ummm...Mom?

"May I ask you a personal question?" he says.
"You can ask."
"You've never been married?"
"That's right. Does that shock you?"
"It surprises me. Not many heterosexual women who look like you make it to forty without getting married at least once."
"Is that a nice way of asking what's wrong with me?"
Kaiser laughs. "It's a nice way of being nosy."
"You'd think I'd be a prize catch, wouldn't you?"
"Yes, I would."
"A lot of guys think that. From a distance."
"What's wrong with up close?"
"I'm not like most women."
"How so?"
"Well, it goes like this. I meet a guy. Good-looking, successful, independent. Doctor, journalist, investment banker, A-list actor. Whatever. He can't wait to go out with me. I'm a not-so-ugly woman in what a lot of people see as a glamour job. The first few dates, he shows me off to his friends. We like each other. We get intimate. Then, in a week or a month, I get a new assignment. Afghanistan. Brazil. Bosnia. Egypt. And not a fly-in-and-out Dan Rather junket. A month on the ground schlepping cameras. Maybe this particular guys is making international partner the next week and wants me at his celebration party. Maybe the Oscars are the next week. But I take the assignment, I won't even discuss turning it down. And by the time I get back, he's decided maybe the relationship isn't working out after all."
"Why do you think that is?"
"Because most guys have the one-up gene."
"The what?"
"The one-up gene. The have to be in the superior position. They love the idea of being with me. But the reality is far from what they envision. Some don't like that I make more money than they do. The ones who make more money than I do don't like it when their friends act like my job is more important than theirs. Some can't take the fact that I have a higher priority than them in my life. I don't mean to complain about it. I just want you to understand." ....

Mom is reading Dead Sleep by Greg Iles right now. She left me a note on the counter this morning that said "Read page 160. Remind you of anyone?" Umm...no. I mean, Yes. I mean..I don't know.