Patterns and Motives

I just realized it yesterday, walking out to the car: she can smell the divorce on him.

It explains why she's been chatting him up in recent weeks, to my irritation (the less she works, the less tolerance I have for her Betty Boop sing-songing).

My college roommate could do this, too -- I was aware of the dynamic, but never managed to put a name to it. The guys she was interested in had something in common, but I couldn't put my finger on it, and the only time our interests overlapped, I beat her out (yeay for me). Her first all-in relationship was with a guy who was engaged, but she was right: he was perfectly willing to destroy that engagement by cozying up to her. I figured it was all due to broken-family dynamics at the time, and it probably is.

Once the "smell the divorce" idea popped into my head, it rippled out over my mental picture of the office, and I saw its framework clicking into place over patterns I'd been noticing -- who she approaches, whom she does not; who she chats up, flirting, and whom she only talks business with.

This is a strange new way to evaluate the strength of others' romantic partnerships -- by whether Her Girliness seems to think she has a shot at them or not.

I bet she has no conscious idea she's following this pattern, and no malicious intent. My roommate didn't seem to be able to help it, either.