His Rules by Jack Gunthridge Page A

are over thirty without any children?”
                  He looked at her, and I don’t know what he saw, but he said, “I will take a woman in her thirties any day over a confused girl in her twenties, who doesn’t really know what she wants.”
                  Over the course of the conversation, he made her believe he didn’t know she was in her thirties and she was the most beautiful woman in the room.  I have seen him do something similar to this many times.  He does this with the utmost sincerity, but I always get the feeling he knows the game we are all playing in life. 
                  His game… His game may be that he doesn’t see love as a game at all.
                  Once, when he was single for an extended period of time, I asked him why he wasn’t seeing anybody.  Without disclosing too much, I told him he was handsome, successful, sensitive, and good with children.  He would make any woman happy.
                  He told me, “That’s the problem with women.  They’re always judging a man by his market value.  I wasn’t born to be any woman’s possession, and I’m not going to sell my genetic stock at a discount price just to make myself somehow feel accomplished by continuing the human race.”
                  He said it with a charming smile and without taking his eyes off of mine.  It was like he was daring me to make him settle down.  As we both waited for the other to cut the tension that was building, he finally broke it while breaking my heart and making me want him more.
                  “Did Kristin ever tell you about the first time we made love?”
                  I shook my head no.  It was all I was capable of doing as I tried to hold back the tears.
                  “It was the first night I had met her.  I don’t remember now whose wedding it was.  I know she approached me in a sexual manner and wanted me just for my body.  I flirted back because she was different from every other woman there.  She knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it, even if there was the possibility of the younger man turning her down because she was no longer as young as she once was.
                  Youth may have no longer been her ally, but she had confidence, poise, and the ability to carry on an actual conversation.  She wasn’t interested in me as a potential husband.  She was interested in me as a person.
                  Between the alcohol and the dancing, what I remember most about that night was how she pointed you out to me on the dance floor.  You were with Rick then.  She told me how much she loved you and thought you were making a mistake by seeing him.  She wished you could see yourself the way she saw you, so you could realize how much better you could do than him.  She had given you too much dating advice over the years to see you waste yourself on a guy like him.
                  As we continued to dance and talk, I could see her becoming torn between wanting me to be with you and taking me for herself.  I ended up making the decision for her when I kissed her.  You were still young and didn’t know what you wanted out of life.  Your former baby sitter and closest friend was a lady that needed me.”
                  I had heard about their first time several times, but it was always from Kristin’s point of view.  Before I knew him, I thought she was just telling me about her sexual exploits to let me know how well-endowed he was or the way his abs looked while he was making love to her.  She had a tendency to be a drama queen and wanted to make sure everybody knew her sex life was better than yours.  Part of me thought her life was kind of empty so she made everything that much more epic.
    It wasn’t her graphic descriptions that made me want him.  I can’t say it was his looks, personality,