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It’s Easy to Be a Callous Flirt When You Are Young and Oblivious

The world is your big fat oyster

Steffany Ritchie
6 min readMay 23, 2024
A young woman sits at a bar near an older man
Photo by MART PRODUCTION: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-sitting-at-the-table-9566295/

As a long-time married person, there have been occasions when I felt that someone crossed the line by trying to flirt with my husband in front of me.

There is something about young waitresses in particular ignoring the women at the table to “flirt” with the men that I have noticed a few times. It’s likely they are trying to get good tips but yeah, it has gotten my goat.

My husband doesn’t do anything to encourage it: it’s just life as a man, still considered attractive into their middle years to a wide swathe of the population.

Of course, women also get unwanted attention all of the time. I am admittedly starting to age out of it, which feels both freeing and depressing at once.

You either encourage it, discourage it, or pretend it’s not there (my usual m.o.). I got married at twenty-six, so I have been dealing with it most of my adult life.

I have probably been guilty of enjoying someone finding my conversation scintillating here and there. Long-term marrieds might know what I mean.

Some married people are comfortable traversing into deeper flirting waters. I’ve witnessed enough marriages implode over the eternal chasing of that…

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Steffany Ritchie
Steffany Ritchie

Written by Steffany Ritchie

Nicheless. American in Scotland. Publisher of "Cancer Sucks, So Let's Talk About it More"

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