What we talk about when we talk about Love"

The captioned is one of Raymond Carver's best and better-known stories.  You read it and at the end you realized you were lonely and didn't know a damn thing about love. You recall sharing the story with a woman who said she loved you. It didn't make an impact on her. Alarm bells rang deep and long in your heart then. And your intuition was right. She was into games of ego-sustenance. She didn't love you. Not really. Once again, you realized that you didn't know a thing about women. But you soldiered on.  Two more women later told you they loved you. Did that make you a serial womanizer or a hopeless, pathetic romantic? You didn't know then. You don't know now. Today you called a friend an inquisitive womanizer. He seemed surprised. But that could be an act. As you explained to him, being a womanizer is not bad by and in of itself. As long as one treats all ladies, including one's spouse, with respect and tender loving care, who says womanizing is bad? Some men were born to love women, to be hopelessly attracted to the opposite sex, to fall victim to their feminine charms and beauty.

Last week, a woman told you that she wanted to go on a trip with you, out of town, just to get away from the tedium and rut of life for a few days. She said she was depressed. You said you would think about that. You told her money was getting tight with you. You had some problems with your stock portfolio. She laughed, saying that she would pay for all of the expenses. You didn't tell her your reluctance was having more to do with Laura and the woman you still love dearly than with money.

Rain was falling hard tonight. A downpour in the desert. Arizona was overdue for a deluge. After the rain which lasted for two hours, the temperature dropped fast. The ground gave off an odor of life and fecundity, an earthy, musty, pungent smell which made him feel lonely and horny. Twice he picked up his iPhone and twice his finger froze, unable to punch in her number.

Unlike his friend, he was not a womanizer. He was into real love.