Part 21
This next sub chapter is called "A True Gentleman"
Even though her date has discretely paid for dinner (it is no coincidence that she demands
to be taken to an upscale restaurant where prices are not printed on her menu), her
pretenses refuse to vanish once the check has been settled. "Romance" dictates that she
must make him wait longer for his sexual reimbursement. The proof that he genuinely
enjoys her company is that he will "respect" her while she continues to dip her hand deep
into his pocket. A "gentleman" is just a sucker who picks up the tab and doesn't make a
pass. "Morality" is just a woman's word for holding a man up. Whiplashed as he is by
testosterone, a man will grudgingly tolerate female con games and extortion, rationalizing
to himself that getting laid is expensive. But he is teetering on a slimy tightrope stretched
across a fiery abyss. If he should touch her breast too soon, she will recoil in horror
("men are only after one thing"); but if he "respects" her too long, she'll brand him as gay,
or castrate him into a "friend". He is expected to divine her thoughts like a mind-reader
while she carps that men just can't communicate.
