Octopus Intelligence

The old man was gone when he returned to the bar, so he drank in silence and let his eyes wander through the classifieds someone had left on the seat next to his. Men were apparently still seeking women, although they'd ceded a significant amount of ink to gay phone sex ads and the outcall services of buff twenty-something boys in leather vests, torn jeans and what appeared upon close examination to be authentic Spanish war bandoliers.

Successful, fortyish PhD guiltily caught his eye like a glimpse in a department store mirror. You, it optimistically proposed: fit, passionate, unencumbered by convention. Candlelight dinners, weekends in the country, late night conversations, erotic massage. He gave that one an asterisk and scanned across to women seeking men, where he discovered a passionate Latina divorcee in her late thirties looking for stimulating conversations and travel to exotic destinations. I love to cook, she'd added, rounding out the word count. That got the matching asterisk and he returned to the men.