Poppy

Definition of Courtesan

Formally, older definition: The mistress of a king, or other noblemen

Modern definition: A prostitute, especially with wealthy upper-class clients

It is a love story about Poppy, who is a retired high-class call girl; her career started in Las Vegas at age 14. Later in life, she had a major operation that forced her into a premature retirement. Michael meets her through a newspaper dating service. He is in his early sixties, made his career as a salesman. He considers himself an amateur therapist because of his Master's in Clinical Psychology.

She is in her late thirties and is a working RN. She has a very severe borderline personality. One of the benefits of that disorder is they develop a chameleon type of personality. They change and adopt to the person they are with. This is a definite advantage for a prostitute.

Michael ends up being her private therapist, thinking he can help her while just hanging out with her. He thinks he is immune to her since he sees her as a rather ugly duckling. He does find himself eventually becoming attracted to her because of her youthful appearance, attractive figure, her intellectual personality, and his vicarious involvement with her stories. He also enjoys her gift at writing cutting, sharp, and biting poems.

Because of his psychological background, he is intrigue by her ability of cutting through the boundaries imposed by our society. He learns more about her bisexual behavior and the way she's able to manipulate all her admirers, and she has many of them, both men as well as women.

It is a relationship that works for a period of five years. Everything worked when he played the role of therapist, acting detached and her willingness to share all her thoughts with him, the good as well as the bad.

Everything gets sticky when he finds himself making more out of this relationship. He eventually learns that he financially isn't able to afford her nor keep up with her or understand her complicated borderline disease. He learns and accepts that she believes that she is a modern-day courtesan and money is the only thing that is real for her.

Finally, his conservative upbringing wakes him up. In those five years, he enjoys the relationship where he is forced to learn more about himself and the limits of his own sexuality.