15 Comments

Many years ago, I worked in a department store. There was this French lady named Rene who worked in the ladies department. She was very elegant, in that older Catherine DeVeuve kind of way. Nothing was ever going to happen between us. She was at least 25 years my senior and we were both in happy relationships. Yet, there was always this flirty vibe between us. It felt safe. Later on, I worked in skilled nursing facilities where the staff trended younger and female. You just didn’t go there. We frequently had anti harassment inservices that described situations that sounded like old fashioned flirting, not sexual harassment. Anyway, that was the end of that.

Expand full comment

The French know how to live! I'm glad you met that older woman. Yes, flirting is, alas, age-related.

Expand full comment

I will flirt forever! It’s innocent fun.

Expand full comment

Good for you! It is innocent, after all!

Expand full comment

Cathy, your Mum flirted til she was 98! I saw heer flirting with Reynold sooo many times!

We should take a lesson from her way of flirting!

She was THE BEST flirter that I have ever seen!!!

Expand full comment

She is my role model, in that and many other things. She knew how to live’

Expand full comment

She SURE DID!!! She was a role model for all of us, and probably everyone who knew her!

Expand full comment

I'll never get over my shock when my soon-to-be-girlfriend / now-my-wife told me I was always flirting whenever I talked to women. Flirting? I was teasing the crap out of them!

I'm now working on a series of stories featuring a Nick-and-Nora-Charles sort of couple and am having an enormous amount of fun having them flirt with each other as well as others they know. And yes, they're also pretty much just teasing them. 😉

Expand full comment

I love this! Let's bring back flirting! Please send me one of your flirting stories: catherine_hiller@yahoo.com.

Expand full comment

Well, they're kinda long. Maybe the best way to introduce them to you -- and of course, vice versa! -- is just to point you at the intro + first chapter from a novel featuring in which they star. Don't panic at the genre/setting, and you probably don't need the intro. Just scroll down to the long block quote, here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/johnesimpson/p/resuscitating-an-inert-narrative?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3s0qo

Expand full comment

And BTW, I don't like using comments on someone else's post to promote something of mine -- please feel free to delete my comment!

Expand full comment

It's fine.

Expand full comment

I’ve always been struck by the fact that babies flirt. What is more charming and innocent than a game of peekaboo with a baby behind the slats of a crib? It’s built into us and so sad erase.

Expand full comment

Yes, but flirtation also has a slight sexual aura.

Expand full comment

That comes later. 🤷🏽

Expand full comment