“There is something going on there,” she said sadly. “I read someplace that quasi-prostitution is now a thing. But that’s not all I have to say.”
I looked at her. She sighed again.
“You’re not so different from her as you think.”
This was too much. I opened my mouth to protest but she held up her hand.
“Oh I know you haven’t had life handed to you on a silver platter. And you pay your own way. That’s not what I mean.”
At this, I cautiously relented.
“But like Melissa, your Daddy betrayed you when you were little. And like Melissa, that left you with a big hole in your life, and a deep suspicion about men. For this, nobody could blame either of you,” she finished.
I nodded reluctantly. It was the plain truth.
“So Melissa’s solution is to only deal with men on a transactional basis, as we see,” she said, and then looked straight at me. “What’s your solution?”
Eyes widened, I leaned back, stunned. She had never addressed me so bluntly on this topic before. In fact, up until I moved out two years ago, we’d always had a tacit agreement to avoid this topic. She had boyfriends. I was polite to them but non-committal.
When she inevitably broke up with them, I was there to quietly hold her hand. In return for this, she never inquired about my private life.
I shook my head silently, too overwhelmed to reply.
“I think your solution is to only accept men on your terms,” she went on, ignoring my shock. “You don’t think you believe in soulmates, and silly movies, like the rest of your generation, but actually you do. This is because like the rest of your generation you really, really want a happily ever after, but you want it on your own, manageable terms. Terms where you call the shots. Anything else is too scary.”
By now, I was shaking my head vigorously.
“You’ve got this all wrong,” I said fiercely. “For one, you have no idea about how hard it is to find a good man these days.”
Her expression made me stop.
“You don’t think you believe in soulmates, and silly movies, like the rest of your generation, but actually you do. This is because like the rest of your generation you really, really want a happily ever after, but you want it on your own, manageable terms. Terms where you call the shots. Anything else is too scary.”
REGINA | 64
REGINA Fiction