Second Response of the Day (for one day only!)

The prompt for this one was:

These are the things women know about love.

Susan lowered herself down carefully, evenly onto the dressing table stool. It was an odd shape for a piece of furniture designed to take a person’s weight. She presumed that it had been made to compliment a kidney-shaped dressing table and when she bought it from the antiques shop, it had been this fancy which had attracted her to it. The problem was that if she sat towards the front edge, the concave side of the stool, then her weight put too much of a strain on the front joints; if she sat further back – as she had tried on a number of occasions – there was a real danger of tipping right over. She had also tried turning the stool around the other way but the problem was just reversed. When she had bought it for £28, it had seemed a bargain but then what did she know about buying antiques?

She had planned to make a new cover; its large pink flowers and green leaves had blended to a milky grey and the piping was missing in two places. Susan lost enthusiasm for doing anything about the shabby stool when she realised just how useless it was. But she sat on it nevertheless and tolerated the nuisance of not being able to guarantee she wouldn’t fall off at any moment. If she did start to tip either forwards or backwards, she would automatically grab for the dressing table; this also had two wobbly legs, bought for £30 off eBay, described as shabby chic.

Because of all this, she has never dared to let go long enough to put on make up. But it is OK. Susan knows that her husband understands problems like not having enough time and unevenly distributed weight. These are the things women know about love.