False Advertising

We wake up and get ready to go to work. On our way, we either pay for petrol or top up our Oyster card. A necessity to get to the workplace- where we send emails and vet data in exchange for money. We repeat this for five days…then comes the weekend. We go out for drinks with our mates, and tap our Apple Pay in exchange for a liquid that makes us feel good before we feel worse. It’s all seen as a sensible exchange. We wake up the next morning with a hangover but drag ourselves to the nearest Jack’s at the Junction for a nice breakfast. Again, we tap our Apple Pay or insert our credit cards. Another necessary exchange. 

Now it seems the weekend has gone by in a flash, we think of things undone and get a flux of anxiety. The mother we promised to call back, the friend’s text that’s yet to be replied, our unwashed laundry that takes days to dry. Then we offer to order our mother a new air fryer and a necklace to make up for not calling back in almost five days now. Then we text our friend back to apologise and offer to pay for the drinks the next time we hang out. When we get home, we do our laundry but in quick wash mode, to save precious time. We proceed to spread the clothes on our radiators that we have just turned up to the highest heat. We live like this week in week out until it becomes a way of life. Everything is transactional, with the mindset that a little more money can solve all basic problems. 

Outside our work life we get lucky and find a lover. We go on a nice first date at an expensive restaurant and then proceed to have mind-blowing sex that seals the thought of us being soul mates. Soon reality sets in, we disagree and call each other names but quickly look for resolution. We are sure to send each other nice gifts to apologise. Apology accepted, it’s back to the good sex and nice dinners. Whenever we say we love each other, we expect to exchange something physical to cement those words. Now the gifts don’t do it anymore, so we just live with each other unsure of what has gone wrong. We don’t feel any love but we talk about how much of it we have for each other daily. We refuse to admit that we have failed. We’ve let something as innocent as love be affected by the monetary system. Transactional- buy gifts and sell dreams. Comments from strangers hold more weight than whatever comes out of our lover’s mouth. We post how perfect our love life is on social media but it’s just false advertising. Now our love story is a page on the Financial Times.