True Believer - Nicholas Sparks
2009-09-11, 7:44 p.m.
Doris had always taken an acute interest in her personal life, and Lexie had learned that it was best to avoid the topic whenever possible.
Lexie knew her grandmother meant no harm. Doris simply didn't understand why someone in her thirties hadn't settled down yet, and she'd reached the point where she frequently wondered aloud why Lexie wasn't married. As sharp as she was, Doris was from the old school; she married at twenty and had spent the next forty-four years with a man she adored, until he passed away three years ago. Lexie's grandparents had raised her, after all, and Lexie could pretty much condense all of Doris's hemming and hawing into just a few simple thoughts: it was time for her to meet a nice guy, settle down, move into a house with a white picket fence and have babies.
Doris wasn't so strange in that belief, Lexie knew. Around here, anyway, that's what was expected of women. And when she was honest with herself, Lexie sometimes wished for a life like that as well. In theory, anyway. But she wanted to meet the right guy first, someone who inspired her, the kind of guy she would be proud to call her man. That was where she and Doris differed. Doris seemed to think that a decent, moral man with a good job was all a woman should reasonably expect. And maybe in the past, those were all the qualities that someone could expect. But Lexie didn't want to settle for someone simply because he was kind and decent and had a good job. Who knows--maybe she had unrealistic expectations, but Lexi wanted to feel passion for him aswell. No matter how kind or responsible a man was, if she didn't feel any passion, she couldn't help but think she'd be "settling" for someone, and she didn't want to settle. That wouldn't be fair to her and it wouldn't be fair to him. She wanted a man who was both sensitive and kind, but at the same time could sweep her off her feet. She wanted someone who would rub her feet after a long day at the library, but also challenge her intellectually. Someone romantic, of course, the kind of guy who would buy her flowers for no reason at all.
It wasn't too much to ask, was it?