"Are you serious!?"
Jenn literally could not believe what she had just heard. She was seated on the bed across from her boyfriend Tyler. They had been at a party thrown by her best friend April when Tyler asked to speak with her alone. After getting permission from April to use her room, Tyler then proceeding to recite an obviously prepared little speech. It was so ludicrous, that after wondering how Tyler could be so stupid, she had to pause briefly to wonder if she was actually stupid to believe he said what she thinks he said. Beyond the reassessments of both their intelligences, Jenn was starting to get very, very angry.
"You're breaking up with me. You are breaking up with me because I am too tempting." Jenn thought she had made a number of compromises in their relationship. She wasn't particularly religious but respected that Tyler and his family were. She thought it sweet that he was a bit shy and that he went out of his way to protect her reputation and "virtue". It could be frustrating that whenever they started to stray any further than kissing that he would stop and apologize. She put up with it because she genuinely enjoyed his company and in all other ways he treated her well. Over the last year she spent more of her waking hours with his family than her own. Sure, he was old fashioned but she had begun really seeing a future with him. This is why his declaration had stunned her.
Tyler was getting ready to serve as a missionary for his church. He would be gone for two years, and we had talked about it many times. I had planned to not necessarily wait for him, but we had planned to write each other and after he got home, well we would see what happened, you know? No pressure but we liked each other so why close any doors? That was the plan until he had a long talk with his parents. They were "concerned" that having such a pretty girlfriend would persuade him into following her off to college early. The right thing to do was to break things off now. Jenn was seething.
