Free Love & The Goddess by Mary Elizabeth Coen Page A

about to put down the phone, a text came in.
    “Of course. Would u like me to visit u? We could go for a meal and a nice walk? Liz x.”
    Relief flooded over me:“Thanks Liz. Sounds lovely but lots of unpacking to do. Let’s have a night out soon tho. Kate x”
    Next, I rang Ella who was back in town. She sounded exhausted. “Hi, lovey. How are you?”
    “Not so bad. How was the conference?”
    “Dreadful – the worst ever. There’s got to be an easier way to make a living. The managing director’s PA was a nightmare. She’s a jealous cow who resented me doing
my job – she set out to sabotage everything I had organised, right down to changing menus and cancelling the bottled water.”
    “That’s just one bad experience. You’ll get over it. The Vienna conference worked like a dream for you.”
    “Competition for that type of event is cut-throat and the business just isn’t out there any more. Whenever it is, it’s going to younger hotshots in Dublin. I have no bookings
for the whole of July and August.” She sighed. “Anyway, enough of my ranting. Have you gone on any dates?”
    “I have. Not wonderful experiences. The doctor was terrible. I won’t go into the story now, I’ll tell you about it when I see you.”
    “I went online last night. I’d forgotten how addictive it can be. I’m determined to squeeze in a couple of dates this week. Have you any set up?”
    “I was just about to log on when I noticed your text.”
    “Go on then, and call me if anyone interesting appears.”
    Despite my hitherto disastrous dating experiences, I seemed to be magnetically drawn back to the site in the hope a gallant knight might gallop into my world. There were five new emails. I
opened them and looked at the accompanying profiles. Two were one-liners from men with no photographs, so I did not reply. The third was from an artist calling himself “luvpicasso”, a
bit dishevelled but cute, a bit like the Australian actor Simon Baker. Well, maybe I was stretching that a bit but there was definitely some similarity to the quirky grin, blue eyes and fair curly
hair. At forty, he was too young for me though, and sounded a bit immature. I’d always been attracted to creative types, finding they had a dangerous type of sex appeal. Or maybe the sense of
danger came from my mother having warned me as a teenager that I’d end up with a hippie poet or a penniless artist, if I wasn’t careful. It conjured up images of living in a garret with
barefoot screaming children. To please my mother I’d shooed the romantic chilled-out dreamers away, fearful that I might fall in love with any of them and so ruin my future.
    “Luvpicasso” wrote:
     
    Hi Persephone,
    U sound interesting and intelligent! Maybe too intelligent for me, lol! I see ur creative so I was wondering do you paint? I’m an artist, currently working in oils. I’m planning
an exhibition with a few other artists – in this economy… yeah lol! I’m an optimist lol! Anyway most of the women on this site are not too bright so I thought it would be nice to
touch base with someone like u! Like you, I love mythology.
    Geoff x
     
    I definitely needed to ask someone what lol meant. I had assumed it meant lots of love, but now I wasn’t so sure. He used it a lot. He seemed a bit “fly by night” (another of
my mother’s sayings for dreamers) but I decided there was no harm in contacting him. Maybe I finally needed to stop thinking I needed a dependable professional man.
     
    Hi Geoff,
    Thanks for your mail. I’m presently in Galway enjoying a bit of sunshine. Not sure how creative I am; I like craft work and have attended art classes. Really enjoy writing and cooking.
Good luck with the exhibition.
    Kate
     
    The next one was from a forty-five-year old man, “Elmtree”, who simply stated he was in business. Since he was very well-dressed, I immediately wondered if he owned a menswear shop.
Tall, with dark wavy hair and hazel eyes, he was