perception of me was changing in society, so she tried to change to fit how people saw me. Now my novel has hurt her even more. She’s changing to be with somebody who hasn’t changed. But there’s nothing I can do to make a woman feel beautiful when she thinks she has to change to make me happy.”
He said he went from being a watch to a golden statue of a god where unwanted sacrifices were being made. He only wanted to be human and to be loved for being human. He just couldn’t get anybody else but me to see him that way.
As his relationship with Kristin was imploding upon itself, I was having issues with Rick. We had been dating for two years. I knew the relationship wasn’t perfect. I saw how imperfect it was once I read Jack’s manuscript about me, even though he wouldn’t admit it was about me. He could point out how I went on diets just to please Rick, or how I would accept his cheating on me because I wasn’t a good enough girlfriend. Two years of my life had been spent with Rick. I didn’t want to throw it away, especially when I thought it could still be fixed.
Part of me also didn’t want to admit that Jack saw me and my relationship for what it really was. He came from a middle class income and didn’t attend any of the best schools. In a lot of ways, he was very common, even if he held romantic ideals about being a gentleman and what it was like to be in the upper class.
As my mid-twenties were starting to become my late-twenties, time became more important to me. There was a part of me that thought getting pregnant might help push Rick towards the marriage issue. Instead it was more like the nail in the coffin.
I was single and pregnant. Jack was still seeing Kristin, even if their relationship was rocky. He made sure I knew that, even though he was there for me throughout the pregnancy. He would go with me to doctor’s appointments and other things. When the doctor or the nurse would think he was the father, he would tell them he was just a friend. When they left the room, he would turn to me and say, “’Friend’ sounds a lot better than “the man who is sleeping with my best friend.”
When I was six months pregnant, I attended a wedding alone. Rick and I had broken up by this point. He apparently didn’t like a woman who was gaining weight from carrying his child.
Jack was there with Kristin, but they were quickly becoming a couple in name only. Everybody knew they were breaking up, even if they hadn’t made it official yet. Whether it was to escape being with a woman he no longer loved, or to be with me, he asked me to dance. He didn’t just ask me to dance. He came over to me and held out his hand for me to take. He kissed it and said, “May I have the honor of dancing with the most beautiful woman in the room?”
“I’m the most bloated woman in the room and could possibly be the fattest woman in the room.”
“Yes, but you’re still the only natural woman in this place, which I will take any day over implants and liposuction.”
His smile and eyes were dazzling.
I got up and started dancing with him. He held me close to him, but he held me and danced with me like he was doing the waltz while everybody else was just slow dancing.
“I’m already knocked up, Jack. We don’t need to dance and bring attention to ourselves.”
He leaned in close to me and whispered, “I hate to tell you this, but we lost our reputations a long time ago with our actions with our most recent companions. Don’t you know I’m the Genius Gigolo?”
“And