I’ve always looked young for my age.
I’d be the only one left out of the bar, as my friends filed in giggling and giddy on rum and coke Slurpees, with their fake ID and shoveled on make-up. The bouncers would laugh at me and tell me to go home to my mommy.
I was still being carded at the beer store when I was 30.
My gynecologist told me, just a few years ago, that she would never of guessed that I had 3 children because I have the cervix of a 19 year old.
It was a strange compliment and not the kind you can call all your friends to brag about really but I skipped home joyfully just the same.
Yesterday, I was feeling particularly effected by the endless side effects of the Prednisone or possibly the Actonel that I am taking to help protect me from the side effects of the Prednisone…or the pills I’m taking to ward off the side effects of the Actonel… whatever.
I was feeling terrible and looking remarkably pregnant for a non-pregnant person so I went off to the grocery store in search of leafy greens, dried fruit and fiber.
When I reached the cash, the owner started his usual chit chat, which would normally bore me to tears, but I’ve been starved of human contact lately so I entertained it. We were in mid mundane weather talk when he wondered rather abruptly,
“Are you married?”
“Pardon?”
“Married? Are you married? I never see you with a man, only your children.”
I haven’t been out of the house in a while, is he concerned or flirting?
“Oh, no…I’m not married. I have a boyfriend. I’m not married.”
“Do you live together?”
“No…no we don’t”
He smiles broadly and starts in about what I do for fun, how often do I see my boyfriend, do I like being a single mother and what am I planning to cook with the dried prunes etc…
Then he talks about how he would like kids and he starts listing off the qualities he is looking for in a woman.
He is flirting! How fun! I think I can remember how to do this.
I smile back, toss my hair over my shoulder and make a few witty remarks, laughing contagiously, much to the annoyance of the person waiting in line behind me. Then the cashier comes right out with:
“I like older women.”
“Excuse me?”
He grins and gives me this you-know-what-I’m-talking-about-that’s-right-YOU look with a raise of the eyebrow and everything!
“I like older women, real women. I don’t like young girls. Older women have life experience, it’s very attractive.”
I refrained from letting my face fall immediately after the words left his lips. I refrained from clubbing him over the head with my bag of avocados. I refrained from screaming “I have the cervix of a 19 year old!!” in the grocery store.
I just took my box of bran and my produce, wished him a great day and good luck finding is dream woman and made my way gracefully out of the store and back home to take my 10 pills and a tablet of osteoporosis medication before getting cozy on the couch with a glace of prune juice and this month’s issue of O magazine, just in time for Dr. Oz.
Older women…pft!