doesn't see herself that way. There is nothing predatory about her.

At 43 she works out regularly but hasn't had the plastic surgery to complete the superficial package that seems to be de rigour in this days dating world. Just a little botox. "To freshen up" She has a quirky personality, great job as an art teacher and lives in an apartment in the city. Always attending a live gig, a gallery opening or out with friends or out on dates there is no time for a television. Too much else to do in Melbourne.

As she feels younger she often dates younger men, who are still searching for who they are as she searches for them.

In her romantic mind, anything is possible. Age difference be damned. She has been seduced and abandoned by men of a more 'appropriate' age as well so she doesn't discriminate. A little Bohemian, she makes paintings of her great love, Sebastian, a moggie short hair who has occupied her single bed with her since she bought it in protest 2 years ago. Her 40 something boyfriend had cheated on her, she moved out and this was all she could afford. She prefers slim men anyway.

She has been on a treasure hunt for true love on the Internet, followed by the obligatory coffee date and had her fair share of rebuttals. At first the experience is exhilarating watch to see if she would be number one based upon how many emails she had returned or had been kissed.

"No thanks to full frontal pictures before I even meet you face to face..." she tells them. "I'm into eyes and teeth" and she really is.

Kissed virtually hundreds of times over the past year she has had numerous false starts and some old fashioned romance but mostly disappointment. Then came a message from "Born in the Eighties" ... "I think we have a lot in common I'd like to hear from you" his message read. She replied with the option "If you send me the first email I will buy you the first coffee" it actually turned out to be a Crown Lager and she hadn't even bothered to dress up this time. So many evenings in heels wasted on guys that were just looking for sex that very night.

When she met "Born in the Eighties" she hid her profile, some of the same interested parties from times past have as well. They went on 5 dates before he told her that he really does not want a commitment, he lives day to day. She pretends that this is ok with her, he will surely not want to leave. Let him believe he has the freedom to do so at anytime she has learned and he will want to stay forever.

They refer to his cancer as "a cold" after all its Hodgkin's,with a 90 percent survival rate he has had two relapses since 2006. "It's the best one to get" he tells her. All she wants is to be with him forever, sharing each ordinary day. It is love, they know it but she doesn't dare say this out loud.

With the 14 year age difference, he may very well outlive her. They have intimacy, love, though it is an unspoken word and might face loss: but what couple doesn't in one form or another?

Katherine