We first met in London two years ago; you were sitting in the bar of the hotel after attending a medical conference and I'd just been stood up by my 'so-called' best friend and was planning to leave after I'd finished my large glass of red wine. I was immediately attracted, after all, you had all of the essential requirements - tall - check, handsome - check and intelligence - check. Three bells in fruit machine parlance - ding, ding, ding.
Seeing me peering at you over my iPad you approached me and enquired whether anyone else was sitting in the tub chair? When I answered in the negative, you sat in front of me and we fell into easy conversation. I particularly liked the way that your eyes crinkled when you laughed, which was often.
I won't give you a name, it feels too close, too personal, but you're a Doctor, based in a large suburban surgery. You're divorced following sixteen years of marriage to a woman whom you met at a teaching hospital when you were both junior doctors. You drifted apart ... pressure from both sides, plus a slice of dissatisfaction from your ex-wife caused a seismic shift in your relationship. The birth of your daughter, seven years ago, only made the rift more acute. These days you don't 'do relationships' as they're far too difficult, but find adequate solace in anonymous internet hookup sites. As time goes on and our relationship deepens, you tell me some of the acts you've carried out with these women and one man. It especially turned me on to hear about the threesome on a houseboat.
One of the conditions you'd agreed with your ex-wife is that, for the sake your daughter, you'd keep your private life, erm private. With that in mind, you'd even purchased a flat for this very purpose - situated on the sunny south coast of England in an anonymous town called St Leonard's-On-Sea. Less than two hours from London by train, it was a very fashionable resort in Victorian times, but after the trend for overseas holiday gripped the nation, it soon fell out of favour and the once grand townhouses got split into crummy flats or worse, scummy bedsits. You'd managed to pick up a dilapidated two bedroom flat for a very reasonable sum and spent eighteen months refurbishing it to your very specific requirements.
So, that was then and this is now. The usual arrangement - the second Saturday of every month; without fail. I have a key. You liked your spare room to closely resemble a seedy seaside hotel - mis-matched furnishings, flouncy curtains and worst of all, nylon sheets on the bed to replicate the scratchy feeling of cheap bedding. They always seem to catch on your body hair, but thinking about it, that turns you on, doesn't it?
Oh - so you want to know more about me? Why? I'm hardly exciting. OK - I admit it, I'm married and no, the old cliche's true, my husband really doesn't understand me. You could give me what he couldn't and I appreciated that. The continued lying is getting very difficult - I think that my husband knows, but he won't elaborate, he's very much of the 'stiff upper lip' brigade.