----*****-----

My friend called me last night as I was washing the dishes. "Do you think I'm a slut?" she asked. "Um, no. Do you think I am?" I said. I had no idea where she was going with this. My girl is 30, has a high-powered career, owns her own place and I'd trust her with my own child (if I had one). Above all, she barely dates and is more of a relationship girl. Slut? Not quite.

I pressed: "Why would I think that?" She ranted: "Met a suit at the hotel bar where my business meeting was. He bought me drinks and a cheese plate and I took him home. We had sex [dude sprung for a cheese plate, you better had--I kid, I kid!]. Sex in my bed, then in the shower." I'm still not following. She's a 30-year-old woman who I know for a fact is on the Pill, so it's not like she was going to get storked! And she told me he used a condom both times, so she did play it safe.

Here's why she thinks she's a "slore": In the morning before he left he gave her his number and asked if she'd like to have dinner this weekend (aw, sweet!), but as soon as the door shut behind him, she threw out his number. "Why?" I asked. "There was something very pushy about him and he seemed too comfortable in my apartment," she said. When I asked what that meant, she said before they fell asleep he turned the TV on and watched the news. Um, OK? So?

Personally, I would have gone to dinner with the dude, I mean there was an obvious physical attraction, right? This got me thinking, are one night stands ever OK? My opinion: She's a consensual adult, on the Pill and they used a condom--twice. She's a single woman who had a little fun. So not a slut. And what's up with women thinking of themselves as sluts, anyway?! That word has got to go.