Err…exactly how old are you? Take A Break feature with Linia patient Kay

He was young enough to be my son – but he just didn’t know it! But how long could I keep my lover in the dark?

By Kay Silver, 55

Er… exactly how old are you?

I swayed my hips to the left, then to the right in a hypnotic fashion. When I’d finished I turned to my one-man audience and said ‘What do you think?’

‘We’ll be in touch’… he said. My heart sank, I knew exactly what that meant –

We’ll never call you!

For 20 years I had worked as a belly dancer called Persia, after giving up my job as a Playboy Bunny. Although I knew I was one of the best in the business, just lately I had started to find it hard to get work.

I knew why. Dancing 5 times a week had given me a figure a woman half my age would be proud of. But there was a part of me that all the exercise in the world would never reach. My face.

I was 52 and the years had taken their toll in the form of wrinkles, bags and jowls. But I had a solution. I told my friend Carol: ‘I’m going to have a facelift’.

‘You don’t need one’ she said.

‘I do’ I replied. ‘The head and the body don’t match anymore. I need it for my career, if nothing else.

I began looking for a reputable clinic online and came across Linia Cosmetic Surgery. I spoke to a surgeon, who agreed to carry out a facelift using only local anaesthetic, which meant I could have my op and be home for dinner time.

At a cost of almost £5,000 it wasn’t cheap, but I decided it would be the perfect early Christmas present to myself – and my career.

The night before the operation, I looked in the mirror and said a silent farewell to the bits of me that made me look like a pensioner, rather than what I really was – a woman in the prime of her life!

Next day, I felt no fear as the surgeon got to work. A fortnight later, I returned to the clinic to have my bandages removed.

‘There,’ the surgeon said, handing me a mirror. ‘What do you think?’

I gasped at my reflection. The woman staring back looked just like my younger sister. Only it was me. ‘You’re a miracle worker,’ I said. ‘Thank you so much.’

Before I knew it, bookings for my belly-dancing had short up again. And I noticed something else – builders started whistling at me when I walked past.

Then, one evening I was out with Carol, when one of my belly-dancing pupils, Sammy, introduced me to a man. ‘Kay,’ she said. ‘this is Dean.’ I looked into a pair of bright blue eyes and my tummy did a flip.

‘So,’ Dean said. ‘you’re a good mover, are you?’

‘Not bad.’ I replied.

Later, Carol said ‘He’s keen on you.’

‘No,’ I replied. ‘I’m sure he’s just being polite.’

Dean was clearly quite a bit younger. Why on earth would he be interested in me? But I couldn’t get him out of my mind.

I was in a bar one night when I spotted a pair of familiar gorgeous blue eyes, and my tummy went flip, flip, flip…

‘You’re the belly-dancing teacher,’ Dean said. ‘Do you think you could show me a few moves?’

‘I might,’ I replied, ‘if you play your cards right!’ I couldn’t believe I was flirting with him, and a voice inside my head screamed: have you lost your marbles woman?

But then Dean did something extraordinary. He started flirting back.

I thought: It’s the facelift. He thinks I’m younger than I am.

We chatted and at the end of the evening, we swapped numbers.

Next day Dean called and asked me out on a date and sent me a Facebook friend request. As I was looking through his online profile, I discovered something that made me gulp.

I lifted the phone and rang Carol. ‘Are you sitting down?’ I said. ‘Dean is 35.’

‘Blimey Kay,’ she said. ‘That’s nearly 20 years younger than you.

‘I know,’ I said. ‘He’s nearly young enough to be my son.’

Carol was quiet for a moment. Then she asked ‘Does he know how old you are?’

‘No,’ I replied.

‘Are you going to tell him?’ she asked.

I thought about it. Dean was a wonderful man and I really hoped we had a future together. But I felt sure that, despite everything, once he knew how old I was, he wouldn’t be able to see behind the number.

‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m not.’

It wasn’t a secret I could keep forever, but I was determined that Dean should get to know the real me, before I revealed that I’d been working as a Playboy Bunny in a casino whilst he was still in nappies.

We started dating and became a couple. At first, it was easy to keep him in the dark, as the subject of my age never came up. But then our birthdays, that were just weeks apart, began to loom.

One evening Dean asked ‘So is this birthday a big one? Would you like something really special?’

‘No,’ I replied hurriedly. ‘It’s not a big one and you don’t have to get me anything fancy.’

‘Ok,’ he said. And to my relief he left it at that.

Weeks turned into months and Dean became none the wiser about our age gap. When we had been seeing each other for nine months, Dean suggested a romantic holiday to Egypt. We found the perfect trip online and had to enter our details on the computer.

I went first. I typed in my name and address in Aldershot, Hampshire, and then I stopped. My hands froze on the keyboard and I just stared at the screen. There, on the online form, was a space for my date of birth.

I realised that there was no way I could lie and my hands shook as I tapped in the correct numbers.

Then I got up so that Dean could take his turn. My heart was in my mouth as I watched him peer closely at the screen.

Then he said ‘Is this right?’

‘Is what right?’ I asked nervously.

‘Your age,’ he replied.

He paused for a moment and I knew he was doing the calculation in his head. ‘Are you really…54?’ he said.

I felt sick. ‘Yes,’ I gulped.

He looked up at me in astonishment and I thought: Here we go. This is where I get the ‘we’ll be in touch’ speech.

Dean shook his head silently. ‘I can’t believe it,’ he said, ‘I thought you were my age.’ There was a silence. I took a deep breath and said ‘Do you mind?’

Dean started to laugh. ‘Mind? He said. ‘Of course I don’t mind Kay. I love you.’

I let out a huge sigh of relief. ‘Oh Dean,’ I said, ‘Thank you.’

Dean and I are going on our holiday in January and I can’t wait. Despite an age gap of 19 years we are very happy.

But I am under no illusions. If Dean had met me before I had my facelift we would not be together. In fact, I’m sure he wouldn’t have looked at me twice.

I always knew that surgery would help boost my career – and it has. I now have a permanent job dancing at a restaurant. But it has had an unexpected side effect. It has brought me the man of my dreams – and for £5,000, I’d say that was a bargain!