The Date

She puckered her lips as she applied the lipstick, pursing them to smooth the pink gloss evenly from end to end. Angela was staring at a face of what once was an attractive women. What she saw didn’t please her but you can only work with what you’ve got and above all else in life she was a pragmatist.  It was that attitude borne of life experiences going back 30 years. He was an insincere cheating unreliable bastard but he was also probably the best she’d get and she’d settle for that.

 Angela was convinced by now that most hairdressers knew 3 cuts and though you can show them as many pictures from “Hairdresser News”, “Bazaar” or Hello of the cut you want, you’ll ultimately end up with one of the 3 they know. She always left the salon comforting herself with the thought “I’ll wash it myself when I get home” and it’ll become the cut she sought but she knew she was lying to herself and fooling no-one. Rewashed & blown dry it looked exactly as in the salon. Then as now, her punishment to herself was to wear it for at least a month before trying again. The miser in her said to her happy self “You‘ve paid 120 euro for that. If you’d grown a pair of balls and stood up for yourself you would be walking out with the look you wanted. Your fate now is to walk around as a public embarrassment for a minimum of 4 weeks before you can try again and this time say “Well no – that’s not what I wanted. I don’t like it at all. Look again at the Angelina Jolie photo I showed you. Now look at me. Can you spot a single similarity?  beside the fact that we are both women!!”

No – no that would never happen.

 She stood up and adjusted the dress that sheltered her ample bosom and middle aged spread. The dress and her had had better days but Rome wasn’t built in a day and Angela had set the wheels in motion for a new her. However her new gym subscription and dance classes had only started two days ago and lets be real, it would be several weeks before changes would  be seen. Angela had hit the ground running in 2012 and tonight another part of her new life plan was slipping into place. Life begins again at 55.

In fact it begins whenever you want it and she wanted it badly.

 For 35 years she had settled for Pete, unreliable Pete. In a quiet night in over Christmas, one of many, she had had a vision. It was yet another night alone because Pete at the last minute had to baby sit for his daughter. The vision was a road to Damascus moment. In one startlingly brilliant moment of complete clarity she saw clearly the reality she had been blind to for all those years. He was never ever going to leave his wife for her. It had been promised many times. When the kids are older, when they finish secondary school, university, when they get over their need for Dad. Then it was “I can’t Angela. She’s ill now, She may lose her sight, She’s alone. She needs me. Well I needed you. I live alone. What about me? You’re different Love, you’re strong, you’ve always lived alone its going to be all new for her. She can’t cope with life without me. And I can? Yes you can.

 Finally 3 years ago he left his wife. Angela knew nothing about it for a month until a mutual friend let it slip in casual conversation. He’d gone to live with another women he’d been having an affair with in Nenagh Co Tipperary. All this came as news to Angela. It fair blew her mind and she kept it to herself for over a month before confiding to her best friend who didn’t seem so shocked. His deception hurt her deeply and she burned with a rage against this bastard that has been in the core of her existence for all these years. As in the past Pete was unreachable for several weeks. She drove round to his wife’s address and checked his workplace but he never appeared. Being a traveling salesman meant she could never be sure of his movements. She comforted herself that she still had some of his clothing in the spare bedroom. She also took some comfort in the fact that he’d always come back to her. That’s what he thought too. In his own time he’ll make contact and no he won’t deny or apologize for his actions. She’ll control herself and let him talk and by the end of the call his voice, good humour and warmth with have won her over and her life will light up like standing in the glow of a 500 watt floodlight,  bathing in the warm glow of his affection. “So I’ll be round on Tuesday” he’d finish and she will find herself saying “Sure Pete, see you about 8 – I’ll have your favourite coq au vin done just as you like it”. Then when he’d arrive she’d serve him his favourite dish, fill his glass with his favorite bottle of Chilean Chardonnay and led a sleepy woozy Pete to the bedroom where she’d tie him to the bed, cut off his cock and he’ll find just how handy a cheated trained theater nurse is with a scalpel.