My mobile phone

Early one evening last week, we're sitting in the bar of a top hotel in Singapore and my new mobile phone is out on the table.

"Why's my picture on your phone, GB?" asks boyfriend P.

"It's my new HTC phone :-)," I answer, "and it lets me set up all the most important guys in my life on that contacts page. When I need to phone one of them, I just choose the right picture and it'll make the call. So of course your picture is on that page!"

"Sounds cool :-)," says boyfriend P smiling at me, "let me see."

I pass the phone over to him to let him have a look. But as I turn to our Mexican friend N to ask her what she'd been doing that day, he interrupts me.

"I KNEW IT!" exclaims boyfriend P with exasperation in his voice.

"What's the matter?" I ask calmly, even though I think I know! He's bound to have spotted ex-boyfriend S's picture there too, and given that he'd prefer me to sever all contact with him, it's presumably that picture that he's objecting to.

"That's M isn't it!!" says boyfriend P taking me by surprise, and holding up my phone so that both me and N can see the pic that he's referring to. Although I'd told him I'd been seeing a guy called M, this must be the first time that he'd seen his photo.

"Errr, yes, ..." I say sheepishly,

"Wow, he's HOT GB!!" interrupts N, while I'm trying to work out how to play the situation, "who is he?"

"Oh, he's just a work colleague," I reply casually, telling the truth, even if I'm not telling the whole truth!

"And how come he's BEFORE me in the contacts list?" says boyfriend P.

"The phone orders names alphabetically," I reply, being completely honest now, "and 'M' is before 'P' in the alphabet!"

"How old is he?" asks N, continuing her interrogation.

I tell her what his age is, and she looks at me quizzically.

"So GB," she says with the tone of a prosecuting barrister about to clinch a conviction, "what's a guy like you doing with one of his cute young colleagues in the quick contact list on his mobile phone?"

"Well ..."

"Let me just say this, guys that age, they're all TROUBLE!"

"I wouldn't let P here date a guy that young," she continues, "and you're older than P!"

"But surely I could meet a guy like that for a bit of *fun* every now and then?" says boyfriend P, grinning now.

"Well maybe," she says, "I suppose they're good for that, but not for serious dating. Take it from me honey, I know, they're just TROUBLE!!"

I hadn't thought about it before, but I suddenly realise that the husband that N was having all the trouble with is about the same age as M.

The conversation gradually drifts onto other topics as we down our Singapore Slings. But overall, I feel satisfied with the conclusion. Boyfriend P definitely knows now that he's not the only dish on the menu!