Chapter 16 The importance of exclusivity

Aside from the need to know that soul mates aren't perfect, Richard's main reason: the constant nagging idea in his head that you can never date just one woman at a time.He can never enter the "exclusivity phase" where he sees only one woman on a regular basis.He didn't give himself the chance to open up to just one woman.When he's obsessed with a woman, he doesn't go into the "unsure phase" together like other couples do.Of course, he also felt uncertain, and what he did was start going around dating other women for comparison in order to pick and choose.Emotionally, he always leaves a way out for himself. If this fails, then there will be other women by his side.

He couldn't bear the risk of opening his heart to a woman, only to be rejected after a fiery confession.In dealing with the one, there is always the other as an alternative.As a result, he would never have the chance to be alone with a woman for more than half a year.In the encounters he was in, he would blindly skip the "exclusivity stage," jump quickly into stage four (the intimacy stage), and then revert back to stage two (the uncertainty stage). Once he feels uncertain, he looks around, becomes attracted to other women, and pursues them madly.By going back and forth through these stages of dating with several women, he can never know in his mind which woman is right for him and which woman is not.