Part 2
“Yes, why? From a married woman’s point of view why?”
“Well,” she stammered. “Uh, the big romantic wedding.” With a coo I heard, “the dress. All the love. People are happy that you’re happy. It’s your BIG day.”
“A wedding that costs at least $5,000. Half the gifts are duplicutes of things you already own. In a dress that you starved yourself to fit into since you set the date.”
Sipping sounds, “the honey moon.”
“Singles cruise.”
“Babies!” She shouted. “I love my babies.” Birds flew out of a near by tree.
“Befriend someone with small children. Or better yet, nieces or nephews. Okay, play with them. Shower them with love. And leave when you’re ready.”
“Sex.”
“Vibrator.”
“Psst, come now.” I could just imagine her getting embarrassed. More sipping. “Having that warm body to cuddle with.”
“Get a dog.”
“That need for human affection.”
“Best friend, family, social media.”
“Second income. It’s almost impossible to live off one income.”
“Stop living above your means.”
“Such as?”
“I drive an 11 year old car with cranky down windows. No WiFi at my house. My phone is my computer, planner, camera. You name it there’s an app for that. Get a side hustle.”
“Side hustle? What do you do?
“Clean gutters, build fences, paint, stain. My latest project was, I built a fire pit.”
“Wow! Really? That’s amazing.”
“Thank you.”
“So you own a home?”
“Me and the bank. When I was pre-approved for a mortgage, they pre-approved me for $75,000. I knew I couldn’t afford that. My house cost $45,000. It’s perfect for me and my little dog.”
“Ours was $150,000 and we used it all. Plus.”
“With two children, I can see why.”
She sighed, “maybe.” There was a pause. “I’m a stay at home mom. Ben would be so upset if he couldn’t single-handedly provide for our family.” Sip. Sip. “Someone to do stuff with.”
“I’ll give you that one. Sometimes it’s nice to go out to dinner or the movies. But that doesn’t mean I want to take anyone home with me.”
“Did I mention sex?”
“You did. I can’t wait for society to make it acceptable to procreate in a Petrie dish.”
“You don’t like sex?”
“Overrated. Do what you need to do and let me up.”
“Then you haven’t had good sex.”
“Pointless unless you want to procreate. We waste so much time and energy on sex. Emotions. Someone hurt my little feelings. Blah, blah. Move on.”
“It feels good.”
“So does charity work. Or a good hard days work for that matter. Seeing a job well done. Lot’s of things make you feel good. If we spent as much time worrying about poverty, climate change, or finding cures for our greatest illnesses, we wouldn’t have any thing to worry about.”
“Men have special needs.”
“Blow up doll. And she won’t take half of what he owns when he deflates her.”
“I like having Ben around. He makes me feel safe.”
“Baseball bat, gun, uh huh dog.”
“Gun,” she shuttered. “No. Do you own a gun?”
“Yes. But I don’t have children to worry about either.”
“Now I don’t believe that someone doesn’t turn you on. Who is he? Come on you can tell me. Or she?”
“No on both counts.”
“Then who is your favorite actor. What about that person turns you on?”
“Do you remember Mr. Brown’s history class?”
The tone of her voice dropped, “yes.”
“Remember that poster he had…”
“Yes,” she snapped her fingers as she cut her friend off. “That hunk holding a beach ball shaped like Earth. I always wondered why a history teacher would have that poster when it was more suited for gym class.” She whispered, “do you think Mr. Brown was really gay?”
“Hmmm, don’t know. I don’t know where he got that particular poster from but Atlas had a chiseled jaw. I just wanted to hold his face in my hands.”
“A chiseled jaw line rocks your world?” Her friend was not amused.
“And a smokin’ hot voice.”
“Voice?!” She squeaked.
“Yeah, you know the kind of voice that sells romance novels to women.”
“What about money, status, muscles, car, oooh eyes. Dreamy eyes.”
“Most of all, I want someone to be kind to me. I can buy my own shit.”
“Well, okay. What about the man you were engaged to?”
“The closer we got, we discovered that we really didn’t have anything in common. He wanted a family. I didn’t. He wanted to move to California. I didn’t. He wanted to combine our household income so that I could help carry the burden of his debt. I made more than him at the time. I didn’t. I had my own student debt to pay back. In the 3 years that we dated, he bought 6 different cars. He was a financial mess. I ain’t got time to raise a child. So yeah. Nope.”
“You made more than him. Most men I know get tore up over that.”
“Oh, he loved it.”
“Well.” Sip. Sip.
“How’s your family?”
“My mom’s dead and my dad’s a piece of,” she paused. “Work. We don’t speak.”
“How sad. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. It’s better this way.”
“It just seems so sad to me to go through this life alone.” A shiny red sports car pulled up and blew its horn. She squealed, “Hi honey. This is Ava.”
“Hi.”
Woman one; jumped the patio fence and got into the car, waving as they drove the 1,000 feet to the entrance of the hotel. If she would have looked, there was a little gate not far from my feet. I guess the coffee shop gets lots of customers from the hotel.
I took this moment to look at the woman that got left behind. She simply grinned, “God, let it be 31 more years before I see her again.”
Poetry & More 
Very well written conversation
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Thank you. 💕
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