I've added in some tracks I think might fit with the chapters - just like watching it on TV! :)
Accompanying soundtrack: No Doubt - "Ex-Girlfriend"
Jen watched Lynsey as she walked away from the table, knowing it would be last time she saw her. It was Lyns choice to walk away and no amount of protesting or pleading by Jen would change the situation. With a heavy heart she picked at the muffin on the table in front of her, breaking it into crumbs, but eating nothing.
It had been a year now since Tilly, and Jen had been through a succession of other women to try and get over her. Lyns was the latest in her line of potentials who'd upped and runaway. Jen's constant need to rediscover the closeness she had with Tilly meant that people were either scared off too soon and they just didn't need that kind of clingy with baggage, or Jen sabotaged herself by finding fault in the smallest of things. "Can't blame them" Jen muttered to herself, "I'd run a mile if I met me acting like me". No-one could match up to Tilly. She frowned at her own self-deprecation, and pushing her chair backwards, got up to order another coffee. Spotting the Free Wi-Fi sign, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, unlocked it, and loaded up the dating website. 'I'd hate to think how hard it used to be to be gay and date 20 years ago without this technology' she thought, 'It's hard enough to find people now, especially the well-adjusted ones without a barrel full of cats in tow'. Shutting the website, Jen searches the phone address book for a familiar number.
"H – Help me! I'm so bored of doing this crap on my own again. Its soul destroying and I'm destined to be that crazy old cat lady who chases off the local kids with a broom!" Jen moaned.
"I'm guessing that you've screwed it up again then, huh Jen?"
"Well, it wasn't my fault this time, H, honest. I mean she had 4 sugars in her coffee and an unnatural penchant for Girls Allowed – it's not normal!"
"You're not normal, Jen you bloody idiot. You need to learn to see past the outer layer!"
"Last time I looked past the outer layer it didn't work out so well thought, did it? So I'm just protecting myself from the impending inevitable. And If I do look further, then I end up thinking there's a real possibility again, and something pushes it down the crapper in the blink of an eye. They can't handle me."
"That's because you're a 0-60 person" H said bluntly, "You don't stop and see what's happening around you, and enjoy the journey. It's doesn't have to be all or nothing you know."
"Meh, what do you know, H, I'm taking advice from a perpetual singleton again….", Jen sighed.
"Oi!", said H indignantly, "singleton or not, I'm very successful with the ladies because I know exactly what I want. I don't want a relationship, I make that clear, the women still love me because they want to catch the uncatchable, but I'm honest and upfront about everything. When I'm ready to buy a pipe and slippers and settle down, you'll be the first to know about it, darling!"
"Sod off, H. Look, I need to re-write my profile, so I need YOU to be on your best form and impart your wisdom. Are you gonna be in later, I'll come by?"
"Yeah I'll be in, bring wine – I'll cook something if you like and we'll let some of that guard drop a little before we start reinventing the wheel. 7?"
"Deal, see you then".
Jen had known H – or Helen to give her her proper name – since school. She was Jen's oldest friend, and knew her better than anyone, renown for not taking any crap and being the kind of person who knows what she wants and goes and gets it. The pair enjoyed plenty of sarcastic conversations and constant threw put-downs at each other, but they we so similar it was a friendship that would last forever.
'Damn her' Jen thought, 'Why don't I have that confidence!', as she finished her coffee and headed towards the door. Three hours to 7 - plenty of time to head home for a shower and change.