‘That’s exactly the same as my family!’ I said.
‘Sometimes I feel like I might crack under the pressure,’ Flightbird said.
It was such an honest statement, and I liked it. I often found that people shied away from making statements like this that were brutally honest with no sugar-coating whatsoever.
I nodded at him.
‘And the pressure only gets worse over weddings and holiday seasons and family get-togethers,’ he added.
‘Weddings!’ I scoffed. ‘My cousin, who is four years younger than me, is getting married in two months’ time, and they’re going to make me sit at the singles table, and everyone is going to say, “Shame, are you still not dating?” or something like that. As if not dating is some kind of disability at my age. As ifnothaving a boyfriend or a husband is akin to missing a gallbladder or some other organ.’
He laughed again. ‘Your wisdom teeth.’
‘Appendix,’ I added, and couldn’t help smiling back at his face, which was so open and friendly. Familiar, even though I knew that to be impossible, since I’d never met him in the flesh before.
‘My mom’s sixtieth birthday is coming up. We’re having this big family get-together and I know all I’m going to hear about is why I haven’t found a lovely girlfriend yet and how my mother would like her only son to have a child before she is too old to pick it up.’
‘My parents constantly remind me that I’m their only child, so their only way of becoming grandparents. Apparently, when you reach a certain age as a woman, your sole purpose for existence is to procreate.’
Flightbird laughed again. I liked his laugh. He had really nice white teeth too. They were dead straight, and I wondered if he too had had braces when he was younger, or if his teeth were thanks to what was clearly averysuperior gene pool.
‘My mother wants me to go to a gynaecologist to see how many eggs I have left, even though I’ve told her multiple times that I don’t want to become a parent.’
Flightbird frowned at me.
‘That was an overshare,’ I said quickly. ‘Sorry. I went too far on that one. If I’m not careful, I’ll be telling you about my menstrual cycle next. Shit. Which I just did. Sorry!’
‘Well, if you don’t mind, I won’t be talking about my sperm count, if that’s okay.’ Flightbird raised his coffee to his lips. He was clearly joking, although I honestly wouldn’t mind if he told me about that. I never get embarrassed about those kinds of conversations; in fact, I preferred to have conversations about real topics and issues rather than trying to eke conversation out of generic small talk about the weather or the rugby or the state of the nation and its energy crisis.
‘After forty, you’ll naturally have a lower sperm count. How old are you?’ I asked briskly.
‘Not forty.’
‘Of course, you also have to take things like sperm motility into account too. No point in having a good sperm count when they don’t swim correctly.’ I was just about to move on to why it’snotadvisable to put your laptop on your lap when he chuckled again.
‘This is seriously turning into one of the most interesting conversations I’ve ever had.’
Synonyms forinterestingwereintriguingandunusual. Was that a compliment?
‘It’s also nice talking to someone who gets all the relationship pressure too.’ He put his coffee down and rubbed a big hand across his forehead. ‘It’s a lot sometimes.’
I nodded in agreement. ‘I wish there was something I could do to permanently get rid of all that pressure.’
‘Me too,’ he said on a long sigh. His sigh sounded defeated. I could relate to that feeling. ‘I once thought of phoning up my ex-girlfriend and asking her to come with me to a New Year’s party, just so all my friends wouldn’t hassle me. But I didn’t.’
‘Why? That sounds like a really good idea.’
‘Found out she was dating someone else, so that wouldn’t have worked.’
‘You could have gone as a throuple,’ I said.
‘A what?’
‘A romantic relationship between three people,’ I stated.
‘I can’t seem to get one person to date me, let alone two.’
‘You don’t strike me as a man who has problems getting a girlfriend. You’re far too good-looking to have that particular issue.’
