Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man

acting like she did. I should have known better, though. She’s
got that “mother” hearing—doesn’t miss a thing. And sure
enough, late that night, when I got up to go to the bathroom—
it was about 3:00 A.M.—there was Marjorie in the hallway,
standing there in her fur coat with her suitcase in her hand. She
was going to leave me—leave us.
“Where you going?” I asked her. Her response made me
realize right then and there, in the middle of that hallway, in
the middle of the night, that she was The One.
“I’m not trying to be anybody’s plaything or anybody’s
woman on a string,” she said matter-of-factly, her suitcase still
in her hand. “I don’t think you’re ready for what I have to offer.
I got these kids, I have a good life, and I want a man who will
come in and complete my family. If this is what you want, too,
I’ll be in Memphis.”
After I picked up my jaw, I asked her to give me one more
chance, took her bags, and immediately found my phone and
snapped it in half. I’d lost her once—this beautiful, smart, sweet
woman—and no other woman could be as loving and dedi-
cated to me, to us, or to my children. I realized right then and
there, in that hallway, that I wanted no other.
In other words, I became the man she needed me to be be-
cause she had sense enough to have requirements—standards
that she needed in her relationship in order to make the rela-
tionship work for her. She knew she wanted a monogamous
relationship—a partnership with a man who wanted to be a