Sex and the city

Chapter 1 Cruel Education (1)
Manhattan has true love?Stop dreaming

Let me start with a Valentine's Day romance.Everyone, be mentally prepared!

A British female reporter came to New York.Charming and intelligent, she quickly hooked up with a wealthy and powerful diamond king in the city—Tim, 42 years old, an investment banker, earning $500 million a year.They held hands, kissed passionately, and spent two whole weeks together.On a beautiful autumn day, Tim took her to the luxurious private house he bought in the Hamptons.They look at the blueprints with the designer and discuss the layout of the room. "I want the designer to repair the guardrail on the second floor, so that there will be no danger of falling when I have a child." The female reporter said, "I am very much looking forward to the day when Tim will propose to me." That On Sunday night, as usual, Tim dropped her off at the apartment and reminded her of Tuesday's dinner appointment.But on Tuesday, he called out of the blue to meet again another day.After waiting for two weeks, she couldn't sit still anymore, picked up the phone and asked him angrily: "Didn't you say another day? It's been too long!" But he only told her to call her later.

As you might expect, he never called her again.It's funny how she didn't understand the situation at all.She explained: "In England, seeing a designer together means he's serious and we're going to get married." Then I remembered that the girl was from London and had never heard of the rules of the Manhattan game— —she'll learn sooner or later, I thought.

Welcome to the age of innocence.The urban lights of Manhattan once created an ambiguous atmosphere for Edith Wharton's tryst—under a tight corset, her breasts were half exposed, sexy and alluring.The gorgeous lighting makes people even more dazzled.But that era is long gone.No one will have breakfast at Tiffany's, and no one will make a golden alliance with each other.Instead, we wake up for breakfast at seven in the morning and quickly forget about last night's affair - how did we end up like this?
Truman Capote writes all too well about the dilemma of love and business.In "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Paul Varjack and Holly Golightly were originally a gigolo and a call girl.As a result, the pair finally defeated themselves, gave up money, and chose love.But that doesn't happen in Manhattan today.In a sense, we’re selling ourselves as well as the two movie protagonists—jobs, apartments, VIP seats at the Mortimer Club, VIP cards at the Royalton, ocean view villas in the Hamptons, Madison Square Garden The front-row votes of the world are in control of us - and we are willing to be enslaved by them.Self-preservation and achieving our goals are our highest goals, and there is no such thing as Cupid here.

Have you ever heard someone say "I love you" and automatically added "Well, it's really just the kind of love you have for a friend"?Do you ever see couples staring at each other affectionately and think, "Hey, we'll see"?Do you ever snicker "by Monday you'll forget all about it" when someone claims to love someone madly in love?Also, which movie is the hottest at Christmas? "Peachy Confidential"!Tim Allen's slapstick is no longer a Christmas hit, with 500 million viewers flocking to movie theaters just to watch two nymphomaniacs have sex without emotion on the big screen.This kind of passionate scene has nothing to do with love. In modern Manhattan, similar plots are happening every day.

There's sex drama going on all the time in Manhattan, but it's just a game between friends or a business deal, and you'd be naive to think it's about love.These days, everyone has friends and co-workers they can sleep with, but true lovers are a rare species—and, you know, sleeping together is nothing.

Let's go back to the story of the British reporter: six months have passed, she has been in several "love affairs", and had a brief relationship with a man who always promised to give her money when he came back when he was out of town. Called, but never called.So she finally learned to be smart. "The New Yorker love rule is don't get emotional," she said, "but the question is, what do you do when you're really emotional?"

Honey, then you should leave New York.

Love at the Bowery Bar Episode [-]

In the Bowery Bar on Friday night, it was snowing outside, but there was a lively scene inside.Female entertainers from Los Angeles in cheap faux leather jackets and miniskirts, accompanied by men with big gold chains and dark skin like failed tanning salons.The one in the green down jacket is "Partyman" Donovan Richie, with the fluff of a beige hat with earflaps.Over there sat Francis Ford Coppola and his wife—there was an empty seat at their table!Everyone knows the weight of this position.The seats were so alluringly and conspicuously empty that it was teasing and mocking everyone.While everyone was staring at their seats, Donovan Rich quickly ran over and sat down, and started talking to the Coppolas.This move immediately detonated a strong earthquake in the room.Enraged people blaze with jealousy and chagrin at their missed opportunities.

This is New York romance.

happy married man

"Love means you have to partner with another person, but what do you do when you find out that person is actually a liability?" says a friend who has been married for 12 years and has been happy—absolutely uncommon among married people. rare. "The more you look forward and look back, the more you can prove it. Then you become less and less willing to enter into a fixed relationship unless there is something big to force you - like your parents are dying some type of."

"New Yorkers hide behind a thick mask, and no one can go deep into other people's hearts." He continued, "I'm so lucky that I got married so early. No one wants to take it seriously these days. —and we’ll never go back.”

The "happy" married woman
A married girlfriend called me. "I don't know if there are any happy married people in New York. It's so hard! Think about the flirting, partying, drinking, doing drugs, changing playmates like a revolving door before marriage... so much fun! But What can you do when you’re married? Staring at each other in a cage-like apartment? It’s so much more fun when you’re single!” she muttered dissatisfiedly, “You can do whatever you want without going home!”

bachelor in coco paso restaurant

A few years ago, my friend Capote Duncan was the hottest bachelor in New York.He dated all the socialites in Manhattan.At that time, we simply bet to see which girl he would eventually surrender to.We think that when everyone is in love with each other, one day he will really fall in love with someone.When a successful woman who is beautiful enough and smart enough appears in front of him, he will definitely fall in love.But all those beautiful, smart, successful girls came and went, and he never got caught up.

So we were all wrong.Now, Capote is sitting at dinner in Coco Passo, declaring grandiosely that no one can lock him up.He didn't want any fixed relationship at all, and he didn't have the slightest interest in those vows of eternal love-in his opinion, those were all crazy.Each of his women knew that he could be their best friend or friend with benefits, but nothing else from him.

He thought it was perfect, and he hadn't been as sad about it as he had been in a long time.

Love at the Bowery Bar Episode [-]

Let's go back to the Bowery Bar.Sitting with me that day was Parker, a thirty-two-year-old novelist whose love stories invariably end tragically, Parker's gay boyfriend Roger, and entertainment lawyer Skip Johnson.

Skip, 25, is a quintessential Gen Xer, unequivocally anti-love. "I never believed I could meet someone, let alone get married," he said. "Love sucks. If you believe in love, you're asking for disappointment. Everyone's fallen now, There's no one to trust."

"There's a silver lining," objected Parker. "I hope affection will save you from this cynicism."

Skip didn't buy it at all. "The world is more fucked now than it was 25 years ago. How can I be born in such an era? It's so mad. I'm catching up with all the shit. Money, AIDS, relationships, These things are all intertwined. It’s hard for my generation to get a permanent job. And when you have to worry about your job and your income, you don’t want to commit to anything.”

(End of this chapter)