Brunette Stripped Bare

I realised recently that I have completely forgotten how to flirt! I’m not sure when this happened, because I have definite, real memories of flirting with other guys since being together with my now-husband (around seven years now). I don’t think it happened when we got married either, it seems like much longer than a year since I’ve had a good flirting session.

I just don’t know how this could’ve happened. I used to be such a super-flirt. I was good at it. There are literally two guys who can I think of who I’ve wanted and never managed to ’snag’. But I got pretty damn close. Both have since admitted they did want me at the time, but didn’t want to ruin a friendship. Even after I got together with my husband, it didn’t stop me. I don’t see flirting as a big deal, it’s not a relationship breaker. I think people operate better in their relationships when they feel wanted and feel sexy… even if they’re getting that boost, that ‘oompf’ from outside the relationship.

I think that I may have put the brakes on my flirting habit when I felt it was getting out of hand. I remember going to a party when one of the guys mentioned above arrived. He’d been overseas for a couple of years, so it was a big shock to everyone to see him there. He was definitely improving with age. The little ‘zing’ for me was still there, but I was taken. Really taken! But I still didn’t want to see him with anyone else, that would just ruin the night and make me jealous! I could see a few others around the room eyeing him off, so I felt I needed to do something about it.

 So I did what I knew best… I flirted outrageously. We were buried deep in conversations about travel, family, life in general. It was as though the other 30-40 people at the house party we were at didn’t exist - he was interesting and interested in me, too. Things were going swimmingly until I went to the bathroom and came across a couple of other girls. “Things seem to be going well between you and OverseasBoy”. Eyebrows were raised. They knew I was taken, and the eyebrows are making more of a statement than their words ever could. I laughed, and spoke the truth, “If I can’t have him, nobody can”. Something flashed across the girls faces, and I knew I would be gossiped about later. I had totally just pissed off the sisterhood!

 Thinking about it later, I was so ashamed of myself. Not for talking to him, not for flirting with him… but about not letting others talk or flirt with him! The fact that I made it all about me, made me think I had crossed the line and gone too far. It wasn’t harmless fun, there must’ve been a definite attraction there for me to act like that. It made me uncomfortable, and it made me feel guilty, like I really had been doing the wrong thing by my now-husband. I think this may have been the beginning of the end of my talent as a flirter-extraordinare.

How many of you ‘taken’ ones out there still give your flirting skills a regular workout?

 *10 points for whoever identifies that movie quote.