Dating in Your 40s

“So”, she said, “I’ve been divorced a couple years. I was married for 13 years.”

“That’s a long time to be married, I was married for 19 years to the day. Seriously, I signed my divorce papers on my 19th anniversary.”

“That’s such a strange coincidence”, she said

We talked for a while longer. I sipped on my club soda with lime and she sipped on her Michelob Ultra. As a former drinker, I’ve always thought, “if you’re going to drink, drink.” Michelob Ultra is for people who can’t decide if they want to drink or not. Just drink water. We talked about New Orleans, the south, music. What it was like for her in the restaurant business and what it’s like for me in education.

Then she said, “most people are pretty shocked when they find out I was married to a woman for 13 years. I’m interested in men now though.”

I stopped, tried to play it cool. I think I DID actually, play it cool that is. But it was like the whole bar stopped and looked at us. Then the whole bar did a full 360 spin. The whole time, I’m trying to play it cool. We talked for a while longer and hugged goodbye.

It’s hard to say who ghosted who in that relationship. We both vanished.

Dating in your 40s , is an effort to find out what everyone’s big skeleton is in their closet. For some, maybe she used to be a lesbian, for others, maybe they’ve had weight loss surgery and carry major body image problems. Or maybe they have 5 kids from 5 different men.

That’s just her problem, his skeleton might be he had an affair that helped break up his marriage or maybe he’s a recovering alcoholic who goes to meetings.