Sex and the city

Chapter 4 Falling in love with the same serial dater
On a recent afternoon, seven women gathered in Manhattan for good cigarettes, wine, and cheese.We're here for a common topic—a man—to be exact, a Manhattan diamond bum, whom we call "Tom Perry."

Tom Perry, 43 years old, five feet ten inches tall, with straight brown hair.His looks are lackluster, but his clothes are "outstanding" - a few years ago, he used a plain black Armani suit to assemble a strange garter belt, which is still rumored to be a joke.His manufacturing family was insanely wealthy, and Fifth Avenue and Bedford were literally his home.He now lives in a high-rise on Fifth Avenue.

Over the past 15 years, Perry has become a legend in New York, and everyone immediately thinks of him when the name "Perry" is mentioned.He is not the kind of playboy who "lives among the flowers without touching himself".Instead, he wants to get married like crazy.Perry is definitely the most veritable "serial dater" in New York. He has an average of twelve relationships a year, but each of them lasts less than two months, and the shortest one lasts only two days.As soon as there was a situation in love, he jumped out and declared, "I was dumped again."

For the ambitious and socially powerful woman in her mid-thirties, being considered by Perry was a rite of passage, a proud and tangled life event.That ambivalence is a bit like riding in a limo for the first time and getting robbed for the first time combined.

Perry's record is definitely not lost to those notorious playboys in New York City.But in all fairness, his capital is much less - neither as handsome as Court Eric Wauchmeister, nor as big a spendthrift as Mort Zuckerman.

I really want to know, what is he capable of?
Every woman in the room who had been involved with Perry at one point or another—whether in bed or in an affair—everyone claimed that she dumped Perry.When I suggested that we get together and talk about Perry, no one said no.Everyone seems to have something for him - either to get back together, or to get revenge.

"Like Darryl Van Horn"

We met at Sarah's house, now a filmmaker and ex-model—"until I got tired of that shit and gained twenty pounds," Sarah said.Today she is wearing a dark pinstripe suit. "When you look back at the guys you've dated, Perry is the most boring guy," she said. "You think about it? Why?"

Before we started breaking the news separately, we discovered something confusing—just this morning, four of us got a call from Perry, and these women had long since lost contact with him.

"It's just a coincidence, I don't think he got wind of it," Magda said.She was Perry's friend for many years.In fact, nearly all of her female friends have had affairs with Perry, and she introduced them to him.

“He knows us all,” one woman said. “He’s like Daryl Van Horn in The Witches of Easttown.”

"Well, he looks more like Van Horney to me," commented another woman.We opened a bottle of red wine.

"Perry's trump card," says Sara, "is that when you first start dating him, you think he's funny and talkative, doesn't have to work, and is always on call. If a guy asks you out to lunch and waits When you finished eating and went back to work, they called you again and asked: 'How about a cocktail at six o'clock in the evening?' Don't you guys feel tempted? Now what man would ask you out three times a day?"

"'Cocktail' is such a pun!" said Magda, "like Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant."

Magazine editor Jackie said: "I didn't know him long before I started dating him frequently. We spent five nights a week together. He definitely didn't make you feel lonely."

"He's very smart, and he loves to use the phone," Sara said. "He calls you ten times a day. It makes women think that he must really love me. And then you Will ignore that he's a funny-looking little guy."

“But when you suddenly see his weird garter belts, you suddenly wake up and think, 'My God, what the hell am I doing!'” said Maeve, a poet of Irish descent.

"The next thing you realize is that he's not really funny at all," Sara went on. "He does have a huge collection of jokes, but the problem is that when you hear them a thousand times, you get bored. He It's like having an automatic loop function."

"He also told me I was the only girl with the same smile as him," Maeve said, "but I didn't find it funny at all!"

"Then you see his apartment and there are 25 janitors there - what's going on?"

"You'd wonder why he didn't just throw out all his stupid furniture and just live in a door-to-door store."

"And he showed me his handcuff-shaped tissue holders. That's how he teases girls—with tissue holders? Hell!"

First Date: Restaurant 44
So, how the hell did this start?
Jackie's experience is typical. "I was waiting for a table at Le Cordon Bleu, and he came up to me and started talking to me. He was being funny, and I thought, oh my god, I have a good relationship with this guy. I figured he’d never contact me again.” The ladies nodded — isn’t that how we all start?
"It turned out he called me at eight o'clock the next morning," Jackie said. "He asked me if I wanted to have lunch, and then asked me to meet at 44 the next day."

Safire — a blond, blue-eyed, single mother — laughs: “He only asks me out to 44 every other day.”

"When you eat, you will think that he is really smart and funny. And he will strike while the iron is hot and ask you to spend the weekend with him." Jackie said.

"He asked me to marry him around the tenth time we were dating!" Sara said. "That's fast enough, even for a guy like him."

“He took me to meet his parents on our third date!” responds Bretta, a tall, lanky, dark-skinned girl who works as a photo promoter and is now married. "It was just me, his parents and the housekeeper. The next day, I remember sitting on the bed and watching him show a video of him as a kid. He proposed to me: 'Look, I'm serious.' Then he actually called me Cheap takeout! I thought to myself - Marry you? Are you on drugs?"

Ramona sighed and said, "But then again, I just broke up with my ex-boyfriend, and I was very depressed. He was always by my side."

So we summed up the rules.These women who had been with Perry were all approached by Perry just after they broke up with their boyfriends or husbands—or, in other words, they took the initiative to hook up with Perry.

"He's like a backup," Sara said. "It's like you just broke up and he comes up and says, 'Excuse me, are you in a bad mood? Let's go on a date!'"

"Yeah, he's like the Mayflower of affection," said Maeve, "carrying women from one harbor to another. You feel as if you're in Plymouth. Feel better."

He read the minds of the women. "He's like a girlfriend." It's been said many times. "He reads more fashion magazines than women." Safire added, "And he cares more about you than about himself." Take care."

"He's also super confident," Maeve went on. "A lot of guys act like idiots, and sometimes they can't even find their own socks—it doesn't make a good impression on women. But Perry Always say to you: 'I'll give you 100% security. You can rely on me.' and stuff like that. It always makes you feel so cozy. Really, that's what women want, Most men don't get it. Perry is smart, whether he means it or just pretends."

Then we talked about sex again. "He's absolutely flawless in bed!" says Sara.

"It's so cool to do it with him!" Safire echoed excitedly.

"Do you really think he's that good?" Jackie asked. "I don't think so. Please, think about his height!"

When we talked here, we found that Perry seemed to fulfill all our dreams of a man - as understanding and considerate as a girlfriend;

So what was wrong with him?
Perry: Size matters
"It's like," Maeve said, "when you're sentimental and neurotic, he's the perfect lover, and when he's taking care of all your troubles, he's the biggest trouble."

"He's become unbelievably mean," says one woman, and everyone agrees.

"Once," Jackie said, "I said I was wearing a small size, and he actually said, 'You can't wear a small size, at least you have to be a medium size. I know what a small size looks like,'" Trust me, you're not.'”

"He kept me on the loose and asked me to lose more than fifteen pounds," Sara complained. "When I was with him, I was definitely the thinnest I've ever been."

"This is a kind of psychological transfer. A man will only ask a woman to lose weight when he is not satisfied with the size of his own place." A woman added dryly.

Maeve breaks the news about their ski trip to Sun Valley. "It started off perfectly, Perry got everything right. He bought the tickets, booked the hotel, and I thought it was going to be a great trip." They ended up arguing on the way to the airport — — They both wanted to sit in the same seat in the car; on the plane, they were still arguing, and the flight attendant had to force them to separate. (“We were arguing about who got more fresh air,” Maeve explained.) They never stopped along the way.The next day, Maeve started to pack her luggage.As a result, Perry gloated and said: "Hahaha, there is a snowstorm outside, you can't go anywhere!" Maeve countered: "Hahaha, I have feet, I will take the bus!"

A month later, Maeve returned to her husband's side - this is not an exception, most of the women present have dumped Perry and returned to the arms of their ex.

That doesn't mean Perry has given up. "He sent me a lot of faxes and emails, and thousands of missed calls..." Safire said, "This feeling is not good. In fact, his heart is very strong. become a good man."

"I've got all his letters," said Sarah, "and they're so touching! You can even see the trails of his tears." She went out of the room, took one of them, and read it aloud to us: "Emotionally you don't owe me anything, but I hope you can take a small brave step forward and embrace my love for you. I didn't send you flowers because I didn't want to use something I didn't create, to share or belittle your affections."

Sarah smiled.

"We're getting married"

After dumping Perry, the women declared they were doing well.Jackie is dating her personal trainer; Magda has published her first novel; Ramona is married and pregnant; Maeve has opened her own coffee shop; A friend relives old dreams; Sara is having fun with a 27-year-old boy she fostered.

As for Perry, he recently moved abroad and is still relentlessly looking for a new marriage partner.It was heard that he had recently been dumped by an Englishwoman who was determined to marry the duke. "He was always dating women who weren't right for him," Safire said.

Six months later, Perry made a trip back to New York.He invites Sarah to dinner. "He took my hand and said to his friend, 'This is the only woman I've ever really loved.' I went back to the apartment with him for a couple of drinks because of our friendship. Then he Proposed to me so solemnly that I couldn't believe it. I thought he was joking, so I decided to torture him."

"He told me: 'I hope you don't date other men and I don't see other women.'"

"So I said yes and I thought, how is that possible, he lives in Europe and I live in New York. But the next morning I got a call from him and he said, 'Remember, you're already It's my girlfriend now.'"

"I said: 'Okay, Perry, let it be.'"

Sara forgot all about it immediately after he returned to Europe.One morning, while she was flirting with her new boyfriend, the phone rang.It's Perry.When Sarah answered the phone, her new boyfriend asked her, "Would you like some coffee?" Perry immediately lost his temper.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"Friend," Sarah said.

"Friend? Ten o'clock in the morning? Did you sleep with another man? We are getting married, but you dare to sleep with another man?" He dropped the phone.

Then he called again a week later. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"What are you going to do?" Sarah asked.

"We're getting married, aren't we? You haven't slept with anyone since, have you?"

"Listen, Perry, I don't have a ring on my finger yet!" said Sarah. "Why don't you call Harry Winston and order some jewelry, and then we'll talk about it."

Perry didn't call Harry Winston, and he didn't talk to Sarah for months.Sara said she missed him a little. "I think he's pretty pathetic," she said. "He's always messing things up."

It was getting late, but no one wanted to leave.Everyone was in a daze, recalling the image of this man in their minds—it seemed to be Perry, but it didn't seem to be him.

(End of this chapter)