Here is Part 2 of "Rick and Molly." Please be patient...this is more of a "slow-burn" build-up story. And remember much of this is a true account.
*
"Abby," Rick said, exasperated, "I just don't understand you now. When we first got together you were like the sweetest girl, but now you act like the entire male gender is your enemy. In case you haven't noticed, I am a male. Does that make ME your enemy too?"
Abby glared at him with her smouldering dark brown eyes for a long moment. Finally, she spoke. "Rick, I am not a 'girl'. I am a WOMAN, and I suggest you treat me like one, with RESPECT."
Rick leaned against the wall of her apartment and sighed. "Please, tell me, Abby, just HOW in hell have I DISRESPECTED you? When we first met, there was almost a storybook innocence to our relationship. So just PLEASE tell me, WHAT IN HELL HAVE I DONE? I can't correct my behaviour unless I know what I have done wrong." His tone turned almost pleading. "So will you tell me? We used to TALK about shit like this!"
Abby continued regarding him coldly. She shook her head and laughed humourlessly. "As far as 'innocence,' give me a break! I could tell from early on that you wanted to get me into bed and fuck me." She laughed coldly again. "Just as I'm learning from my feminist studies about men. You really ARE animals, with only one thing on your mind. And wearing that jacket that belonged to your father is just your male tendency toward violence."
Rick, who had been gazing off into the distance, trying to make sense of this, rounded on her. "That's a fucking low blow, ABBY. You know what my father meant to me. And as far as wanting to get you into bed and fuck you, excuse the hell out of me for being a heterosexual male with heterosexual male desires! I suppose it would insult you to know that I have always thought you were a beautiful woman with a beautiful body? Yet I have honoured all your 'pronouncements' on what I can do, or what I do that will cause you to leave me! If I were REALLY the ogre that you seem to call all men, don't you think I would have pushed the envelope by now and tried to get the rest of your clothes off? But I haven't! Why? Because I love and respect you too much!" He paused to draw a breath. "When ("more like IF," he thought) we finally DO make love, I want it to be mutual, with both of us ready. I don't just want to take your virginity to say that I did it and then leave you." He softened his tone slightly. "Can't you see that I really do love you?"
Abby gazed at him for a long moment. "What if I never want to lose my virginity? And I may never marry. I want to go to graduate school!"
"Who's stopping you?" Rick retorted. "I am sure that there are other women at graduate school who are married! After all, I will be graduating college this spring too. I need to think about my future after that."
"Aren't you just going to go back to Canada?" she replied. "That's what you told me from the beginning that you wanted to do eventually."
"Yes," Rick answered tiredly, "I have said that. But I've grown to the point that I just MAY want to take you WITH me. There are excellent graduate schools in Canada!"
"Well," Abby said, "I may not want to go to Canada. And you didn't hear me when I said I might never marry? Do you think that moving me to Canada will make me want to marry you or give up my virginity to you more? Trish says --"