She is in her early forties – single, tall, professional, gorgeous, glamorous, fun party girl who takes multiple multivitamins and visits the gym regularly. Every fortnight she has a new love story for me. Each of them has an exciting beginning, holding great promise. But somewhere in the heat of text messages sent too early or too late, certain feelings expressed or not, wrong emoji used, misinterpretations, unmet expectations, awkward silences and undisclosed relevant facts, the story evaporates. The deeper delicate shimmering layers of her persona lie concealed beneath her outer veneers. Not many get to witness the pure, fragile vulnerability within, hidden like a pearl.

Below is a humorous but painfully true, already outdated summary of some modern relationships that I chanced upon on social media:

“Dating in 2016

Let’s be friends, just friends, I’m not ready for a relationship but I expect you to do things with me considered inappropriate in terms of a friendship. We’re not together, you can’t claim me, you can’t be with anyone but me. I need you to be loyal but I’ll do what I want and when you get mad, I’ll just tell you we’re not together. If you catch feelings, I’ll become distant. You knew what this was…I told you, I’m not ready for a relationship.”