Shopping for a break-up

Recently I’ve found Preeti really boring and too predictable.  Our conversations go along these lines: we would talk about work, she would tell me what she had for dinner, the latest fashion trends in Cosmo magazine, what happened in the latest episode of EastEnders and… nothing else!  She only wants to talk about stuff that interests her.  She’s not interested in my job, she doesn’t socialise and go out in Birmingham very often so has no gossip to share,  and, despite working in corporate finance, when I wanted to discuss the latest issues in Greece and the Single Currency or other current affairs topics she wasn’t interested.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” was her response when I raised the topic.

“Umm, sure, what do you want to talk about then?”

Silence.

She’s a girl with very few interests which doesn’t appeal to me.  This was not the fun and bubbly girl I met at zumba but before finishing it with her I wanted to give her one more chance.  On Saturday I went up to Birmingham and suggested we meet for lunch.  We met outside Birmingham New Street station and made our way to Bull Ring shopping centre.

“Let’s pop into Selfridges as I want to see the make-up counter.”

“Err-” before I even had a chance to think and tell her I would rather stub my toe than walk around the beauty department of a shop she was off towards Selfridges like a dog chasing a bone, and I had to pace up to catch-up with her.  Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this girl?  Did she not learn from our first date that shopping is not a great way for the two of us to get to know each other better?

I was keen to get us somewhere quiet (anywhere other than a shop) so we could chat but it wasn’t happening.  She was trying on various make-up stuff (excuse my naivety but as you can expect I don’t know nor do I care too much about women’s make-up) and chatted away to the girls at the counter like old friends.  Whilst all this was taking place I stood by a giant lipstick display looking like a dipstick!

Fifteen minutes later we eventually left the make-up section and… went to the clothes department!

“Would you like to go outside for a walk Preeti?”

She wasn’t listening “O, look at this.” She picked up a nice stripy red top, put it in front of her and looked in the adjacent mirror.  This was shit.  I wasn’t enjoying myself and it was blatant Preeti was more interested in revamping her wardrobe and beauty collection than seeing if things could work between the two of us.

I got out my phone and pretended I had a message, “Preeti, I’ve just received a message from a friend and I have to dash back to London.”

“Don’t you want to hang around?”

“Sorry about this.”

“Oh,” She looked sad which surprised me, “oh, ok, I’ll walk you back to the station.”

We walked back to the station and on the way she took every opportunity to comment on the window displays of the various shops.   I didn’t say anything.

We arrived at the station and said goodbye to each other.  As I walked to the platform I was disappointed that Preeti did not turn out to be the girl I hoped for.  Did I give her (and us) enough time to see if this relationship would work?  Have I made a mistake to break-up with a girl over shopping for make-up?



*PS. Ladies, when it comes to make-up to attract guys, all you need to put on is nice eye liner and red lip stick.  Men are easy to please when it comes to appearance!