All Comments on 'Simple Choices'

When I read "All In", my first reaction was to recoil, but upon further consideration, I marveled at the convoluted and confusing dynamic of the principals' relationship. Even though I never accepted the logic, I ultimately viewed the story as incredibly bravely written.

Once again, in "Simple Choices", you've given us a complex gut wrenching conundrum, with a solution requiring a great leap of faith from one, and then ultimately both protagonists.

I truly marvel at your ability to write emotional entanglements. Very compelling stuff, not for the absolutists and moralists with black and white judgements.

Hi art is daring and dangerous, and sometimes (necessarily) fails, because it pushes the proverbial envelope to its lImits. Your writing does that - it's not safe and easy, but challenging and uncomfortable and tantalizing, both intellectually and emotionally.

Thanks for sharing your gift. *****

Most of us would have given up...and, rightly so...

Just because Doug didn't want to push her doesn't mean Debbie can do anything she wants - including leaving him for another man - and, then, decide to come back and act so smugly superior about it...

People should remember that if they wander too far away from the hearth, they sometimes have no home to come back to...

He is getting sloppy second, thirds, fourth, etc. from a heartless woman. As said, he should of manned up.

....Are rarely simple after all.

I found this story to be a fascinating journey, and I have to say that you foreshadowed the "deep, dark secret" of Debbie's past very well. I felt from the beginning that there was some kind of childhood trauma that prevented her from ever saying those three little words.

This was my first dip into your work, and "I'll be back!" Thanks for an interesting and emotional read.

Doug is painted as a later and Debbie comes off as a bitch. All Doug ever wanted was those 3 words and even with her excuse is no reason not to say it for Doug. Doug should have minced on to someone that can actually say their feelings as want such a selfish birch like debbie

The one thread that remains intact throughout this story is the fact that Debbie and Doug were always honest with each other. They never cheated, never lied. What they did wasn't always pleasant and didn't sit right with the other, but there was never any question as to where they were. Doug knew she had been engaged to Jeff before he met her and when she elected to go back to him he decided not to get her pissed off at him so he didn't make a fuss. You can call him a wimp, but if he had gotten all upset he would have made it much easier for her to leave him. I think I would have been tempted to tell Jeff what their relationship had been when he first met Jeff. That might have made Debbie upset, but it might have precipitated the crisis in Jeff and Debbie's life that would have disclosed Jeff's true colors and ended that relationship a lot earlier. I can't relate to the obsession Doug had with Debbie. He had been thrown to the side because of Debbie's "promise" to Jeff. I think Doug should have made sure that Jeff knew who he was and let Jeff do the right thing or not. People are complicated and what I think is not necessarily what the author thinks so he wrote it differently. And he does write very well. 5*

If he’s is happy with that comittmen, then all I can say is good luck. But mistrust will win out in the end.

what set the trap to find a louse, TK U MLJ LV NV

Great writing.

The story was so nteresting.

But she left a guy she "loved". To go have sex with someone else for SIX months.

Yes 6 months.

That's a lightbulb time.

And she knew she was emotionally torturing the guy she "loved" the whole time. With a guy the story says she hadn't even known that long.

Then only went back to him when the thing with Jeff ended.

Oh and she admitted knowing after the fair she was being as evil as her mother had been. Yet STILL didn't leave jef.

So based on how was written she was not a very nice girl even given her mother history.

Also how did she get engaged without saying she loved him and when her asked her a f she said love you to jeff, after she began cheating on him with Jeff she said you shouldn't ask that.

So if this was real they wouldn't last. Beck no normal but would take the slut back.

The author quietly poses the question: If a faithful lover would leave a relationship, what reason could a person like our hero understand and even have some respect for? No secrets here, no cheating, just one of the classic tragedies and how the author saw two lovers dealing with it. The irony is that the same faithfulness that makes Debbie honorable makes her go back to Jeff or the self-reproach would poison her soul and her future relationships (especially with her mother's abandonment.) Having gone back, she was committed to make it work. Douglas' pain and their journey back to each other is the story. Stan serves as seer, with Douglas' note underlying all: "You don't get to pick who you love."

Especially don't fall in love with them. She is an emotional bomb waiting to fuck his world up again at a moment's notice.

Sorry, but nobody is worth the grief and distress she put him through.

A great story about the consequeneces of poorly rationalised decision. Deb was plain nuts. Doug didn't need this angst. He should have binned the bitch for good when it was clear what her choice was. She was perfectly capable of keeping her promise and letting the "big man" down gently in a few weeks, hell even just after a few days.

Words or not, she chose to cheat. Shagging another guy was never part of the promise and if that was implied then what of the implications of her realationship with Doug. Fear or cold feet doesn't justify her actions. Deb needs therapy.

And as for Stan with his bulshit psycho babble, even as entertaining as it was, did it never occur to him that while Doug could choose to sacrifice his pride no man can live without some measure of self respect? Without it it's not life but mere existence.

An Enjoyable read, though. Thanks for the effort.

She loved only Doug, but left him for the other guy for 6 months? If i were Doug then i would forget her and move on. I would have given her 1 month at most to come back to me.

Good writing. Great topic. Thanks for sharing.

All these people fit nicely into a big box of stupid. After about 2 pages I had to start skin reading because of their iodic statements and self-important attitude was uncomfortable at best. A total boring read.

He is a pussy.

Utter garbage. Shes an evil bitch and hes a total pussy.... there now you don’t need to read the story... as if you could get through all those pages of shit

It appears to me that for the protagonists, the female protagonist in particular, "I love you" is a promise. A promise her mother failed to keep.

Jeff was clearly toast, at least by the Yvonne incident, and pretty clearly by the fair encounter. But... she did wait. At least, from my point of view, she waited to prove to the world and herself that she was not her mother. This is preferable to a woman trying to prove she is her mother.

Good story - useful exploration of commitment in the condition of compromised self. Not that we have that problem.... after all, we are always so beautiful.

Green-something

Me, I'd of quit my job, changed my phone number, dropped my e-mail account, and moved far, far away. No contact with anyone, no forwarding address. Nothing, nada, just disappear. She could keep her promise to her, "hero".

I don't like to use negative terminology and won't here but all the comments about how he should have moved on and the things that he and she were called are rather spot on. She made her choice and she needed to live with it, he should have moved countries or at least states. She goes and fucks a hero and expects the MMC to wait for her. Just a disappointing ending to the entire story. Also, just because you use tags like "womanofvirtue" and "three dimensional characters" doesn't mean they are or were. FMC felt very one dimensional and undeveloped.

A Chad takes the girl away and when hes done with her the stable guy gets her back.