Living for Disco

“I always work it out like this.  Take your age, and then subtract seven.  Never go out with anyone younger than that.”

My friend was trying to reassure me that having considered a fling with a man in his early twenties was not a sign of either desperation, or moral degeneracy on my part.

“But that means that my lower limit is somewhere between 25 and 26”, I said, taking a big gulp of gin and tonic.  “So he’s still too young.  Anyway, it was never going to happen.  He only wanted his toothpaste back.”

They demanded an explanation.  So I told them.

The man in question came to stay at my house with two other peace corps volunteers, in the company of a good friend of mine from up north.  He was tall; he was funny; he had big hands.  My three main sexy-man criteria ticked off all in one go.  It was all very nice, and when they left, I found a half-used up tube of toothpaste in the bathroom.  Bonus!  I thought.  No action, but at least I have free toothpaste for the next two weeks.  Cup half full, and all that.

When we arrived, hot and dusty, into Opuwo the next day, I received a text message.  It said “Hi Rachael.  It’s [what'shisname]. I believe I left my toothpaste at your house yesterday, unless I am going mad.  Thanks for letting us stay.”

Of course, I instantly jumped to the conclusion that he was a)  insane, or b) flirting with me (the two not being mutually exclusive).  I mean, why go to the trouble of getting my number just for the sake of a tube of toothpaste?  I know that peace corps volunteers are very, very poor, but even so.  Toothpaste?  It costs N$5.  It did occur to me that he might think I am a little too old, but then I think I am always a bit too worried about my age, so I disregarded it.  I will probably still be persuading myself that boys find me attractive when I am seventy and my boobs are round my knees.

Anyway, I was quite excited.  It’s been ages since I’ve flirted with anyone.  Even so, I still wasn’t entirely sure whether we were flirting, or actually arranging a time for me to return his toothpaste to him.  Usually, when I get to the point in the story where he suggests a day when he will be in town, to meet up for a toothpaste exchange, everyone choruses “But of course he was flirting with you!”

What they don’t  yet know is that when I said I was out of town on that particular day, the response that came back was “Well, perhaps we can try another method.  My friend Dan is always in Windhoek.  Maybe you can give the toothpaste to him?”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 9:18 am and is filed under Miscellanea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.