Two Perspectives on the One Flesh

“But if I had to take a wild guess, I’d say that I’m cross because I know I’m stuck, and I don’t like it.  It would be nicer, in some ways, if I wasn’t so bound to her; it would be nicer if those sweet possibilities, that dreamy anticipation you have when you’re fifteen or twenty or twenty-five, even, and you know that the most perfect person in the world might walk into your shop or office or friend’s party at any moment…it would be nicer if all that were still around somewhere, in a back pocket or a bottom drawer.  But it’s all gone, I think, and that’s enough to make anyone cross.  Laura is who I am now, and it’s no good pretending otherwise.” – Nick Hornby, High Fidelity