Chapter 2

“What’s your name?”

The woman in red looked up and smiled at the man standing beside her.

“Georgina.”

“Such a nice name for a gorgeous lady. I’m Randall.” The guy sat at her side without invitation. He was impeccably dressed. “I think I’ve seen you here before. Can I tempt you to share dessert?”

Georgina rolled her eyes and said nothing. Usually, she wouldn’t mind his boldness, but she was tired of playing the same old game. She had stopped having one-night stands more than two years ago when she started chasing a fellow teacher from her school called Steve.

She was thinking about taking root, starting a family, and having kids. However, Steve hooked up with someone else, a newcomer English teacher called Diana. They announced their engagement earlier today. It hurt. It hurt too much to stay at home all by herself.

That was the reason she was here tonight, back playing the old game.

The guy at her side kept trying. “Well, I’m here. What are your other two wishes?”

Georgina sighed. “He’s too cocky, too confident. Clearly a player. The kind of guy I should avoid at all costs.”

He leaned down placing a hand on her knee. “Are you new in Portland? I could show you around.”

“I don’t live here, but in a small town. I haven’t come to this club in a long while,” she took his hand off her knee using two fingers.

Georgina had been in this very same situation more times than she could count. She already knew how the story went. They would dance and rub against each other, while she drank enough alcohol to numb herself. It would be followed by a heavy petting session, and they would end up renting a room in a hotel or going to his place. The next day she would wake in a strange bed with a man whose name she couldn’t remember, asking herself: “How the hell did I let this happen again?”

When she was a child, she used to play “Old Maid,” a card game consisting of matching up pairs of cards until the loser was left with the only card that had no mate, the old maid card.

And now, here she was, an old maid herself. Granted, in the strict sense of the word she was not old (she was 27) and she was not a maid, but she was still all alone. She had felt alone all her life. Pretty soon she would be the only woman of her age left without a partner in town. Steve was one of the last decent single men left. She would have to pair with Irv, the other gym teacher in Middletown High, and he was a sexist pig. Being around him made her skin crawl.

When she was a teenager, the models she had of older single women were not much more appealing to her than the old maid card. Her high school education was delivered to her almost entirely by spinsters. Like her Junior High Principal. Georgina used to see those ladies as utterly sexless beings. Being a callow teenage girl, she never wondered if they were lonely on Saturday nights.

Now she thought of those teachers with affection and sadness. It was hard to be a woman of a certain age without a partner.

Georgina looked at Randall and said, “I’m not interested. Sorry”

“Look, maybe I came on too strong...” he said with a look of disappointment.

She didn’t let him finish, “No, you didn’t. Two years ago, you would have been the kind of human dildo I’d be looking for, but I’ve realized I’m tired of all this. Sorry.”

“Maybe next time,” the guy said trying to save face. He took a napkin and wrote a number on it. “Here’s my number, in case you’re in the mood another night.”

Georgina nodded but didn’t take the napkin. The thing was she had lost all interest in playing this foolish game again. She felt emotionally drained.

“I’m just so tired of being alone. I don’t care about looks or money or status. All that can fade over time. What I want is a genuine, kind, and caring man,” she wished.