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Being Selective<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eva\u2019s milky, satin skin glowed translucently.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe went out for four years,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cAt first, he was funny.\u00a0 But he hates work.\u00a0 He just watches TV.\u00a0 His parents just pay for him.\u00a0 I need someone ambitious.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhere is he now?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t know.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t give a shit.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Contribution aids group survival, the root of ethics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWomen believe they\u2019re selective,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cWhat does that mean for you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWomen say this when they want to get rid of a man whose silly.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey also say it when they like a man.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSome men are better than others.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo what does better mean?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou know it when you speak to someone.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMany women aren\u2019t interested in speaking to many men just by looking at them.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She laughed.\u00a0 Chuckling substitutes thinking.\u00a0 She said: \u201cIt isn\u2019t just physical.\u00a0 My first boyfriend was fat.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDid you meet him at school?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u00a0 When we were four.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHad you met him in a bar when you were twenty-four, and he had still been fat, would you have started going out with him?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Embarrassed contemplation eclipsed chuckling.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWomen,\u201d I said, \u201creject men they could fall in love with.\u00a0 Selective people speak to everyone to find people they can admire.\u00a0 Has any woman ever told you that they want a man who likes classical music, ancient history and exotic travel?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSelective <\/em>women all want the same man.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The light revealed dark freckles in her white face, her green irises like sensuous jade.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re ex-boyfriend became rich what would you think?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d never find out,\u201d she replied.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll never look him up in Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou might if he became famous.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She smirked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m too indifferent towards him to think about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf he became rich, he might look for you,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cThen you\u2019d care.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019d be a different person then.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd probably dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The silence lacked tranquility.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA woman goes into a chocolate shop,\u201d I continued, \u201cand the one type of chocolate she wants is sold out and the shopkeeper says, \u2018There are ninety-nine others,\u2019 and the woman says, \u2018I\u2019m selective,\u2019 and the shopkeeper says, \u2018No you\u2019re not; you don\u2019t like chocolate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMaybe some women don\u2019t like men,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow many men say: \u2018I don\u2019t like baseball.\u00a0 I\u2019m selective\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBut some men,\u201d she said, \u201cdon\u2019t like women.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAre they saying: \u2018I\u2019m selective\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Her laughter was now genuine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf men don\u2019t like something,\u201d I said, \u201cthey say: \u2018I don\u2019t like it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMen and women use language differently.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSome women use language differently.\u00a0 Selective women use comprehensible language; they\u2019re in successful relationships because they care about other people\u2019s ideas, about what\u2019s happening in the world.\u00a0 They\u2019re not living in cave maintenance, waiting for hunks to return from hunting trips.\u00a0 Intelligent men get bored with women who don\u2019t care.\u00a0 That\u2019s being selective<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kim\u00a0Farleigh<\/strong> has worked for aid agencies in three conflicts: Kosovo, Iraq and Palestine.\u00a0 He takes risks to get the experience required for writing.\u00a0 He likes fine wine, art, photography and bullfighting, which probably explains why this Australian lives in Madrid. 68 of his stories have been accepted by 64 different magazines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being Selective Eva\u2019s milky, satin skin glowed translucently. \u201cWe went out for four years,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cAt first, he was funny.\u00a0 But he hates work.\u00a0 He just watches TV.\u00a0 His parents just pay for him.\u00a0 I need someone ambitious.\u201d \u201cWhere is he now?\u201d I asked. \u201cDon\u2019t know.\u00a0 And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4798,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4796\/revisions\/4798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}