Dear Cary,
I have been dating my boyfriend for four years, and living with him for most of that time. We started (I think mutually) to discuss marriage about two years ago. I took a positive but relaxed attitude about it at the time, because I figured that it would come when it came. But it didn't. I said about nine months ago, "Are we getting engaged?" and "When?" and was told not to bring it up again because it would ruin the surprise. This led me to believe that something was coming soon. Nothing happened. About a month before Christmas I brought it up again and my boyfriend told me that we would "definitely be engaged before Christmas." I thought that this seemed rather noncontroversial, so I was pretty happy and relaxed.
Christmas, as you might guess, came and went. I got some nice stuff but no ring. (I am not ring-obsessed ... I don't want a big ring or even particularly a ring at all, but it seems to be the only way that I can talk about getting married with my boyfriend.) I brought it up about five days later, and got the "I was very busy before the holidays, etc." runaround. My boyfriend has a fairly demanding job, but he works about two blocks from the diamond district. I would think that if he took one or two hours during the day to go pick out a ring, he could stay later at night. It is also not a money issue.
I didn't spend a lot of time recriminating him. I have decided to work something out myself rather than bring it up again to him. My attitude is that he knows how I feel. We have been together a long time, and there is a point at which it is either gonna happen, or it ain't. I am not looking for a husband, but I am looking for my boyfriend to be my husband, and, if he doesn't want to, it is time to do what is painful and break up with him if that's not what he wants to be. He does not seem to be brave enough to tell me himself, but if he wanted to get married, well ... you know.
Our lease is up in the summer. I am thinking of saying then that I am getting my own apartment. Should I say something about that now, to tell him where I am on this, or should I just wait and continue to hope that we'll get engaged before then and that nobody will be the wiser? I don't want to pull some ultimatum shit two weeks before our lease is up, and I also would feel sort of sneaky looking for an apartment on my own while he thinks everything is fine. But I also don't want to end up getting engaged in a hurry only because he doesn't want to suffer the trauma of my getting my own apartment (I think he feels a bit too comfortable with our relationship as it is). I think that he would interpret "I'm getting my own apartment unless you get me a ring" as a threat meant to hurt him, but it really is only a fact, and something that will hurt me, too.
My boyfriend and I get along very well. We had problems during the first year or so of our relationship, but I think we've worked them out. There doesn't seem to be a third party in the picture. My boyfriend seems happy to see me at night and he doesn't disappear mysteriously or anything. There are no previous marriages or children on either side. We like our apartment and our life together. I can't see that I would be happier alone, or happier with anyone else, but, honestly, I am not happy living together indefinitely like this. It's fine for some people, but it's not what I want out of life.
Sad
Dear Sad,
This reminds me of something that happened over 30 years ago, when I was wrestling. I was in junior high school and going out for the team. If you wanted to go out for the wrestling team, you got up early in the morning two or three times a week and dressed out and went into a little concrete block room, the wrestling room, and stood around a mat. The coach stood in the middle and demonstrated holds and asked for volunteers for various holds. Then there was a kind of round robin where volunteers stepped forward one by one into the ring. You didn't hold your hand up or ask permission, you just stepped in and wrestled. We had been doing that for about 15 minutes, and most of us had stepped in and tried our hand at wrestling. And then the coach said, OK, those of you who have stepped in, I think you want to be wrestlers. And those of you who didn't step in, I think you need to ask yourselves if you really want to be wrestlers. Because if you want to wrestle, you step in the ring.
I was startled but relieved, because I didn't know it had been a test. And it wasn't a test, really. It was just reality. If you want to wrestle, you step in the ring.
I think you need to tell your boyfriend that, based on his failure to buy the ring, you have reached a painful but inescapable conclusion that he does not really want to marry you. You can't hang around and let him play you for a sap.
After you tell him that, and start making plans to move out, the ball is in his court. If he wants to woo you back, if he wants to convince you that you're the most important person to him in the whole world and he wants to spend his life with you, he's free to do his best. Because I remember what else the wrestling coach said. He said this doesn't mean that the rest of you are off the team. If you want to prove that you're wrestlers, he said, you can prove it. But I'm not going to drag you into the ring.
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Want more advice from Cary? Read yesterday's column.
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