There are a few common romance tropes that recur in my stories. ‘Age gap’ is one of them. But there are age gap romances, and then there are inter-generational romances.
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A decade is a considerable age gap, and I’ve got several pairings in that category. But a decade is still pretty relatable. I’ll bet most of us who’ve had … say, four? … serious relationships have been with someone between 5-10 years older or younger.
But what happens when someone is old enough to be your parent? The first really substantial age gap I wrote was for a now-unpublished novella featuring a female ballroom instructor sixteen years older than the man who asks her out at the end of a Valentine’s weekend singles cruise.
The next big age gap was really big. In ‘The Whole Truth’ (part of the UNLOCKED collection), Stella Liu meets Frank Cavatini in a bar. She is celebrating the launch of her new legal partnership; he is old enough to retire. That doesn’t stop them, though she does trip over it for a minute:
“Hey, Dad.”
“What?”
“You just missed Vietnam, right?”
“The draft ended in seventy-three. I would have been eligible.”
“They probably wouldn’t have taken you, though, with your eyes,” Lily said. Stan wore thick glasses. “Did this guy of yours serve?”
“No, he was in college and his family had lost a son already. That was a thing that … well, we talk about generational differences, but that’s just way different from ‘oh I grew up before cell phones.’ You know?”
“Does he have any kids?” Lily asked.
“A son in San Diego - doing medical residency - and a daughter who’s an engineer at JPL.”
“I suppose they’re about your age.”
(Stella and Frank also have the interracial thing happening, but they couldn’t care less about that.)
Another May-December romance is SUGAR DADDY, which is a M/M love story set in the year 2000. As you might guess from the title, this novella has to do with power. Paul Rosenberg is 55 and rich; Jan de Witt is 30 and close to broke.
The age gap is the main factor these stories have in common (aside from being set in Los Angeles).