(On preview: Sorry this is long.)
Recently, my wife, daughter, and I had dinner with a friend of ours visiting from out of town. (Let’s call her Debora, because I’m listening to T. Rex at the moment.) My mom was also visiting, so we ended up having dinner with a group of people including Debora, my mother, my brother, and a couple of other local friends who are also friends with Debora.
It was a good time.
Now, my wife and I have been friends with Debora for about 10 years now. We all met shortly before we got married.
And Debora’s an attractive woman, in ways that go beyond physical attractiveness. She’s one of a very few women I could see myself falling for and pursuing, had life circumstances worked out differently. It’s not a missed opportunity – I’m perfectly happy with my wife, and I don’t wish things had worked out differently – but I know myself well enough to recognize the raw materials of significant attraction, and know myself well enough to leave them alone and unrefined. I’m not in love with her, but I could fall in love with her.
And my wife knows this. It’s not an issue, but it’s something we’ve discussed, because why not? (Whether Debora knows this I don’t know. We haven’t discussed it, because why?)
At any rate, on the way home from dinner, my daughter (just about 3 years old) and wife are riding in the back seat, I’m driving, and my mom is in the passenger seat. And at a lull in the conversation, my mom says, “Debora is really gorgeous. Don’t you think so, Marc?”
And I really had no idea how to respond to that. I mean, the honest response is “Heck yeah!” but that seemed a little too enthusiastic. In fact, any quick agreement seemed loaded. It’s not that I don’t think about these things – most guys I know, married or not, have opinions about the attractiveness of women we know.
But I also don’t generally discuss these things outside of controlled circumstances. With my wife? Sure. With other friends? Sure. With my daughter? No. With my mom? Really, I’d rather not.
So I carefully and forcefully answered, “Sure, Debora’s attractive. Don’t you think, hon?”
Punt to my wife! Brilliant!
And the conversation gradually steered toward topics I’m happy to blather on about when my mom and daughter are in the room.
But I bit back what I really wanted to answer: “Mo-oommm!”