How do I act like a 27 year old woman?

[Anonymous]

My class is making a play, and my character is a 27 year old woman who has recently started internet dating and fancies a 29 year old man she met online. I need to know how a 27 year old woman should act with a 29 year old man. How can she flirt with him so he becomes interested in her? What questions can she ask that would help her to get to know him more? Does she always need to have a formal tone with him? Any additional tips are welcome.

[markml]

Ok, just a suggestion...dig a little deeper than the age. Why has she started Internet dating?

Is it because she's never been in a successful relationship? Maybe she's been with a ton of guys and never found the right one? Conversely, maybe she hasn't had a boyfriend since high school? Or maybe...she just broke up after being engaged and in a serious relationship for 5 years, and now she doesn't know what to do...she starts Internet dating because it feels safer to her than being rejected by a guy she already knows.

The character history is going to make a much bigger difference than the age, and you could probably play it in many different ways.

Chances are, when it comes to flirting, she's going to be fairly subtle or even clueless about what she's doing. If she were confident about her flirting skills, she'd be looking for guys in a bar or nightclub, not on the Internet, I think. Unless, as I pointed out, she is normally confident with guys but has some other reason for looking on the Internet. But chances are, this is the first time she's met a guy on the Internet, so she's probably going act a little different with him than other guys she meets.

She may be putting a whole lot of expectations into this guy...secret hoping that he could be the one...but at the same time, she tries to play it really calm, afraid of coming off as desperate.

She's probably asking him questions about his job, what he does for a living, etc. without trying to make it seem like that's all she's interested in. But she wants to know if this is a stable guy and if there's any possibility of wedding bells in the future. Of course, she's probably not going to say that to him directly (unless that's her personality), because she knows that might scare him off. But she's probably not particularly for a fling, or risking a relationship with a guy who she doesn't know if it will last, which is something she was more inclined to do when she was younger.

But then again...depends upon the history/background...

[Asker]

Thanks for your comments markml. We were thinking that the 27 year old woman could be the ex-girlfriend of the 29 year old man but he doesn't know it is her since she has created a fake account. They had been in a relationship for 8 months almost 5 years ago. We do not have an idea of what her purpose to contact him should be, neither do we know what the ending will turn out to be. Can you suggest some questions the woman could ask the man without him suspecting her?

[markml]

So I take it that she's going to figure out that it's him before he figures out who she is? Or do you want them to both be completely clueless until they meet in person?

I don't think he's likely to suspect her, no matter what she says (short of giving away her identity). What would be pretty funny is if he never got over her, and everything she says reminds him of this, but he never suspects it's her. Maybe...a friend pushed him into the online dating thing...

[markml]

...to get over her.

[Asker]

The woman knows it is him, that is why she created a fake account to contact him, but the man doesn't know it is her. Maybe the woman's reason to contact him through a fake account should be to find out more about the man, since the man kept a lot of secrets from the woman when they were in a relationship before, so she wants to know if he will tell the truth to a woman he thinks he has never met before.

[markml]

That's what I suspected, but how does she find out that he has an online profile in the first place?

One thing is it doesn't make sense for this guy to be this completely mysterious dude when he knew her in person, and then be completely open about himself on the dating website. But I guess, maybe he was a mystery in some ways to her...because she never knew how much he cared for her. Maybe she makes the fake profile to be the kind of girl who she thinks he would like.

[Asker]

Maybe the woman found out from a mutual friend that the man has an online profile. I agree with you that she could have made the fake account to be the mature and sophisticated woman the man likes, since when they were in a relationship 5 years before, she was immature and not that interesting.

[markml]

Yeah, I think that's a good take on it...she makes a fake profile to be who she thinks he wants, and finds out she was always the right one.

[Asker]

So can you please suggest questions the woman could ask the man to get to know him, even the basic questions which she knows some of the answers to, since he won't get suspicious of her? We are making the man believe that he has not met this woman before.