Gloria's Romantic Monday: You + Me + Baby Does NOT Make Three

***Gloria is a friend of mine I know from church. She is a single mother. She has a boyfriend, Gregory, who we all love and her son's father, Rufus, who we all hate. She is fun-loving and hilarious. Gloria is the type of friend who'd be there for you at a party, when things get tough, or even if you need help applying for school.***

Last week was my first post about Gloria, though I've mentioned her a number of times in my main blog or in posts I've written about Camille or Michelle. In that post, I just wanted to introduce her. So now, I'll try and give some background on the men in her life. Because Rufus just sucks, I'll get him out of the way first.

Gloria met Rufus a few years ago. He was first described as this great guy who really had his shit together. He had a pretty good job and he was stable. He had his own place. And he had no kids. He was charming, good looking, funny, and sweet. The way Gloria made him sound, we all knew we'd love him.

They dated for a while and a lot of negative traits began to come to the surface. Rufus is a man that really doesn't know how to treat a woman. I'd like to place the blame for that at his mother's feet. And he has a scary temper. Gloria also has a temper, but it's really really hard to make her mad. But when those two are mad at each other at the same time, it's not pretty.

And then Gloria gets pregnant. During her pregnancy, she had a lot of animosity toward Rufus, mostly because of his shortcomings concerning the pregnancy. They made a decision that he would be an active father and help out where he could and he's stuck to that plan more or less. He spends time with his son and contributes something to the cost of raising him. He could do more, but he does do something.

Rufus also has another son who is very close in age to Gloria's son. Her son just turned 2. Rufus' other son is 1. I know what you're thinking. Overlapping pregnancies? You'd be right. And his other son's mother was living with him while she was pregnant and after she had the baby.

The craziest part of Rufus and Gloria's history? He keeps telling her he wants to be with her and make a family with their son. This is while he was still living with the mother of his other son. This is while he knows Gloria is dating Gregory. This is while he's still exhibiting a horrible temper that makes one think he should never engage in intimate relationships. This is all adding up to a conclusion that this man must have a loose grip on reality.

When someone says, "I don't want to date you. I don't love you. We will never be together.", only a crazy person would take that as, "try harder stupid." And let's say that's really how Rufus took it and he's not just being a contrary asshole. He's hasn't actually tried harder. He's just doing more of the same.

I'd love to move on to Gregory right now because he's awesome. But this post is getting too long as it is, so you'll have to wait until next week.