Resuscitating the romance

Is romance dead? With V-Day (relationship D-day?) on the horizon, this is the question of the day. And the week.  And, heck, this whole age, in which the day designated for lovers is often more hotly anticipated by Hallmark.

So when Bh bumped into author and SMH dating and relating guru Samantha Brett at the launch of Impulse’s new True Love spritz, we  had to ask. “No, I don’t think it’s dead,” she assured us. We just have to tease it out of “technosexuals”…

Relax, I’m not talking the type of online activity that will get either of us fired and escorted from the building with a bag over our heads. I’m talking about the modern descendent of the metrosexual, the guy who sends virtual roses and says ‘I luv u’ with SMS, if he says anything romantic at all.

Know the one? Then it’s time to school him. Because these men know exactly which wire jacks into where on a Mac, but have no idea how an independent, fiercely fabulous and capable modern woman like you is wired. “They don’t know what we think is romantic,” explains Brett. “They don’t know what we want them to do, so they do nothing.

“Men think that we want to buy our own roses – but we don’t!” she says, adding that most of the women she talks to say they are ‘traditional’ and want their guys to romance them gooey.

Want a modern Mr Darcy to sweep you off your Manolos? Say so. And how. “We expect men to know what we want and get frustrated that they don’t give it to us,” says Brett. “Tell him that you’d like to go to dinner. Tell him you love getting flowers at the office. Just say it and then he knows!”

And lead your knight-on-white-horse right to water. “I’d say to my boyfriend that I want to go to a certain area for dinner on Valentine’s Day and that I’m free from 7:30. Then I’d tell him to go ahead and book the restaurant,” she reveals.

“Tell him what to do and let him do it. When he feels himself going to the florist and picking up those flowers or booking the restaurant, he feels like he’s doing something for you, he knows it’s romantic and he knows you’ll like it.”

So maybe that bat of the eyelid and pouty red mouth isn’t heavy hint enough, huh? Send him an SMS. Dinner 4 2 at 8, K? Luv u.

Image: Samantha Brett still be believes in romance. And True Love, for that matter. She’s Impulse’s new rescue-romance ambassador.