It's Just Life

Anonymus ("The facts don't add up well") has analysed this story very well. On behalf of other comments, suggesting we don't know if Kelly probably already had a love life before. We have a strong hint. She says to have fallen in love with being in love or something similar. That feeling usually is the most intense when you fall in love for the first time. However, that's just a side note. There is something else that doesn't sit well with me, especially since it's so common, unfortunately. I'm talking about remarks like "Men don't need a reason to make love, just a place". Funny how we are drilled to talk sensibly about just everyone, but the heterosexual man is stereotyped and generalized on and on. And isn't it just swell how it's almost always in a demeaning way...

Our hero may have been good at IT, but at people to people stuff he sucks. Bobby was a first class idiot and Kelly was immature. What our hero wants with a used up jerk of a girl is anyone's guess, but it isn't worth any more of my time to analyze this 2* piece of junk.

This is my second time reading this story through and things about it have always bugged me. Firstly, with regards to the people arguing over the second choice issue, it's less about whom she decided to go out with first and more about which one she had stronger feelings for. That gets to the root of my problems with this story. Kelly said a lot after douchebag was out of the picture, that she liked Drew better but wasn't sure how he felt and so forth, but do her actions really reflect that? At no time did she really come forth and say anything to him. Hell, the backstabbing prick had been gone for months already before she decided to talk to Drew about a possible relationship. This doesn't exactly bespeak of deep feelings for the guy.

On a different tack, she starts dating Shitbag regularly after he drives her home when drunk. Three guesses what happened that night, and the first two don't count. They get engaged three months later, so no grass was growing under her feet, that's for sure. She managed to wangle a ring and a promise out of an inveterate player in just three months! I'm not exactly sensing a lack of feeling from that, no matter what she said about being in love with the idea of being in love. Then she gets pregnant. One would think if she was having doubts about whether or not to break the engagement she'd make extra damned careful that her birth control worked. Sure, anyone could make a mistake; get the flu and have the meds cancel each other out, forget a pill one night, etc... Doesn't seem too likely, though.

On the flip side, she starts going out with Drew finally and it's easy going, no rush, no passion. They don't even have sex for at least five plus months. Hell, Scum-sucker had a ring on her finger already in less time than that. Drew was being patient, as always, and trying to be a gentleman after she'd had a miscarriage and a nasty break up but where's the sense of urgency and desire on Kelly's part? I don't know, there are a lot of factors in their relationship but as far as being Kelly's first or second choice, I really think the jury's out. One of the previous commenters suggested that she was just eager to get married and not choosy and I think he may be on to something with that theory. I just don't see any of the passion or longing that seemed to be present in her short courtship with the asshole in her relationship with Drew.

Now, I realize I'm speaking about this as though it's an account of something that happened in real life and not just a story. All I'm doing, though, is interpreting the facts as laid out in the text. If woodmanone intended everything to be the way Kelly said when she explained her relationship with the jerkoff, then I have to say that he plotted his story poorly. As I said in the beginning, the facts of the story do not add up that way. I'm glad for Drew that he doesn't feel like he's her second choice and, for his sake, I hope he continues to believe that. From where I sit, it doesn't look that way. I can't bring myself to like this story for that reason. He seems like a nice guy and he deserves better than to be the consolation prize just because Kelly found out the first guy she hopped into bed with so quickly turned out to be a backstabbing, irresponsible loser.

NFW!

This is the 5th story by Woodmanone where his MC just happily sucks up the previous lovers leavings. Second Choice? Hell, used goods are all this writers MC's get!

of being an also ran. a guy who can't make up his mind. is afraid of making a decision. sounds like a ceo to me.

Its becoming an unwelcome part of your stories to whine in advance about how you you think people will view a portion of your story. Either change the story or stop whining.

This second choice stuff is just bullshit. Maybe Kelly was with others before she started with Drew's company, and nobody there knows about her past. Using that logic, everyone would be with the first person they ever dated. I have no idea how many other guys my wife has been with, and she doesn't know how many girls I've been with. It doesn't matter. This is real life. What matters it that she's the last one I'll be with and I'm the last one she'll be with.

Your characters lack one thing... THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE! I'm beginning to really dislike these characters that can't talk to each other. It looks like you take that lack of ability and write a story around it. Let them be able to talk to each other and then find a situation outside their relationship that they can't control and see how they handle it (like in 'Hell to Pay').

I do agree with one thing, Bobby was a snake. He should have dumped him long ago.

Really how dense can a person be?

Authors use that as a cop out to fill plot holes a lot.

If they have problems he would never notice.

Another story that I don't agree with. This girl is just looking for someone to marry. She doesn't care if she loves him or not, she just wants a ring. He should stay away from her. As to his friend, he would have been gone a lot sooner than he was. He was NO friend. It seems he just wanted to take something away from this guy. When he got it, he didn't want it anymore. This guy is certainly her second choice. Thanks for the story.

i enjoyed the story. He should have invited her to a seminar or something similar. But again I am thinking real life and where would the story be? 5*

Ed Grocott

edgrocott@gmail.com

there are many more after 2nd. TK U MLJ LV NV

First or second choice? Doesn't matter. My first choice was a complete disaster. My current partner and I were not our first choices but we've been together over 35 years. What's important isn't the order of choice, but that the choice IS made, and is stuck with, and bonded. Such bonding requires some emotional maturity -- realize that your partner IS a partner, not a competitor, and that they are your fallible friend, not your magic ideal pedestal-topper.

BUT I think Kelly covered it in the story - she did like them both - Drew the most at first - then the she fell in love with the idea of falling in love - not unique.

The it was too late - until it wasn't and the right things happened.

Nice work thank you for sharing ti -