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Emma dragged Owen out of the kitchen, making him sit on the bottom of the stairs to put his shoes on. “Hiya, love,” she said, kissing her husband. Lucas wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist. Maya envied their relationship at times — the little gestures that showed they were still in love. “Where’s Finn?”
“I left him at home on the Xbox. It’s only for ten minutes,” Lucas said.
See, Maya thought. I’m not the only parent to leave their child unattended at home. Shame Sam wasn’t there to hear it.
“Did you all have a good day?” Lucas asked.
“Maya and I had lunch at Cribbs, and we couldn’t help having a glass of Prosecco.”
“Yes, so I see,” Lucas said, raising his eyebrows.
“And we’ve finally met Chloe’s dad — properly! Contrary to expectations, he didn’t appear to be a jerk.” Emma gave Maya her familiar all-knowing look. “He’s a bit dishy up close, isn’t he, Maya?”
“Oh, no, stop right there! You know how I feel about him. I wouldn’t date Sam if he was the last man on the planet!”
Emma gave a chuckle, finishing her Prosecco. She kissed Maya on the cheek. “See you in the café on Monday, usual time.”
Closing the front door, Maya returned to the kitchen, catching Amber punching her brother on the arm. They were bickering.
“Hey! You two! I hope you didn’t behave like this for Nanny and Granddad.”
They stopped and looked up guiltily. “No, of course not.”
With the kids in bed and feeling pleasantly tipsy, not drunk — okay maybe a tiny bit drunk, she’d just poured the last of the Prosecco into her glass — Maya settled down on the sofa and opened the Find My HEA app on her phone. It was still a little too early to go to bed for a Saturday night. She decided to check out her messages while she finished her drink.
MrGrey19 had finally got the message. She clicked on him and decided to block him. She wasn’t shallow. She just had standards.
She decided to take Emma’s advice and not reply to any men whose profiles didn’t take her fancy.
The couple of men she had been messaging seemed to have cooled off. Neither had asked her for her number, and she certainly wasn’t going to offer it.
There were some new messages. The one that truly blew her away was from DIYDes. His profile showed him with his arm around a young woman. She assumed it was his daughter. Hopefullyhisdaughter. Although smartly dressed, he had a beer belly hanging over his trousers and receding hair. He wasn’t particularly attractive to Maya. But his message! Maya was sipping from her glass of Prosecco and nearly choked.
hello most women ask for superman or his looks but my reckoning is if ur waiting for him then ur gonna die a miserable old hag.I am Nige and would be happy to chat with you & to exchange the odd FCUK if you so desire?
Have a nice day xxx
Haveaniceday?! Maya started to reply. Then she stopped herself. She would not reply under any circumstances, even though she burned to tell him she’d rather die a miserable old hag than meet him.What a prick! As if I’d sleep with him!
She took a screenshot of the message. She would have to show Emma. It was hilarious. Now she’d calmed down, but she felt almost insulted. Maya wasn’t the sort to blow her own trumpet — she lacked the confidence she once had — but Emma reassured her she was attractive. She knew she could do better than bloody DIYDes. And well, if she couldn’t then she would rather die a miserable old hag, quite frankly!
Blocked! It gave Maya such satisfaction when she did that. Next message!
This one was from PeterPan26. The profile picture didn’t really give much away — he was a man with a scarf obscuring the lower half of his face, sunglasses and a woolly hat, with snow on the ground in the background. He had some generic details, but the typical ‘will update later’ on his profile. Maya’s first instinct was to ignore his message, but so far not one person who’d messaged her seemed worth replying to. His message was at least polite, even flattering and coherent; he knew how to spell and used punctuation. Maya wanted to talk to someone tonight. Was she being a little desperate? Or feeling lonely?
Hi. I don’t find Batman desirable — he has no superpowers, plus he’s more fallible, being human. He might be rich, but money can’t buy love. I just always loved Superman when growing up, and everything he stands for. I still do. Plus, Superman can fly. He’d take me to see the best sunsets.
Thank you for the compliment about my smile. Unfortunately, I can’t see yours.
Maya wondered if her last sentence would be read as rude. But she had no idea who she was talking to, although she could see from his profile that he lived in Portishead. He was the only one who’d left a decent message. It would have been nice to see his face. She didn’t want to think of herself as shallow, but if she didn’t think she would fancy someone, she was hardly going to want to date them, or sleep with them — which, let’s face it, realistically was what this was all about. Maya shuddered at the thought. Sex with another man, albeit scary, would be nice. But she wasn’t that desperate she’d sleep with someone she didn’t fancy. There would have to be a connection, a spark, with body and mind. And she didn’t want meaningless sex. She wanted to find someone who would hopefully become a part of her life, for good. The way her confidence was going, she would need to meet someone understanding, too. Sometimes, when she thought too hard about it all, the idea of going on a date petrified her.
Maya checked the time. She should go to sleep. The kids didn’t know what Sundays or a lie in meant. In fact, they got up earlier at the weekend than they did on school mornings. Now they were that bit older, they were able to go downstairs and watch television and leave Maya in peace for a while. But she’d lie there feeling guilty that her kids were up and she was lazing in bed, so she would usually get up at around eight to eight-thirty anyway.
Putting her phone on silent, Maya decided to head up to bed. Tomorrow was a new day. The search for Mr Right could wait.
