michemiche

Writing - 10/10
Most spoilers for first 4 episodes, but there is one spoiler for episode 19 at end.

The first couple episodes are steamy and interesting - but there were a several “red flags” that the male lead was giving off and I thought, ‘wow, if this was real life, that poor young lady has no idea what she’s getting herself into.’ And my false prediction was that the writers would gloss over these red flags and pretend that they didn’t show anything about his true nature and to what the most likely ending to their relationship would be. In real life, there’s less than a 1% that this guy would ever make a good long term boyfriend/ husband - instead, he would only be a fling to get one’s heart broken before she meets a good guy who treats her well.

BUT - The writer of this story seemed to find the 1% story where, yes indeed he does actually want this to work out.

So why is it typically men hurting women in relationships where sex is involved when they aren’t yet in a committed relationship where children are considered?
Because, if you strip away culture and social pressures, sex for sex’s sake, with someone you have close to a zero attachment to - it is a lower hurdle for men.
Yes, there are men that just have no innate desire for meaningless sex and yes there are women who do want it - but it is heavily slanted towards more men more easily being able to seriously enjoy sex with someone that they have zero (and I mean zero) emotional attachment to.

So - this means(some) men will get into a situation ship with a woman with zero real interest in her as a person just to have sex on a regular basis.
AND —> all the red flags are super easy to spot when you realize that SOME of the men looking for zero emotional attachment will ALSO let the women think there is a possibility of a true connection and use her desire for that to gain access for the sex. If both are looking for a fling, then there is no person’s innocence that’s being damaged - and I have no judgement. But deceiving a woman with false hope is just as bad as rape. Just as deceiving a men with hope to get jewelry is just as bad as theft. Neither sex is perfect —> there are predators and victims on both sides.
The red flags are to spot the liars and deceivers.

All the red flags that this was what he was doing:
1) he talked down to her.
2) he didn’t respect her professionally and showed it.
3) his reputation of having many girlfriends.
4) he slept with her without trying to get to know her first (as she did with him)
5) he accused her of trying to cling to him right after the first time they slept together.

That last one’s a huge one. He never promised her anything other than sex, and this action scream that he was not looking to connect with her.

Later, all the red flags center around him not really admitting or even being aware that he was growing attached to her.

So, why am I listing these out?! Because so many romance novelist ignore all of the above. They create strange scenarios where the red flags are shown, but there is no logical reason for them. The ML does all these different red flags, but they magically don’t apply to him, he was misunderstood.

There was one lady I know that loved this guy who had same type of red flags, flat out said he had no interest in clingy type woman, that women just tried to use men for money and he didn’t want to get married, etc etc. he was in the 1% of the time when a guy would dump girl at any moment - but she waited for ten years - and then he finally asked her to marry him.

This story is that kind of relationship - so yeah, now I believe the writers are good - this isn’t some fantasy bubble about a guy who is good looking and successful but is behaving like a jerk - a fantasy story that he actually loves the FL and is just bad at showing his emotions and suddenly wakes up one day and starts treating her like shes gold.

Bad spoiler thru episode 19 below!

This is a story about real love, and how it works. The path forward with an emotionally distant man (who had a tough relationship with his father that has impacted his ability to connect in an honest and straightforward way) —> this is a hard road. she ends up having to bring up marriage first! This isn’t a glossed over fantasy of the “guy says he never wants to marry but she magically heals him after one heart felt conversation.”
Nope, that type of healing takes a lot of patience and a lot of time.

And she get hurt frequently along the way. She takes time, she slowly tells him what she wants/ need + he starts to do those things.