Affairette

1976, David Edgar, Saigon Rose, Act II, Scene 4, in Plays: One, London: Methuen Drama, 1987, p. 215, It’s a poem, students learn, about the symptoms of syphilis. I once had an affairette with a final year medic from Inverness who used to mumble it all the time, often at the most inopportune moments.

“[…] I thought I’d be snapped up in six months. At the very most!” […] “What about Robert?” “Affairettes don’t count.”

Occasionally I got out afterward to cruise. Occasionally someone does spend the night with me. Twice, I've even had very sweet "affairettes" with men who made their way to my home.

Suddenly single at thirty, I floundered through those awful encounters, affairettes, and all-out affairs I’d tried to spare myself by marrying early and supposedly for good.