Robbie was a handsome 30 year old and he seemed like a real gentleman. She wasn’t fond of Jeanine’s friends because they were kind of stuck up. Most of her friends were married and getting ready to bear children. If they weren’t married or had children already, they were all casting nets in hopes of catching a few fish.

“So what do you do?” he asked with a smile.

Robbie was surprisingly chill. He was a tall brunette with brown eyes learning the tricks of the trade running his father’s business in architecture. He was charming and he would make a great businessman.

The night was going well. Robbie had picked her up in a red two door Mustang. She wasn’t impressed because of the car itself but because it was a good sign. He was definitely not a family man at the moment. It was perfect because she was not too keen on having children just yet. She was already rushing to get married but for now she was fine with her Beagle who waited home for her every night.

“So do you have any kids?”

“No not yet. I just haven’t found the one.”

“I understand. Same here. You don’t want to use just anyone to reproduce with,” he said, with subtle laughter.

“But I’ll use anyone for marriage at this point,” she thought.

“Jeanine told me a lot about you. She says you’re looking for something serious and that you’ve been single for a while now.”

Perfect. Jeanine had described her like an appetizer on a burger joint menu. She felt cheaper than a used item at a yard sale. She was sure he didn’t mean anything by it.

“Yep. Just taking it slow. Running your own practice hardly leaves room to mingle,” she replied, trying not to seem too available.

“I understand. Running a whole corporation can get daunting as well...”

“Here comes the arrogance,” she said to herself. Her little practice was mediocre in comparison to his corporation. What was she thinking?

“I’ve dated women here and there and they want so much of my time but it’s difficult,” Robbie added.

“So you understand me,” Caroline laughed.

“Yes, but you can’t afford to be picky. I mean you are 36,” he chuckled.

Shit, Jeanine. That was it. Did she really tell him her age? She should’ve known that as a woman the release of age related information was off limits after your mid-twenties. Even more, Robbie the so-called businessman should’ve known better than to mention any woman’s age. At that point Caroline wanted to ask who had raised him, spank him, then send him right back to his place of origin.

“Why not?” she asked as she gulped the remaining portion of the red wine in her glass.

She ordered a second glass hoping to mask the new found hatred for Austin’s girlfriend.

“Well you know that men can make children very well over middle age. Just look at Mick Jagger.” Maybe his 3 glasses of wine had made him a little too confident.

“Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick...” Father Time was being noisy and Mother Nature went M.I.A when he had mentioned her age. If he hadn’t been so mouthy, she would’ve at least slept with him. It had been a few months since her last fling.

Caroline was done with him for the night. She wasn’t going to marry him let alone let her dad have a conversation with him. That would send his already high blood pressure shooting into the cosmos.

      Robbie dropped her home and he didn’t get far past the doorman. The chances of him getting into Caroline’s jeans were definitely a zero at this point.

“When are you women gonna learn not to be picky after a certain age?’’ he sarcastically asked her, definitely sensing that she was pissed off.

“And when are you gonna learn that men having conversations about a woman’s ovaries is not a panty dropper.”

“Good luck trying to have a child past 40.”

“I’ll be sure to call your mom and ask her what that’s like.”

“You little...”

“Try me,” she said, knowing that it was a chemical reaction between the wine and her stress calling the shots.

Caroline walked got in the elevator upstairs and that was the end of the conversation between her and her first prospective husband.

Caroline was greeted by Barkie who she had adopted as a puppy from her neighbors who had moved away a year ago.

Not at all surprised that the date didn’t go well, she decided to sit down and watch reruns of the Golden Girls and eat ice cream with the her child or the only thing close to it accompanying her on the couch.

Caroline’s phone rang. She had fallen asleep watching the Golden Girls marathon.

“Aussie?”

“You talked about his mom, Carrie?”

“He deserved it, Aussie, the night morphed into a grim conversation about my aging womb.”

Austin couldn’t hold back his laughter. He felt bad, but he knew Caroline well. To talk about someone’s mom she had to have a few drinks in her system. She was already a lightweight and wine definitely did the trick for her.

“That’s not funny, Austin, I had to beg him to go on a date with her,” Jeanine shouted in the background.

It wasn’t her business anyway. Apparently Robbie called her whining about the night they had. Caroline clearly wasn’t in the mood to deal with Aussie’s pretentious, stuck up girlfriend tonight. “He deserved it, Jeanine,” he shouted back, in defense of Carrie.

“Well tell her to stop being so picky!”

Caroline had had enough.

“Austin, tell your girlfriend I said kiss my 36 year old ass!”

“Carrie, stop.”

“No. Make her stop Austin. She was wrong! She was wrong about everything tonight!”

“Carrie you talked about his mom.”

“But he deserved it! He attacked my age and told me not to be picky. Would you like that, Austin?”

“Would you like it if someone talked about your mom, Caroline?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Carrie...”

“And by the sound of it I don’t have any friends either. Goodnight.”

Carrie had never been that angry at Austin and it pained her to hang up on her best friend. She was losing her mind and she couldn’t get it back.

She regretted her decision and hoped that she hadn’t ruined things.