Betty sips her drink and crosses
her legs and wonders if Chowbrew

will ever come as he said he would
and as she has been waiting for

over an hour she thinks he’s not
coming, thinks he’s gone off with

another. She sighs. All that time getting
ready, putting on the new dress,

making sure she’d put on fresh
underwear, showered, washed

her hair, filed her nails and still
he hasn’t come. Betty, her mother

used to say, men are like buses,
if one doesn’t turn up another’ll soon

show, but it didn’t follow in her

experience; if one didn’t show,
she’d be left waiting until the bright

moon shone and the shining stars
flickered in the dark night sky, and

then she’d go home to bed, tuck
herself under the duvet, pull it

over head, and cry or swear or
maybe both. She looks at her

wristwatch.  He isn’t going to
come; she mutters to the air,

he’s left me out to dry, all that
time I wasted; now I’m going

to cry. Betty, her mother often
said, men have only one thing

in mind, oh, yes, they’ll bring
you flowers, chocolates, buy

you a meal, get you drunk,
but at the end of it all, it’s

getting you into bed that they
are after, and she remembers,

in the background her father’s soft
laughter. She empties her glass

and is just about to leave, when
a breathless Chowbrew stumbles

into sight, face flushed, clothes in
disarray, Sorry I’m late, got the

wrong cinema, she hears him say.
What an ****, she muses, what a

prat, doesn’t know where he’s
going or what he’s at, but at least

he’s here, she smiles and says,
Good to see you, Chowbrew dear.