This is the story of all-too-many women—girlfriends who
are putting in some serious work not only because they love
their men, but because they want to prove they’re The One.
Everybody is clear about how you prove to him you’re The
One: Do all the things for him a wife would do—support him
emotionally, be loyal, work it out in the bedroom, tell him you
love him often and show it, too. Maybe live with him. Have his
babies. Get close—really close—to his mom and sisters and
friends. Basically, you give him everything he needs and all of
what he wants.
Check out this “Strawberry Letter” from a listener who
called herself “Biological Clock Ticker,” a thirty-one-year-old
single, childless woman in a relationship she said feels like a
“three-year-long booty call”:
He tells me he loves me and wants me to have his chil-
dren. My biological clock is ticking like crazy, and we
have been trying for the past year to get pregnant, to
no avail (I believe that this is a sign). The problem is
that he says he does not want to be in a committed re-
lationship or marriage because he doesn’t want to
answer to anyone. As long as I have known him, I have
shown him that I am not at all like the other women
that he has dated. I was there for him when he injured
himself, quit his job, when his father died, and when
he was unemployed for months. I have been encourag-
ing him, and am there for him financially and physi-