... and Baby Makes Two Read Online Free PDF

teach her that and so much more? And yet, Dean felt like her reward for endurance and loyalty. He tried to write her a love poem. After four months of steady dates, he told her that she was his soul mate, and she rejoiced for days. Until he phoned her at 2 A.M. on a Wednesday night/Thursday morning and told her that she was rushing him, she was crowding him, she needed to back off.
    She said she would, although she didn't know how. What had she done wrong? She racked her brain. Dean stopped calling. Jane was lost and afraid. Was she no longer his soul mate? He actively avoided her at the firm's elevator banks. It was like bad high school.
    Finally, he e-mailed her:
    To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: boundaries
    Jane,
    I know this may seem cold, but I have to do it this way. We cant see each other any longer, effective immediately.
You seem like a good person, but you cant rush me into a relationship like this. It's not right. We're not right for each other. We're wrong.
Good luck in all your future endeavors.
    Dean
    The message was so wrong, so excruciatingly wrong, so obviously wrong Jane wanted to slide out of her skin. She quit her job. She drank. She rehearsed pithy replies to Dean, none of which were pithy enough, all of which were too long.
    Jane remained underground until she ran out of money. She emerged from the dark and found a job at Argenti, where she worked at the Helpless Desk and resolved “user issues.” She kept taking classes, and she worked conscientiously to keep up with the Wonderland changes in technology. She moved up. Promoted to associate, then senior associate, and then vice president, managing her own team.
    Jane still dated a little, after she recovered from Dean. In her spare time, she took photography classes at the New School. She met some perfectly nice men there. She suspected that some of them took the class specifically to meet women, and what was wrong with that? So she dated them. But nothing stuck. Nothing worth e-mailing home about. After all, she was busy. She didn't meet anyone interesting or attractive. She was getting to be thirty-seven. She couldn't bring herself to bars, singles events, or dating services. She didn't really care enough. She didn't feel attractive enough to compete in today's market. She didn't have the energy. She had enough love in her life already. She didn't want to shave her legs in winter. She wasn't not dating; she was just in a dry spell.
    And That's Why Jane Wasn't Dating.
    She was pretty much the definition of Fine, except for that ache that told her something was missing. And don't count how she always cried on Sam's birthday. That was different. Jane's philosophy was: No one gets everything, at least not all at once. Jane had had a great love, and now it was over. Now she had exhilarating work, witty friends, reliable health, no money worries, and an apartment that caused more than a little envy. And isn't that a lot to have all at once?
    â€¦
    The week had a roller-coaster-climbing-the-big-scary-hill feeling. Something's coming, something big. Saturday morning, Jane located the Choosing Single Motherhood meeting place in a school basement in SoHo. The meeting was scheduled for ten, and Jane was early. She didn't like looking so eager, but too late for that. She was eager. She was curious. She was not afraid, and that made no sense at all.
    Jane signed in and took some (thank you!) reference material. By the time she looked up from the table of books, resources, and lists of Web sites to investigate, dozens of women had formed a large circle of folding chairs. There were at least three babies and a gaggle of toddlers. A honey-voiced woman with two children stepped up and called the meeting to order. Jane found a chair and felt all momentous.
    â€œHi. And welcome to all of you new ladies. This is
Choosing Single Motherhood.
This is
not
the
Narc-Anon meeting.
We switched
places
with them because we needed