“剩男”杰弗里的單身故事

James Geoffrey watched his parents divorce when he was nine， but it didn’t put him off marriage. It made him think that most people don’t know how to work at it. And he was sure that he would.

A couple of buddies married right after high school. A few more 1)got hitched in college. His younger brother married his first love and quickly had four children. Geoffrey moved from Michigan to Washington and got a job on 2)Capitol Hill.

The 3)ratio of men to women was in his favor there， and Geoffrey dated a lot. But it often seemed that the women he was attracted to weren’t interested in him， and those who did express interest weren’t his type. He wanted someone smart， but not 4)overbearing. A woman with a sense of humor who could put up with his 5)quirks.

詹姆斯·杰弗里九歲時遭遇父母離異，但這并沒有令他對婚姻產生抗拒，只是讓他覺得大多數人都不懂得如何經營婚姻，而他則深信自己深諳此道。

他的一些好友高中一畢業就結婚了，更多的則是在念大學期間結的婚。他的弟弟娶了初戀情人且很快就有了四個孩子。杰弗里從密歇根搬到華盛頓，并且在美國國會山找了份工作。

男少女多的工作環境對杰弗里來說十分有利，而他也頻頻約會。但問題似乎總是他看上的女性就對他沒興趣，而向他示好的女子又并非他所愛。他希望找個聰明而不專橫，幽默又能容忍自己古怪性格的女人。

But he found he couldn’t 6)put up with theirs.“As I’ve gotten older， my waist has gotten wider， my hair has gotten thinner and my tolerance has gone down，” says Geoffrey， now 48.

I n t h e m a s t e r bedroom of his 7)Falls Church apartment hangs a world map with 38 push pins， each representing a country Geoffrey has visited. He keeps the place perfectly neat， with a floral couch， a leather recliner and an end table lined up with remote controls.

With the exception of a college girlfriend， no relationship lasted more than a few months. Dates often felt like job interviews， but he continued to accept offers of set-ups， certain his turn would come.

But four years ago， he realized it might not. And， more importantly， he wasn’t sure he wanted it to. “I decided， ‘No， it’s not right for me，’” he says. “There are a lot of nice girls out there， but I’m not the right guy for them.”

It became clear to Geoffrey that he liked his life as it was. The only unpleasant part was when he was questing for what it wasn’t. He had friends and travels and long summers at the pool; he had peace.

“Day to day is probably when I most know that I want to be single，” says Geoffrey， who works in public affairs. “You deal with so much crap at work. By the time I leave work， I don’t want to deal with people any more.”

然而，他卻發現自己無法忍受對方的古怪。“隨著我年紀越來越大，腰圍越來越粗，頭發越來越稀，我的容忍度也越來越低了。”現已48歲的杰弗里說道。

杰弗里在福爾斯徹奇有一套公寓。在其主臥內掛著一幅世界地圖，上面扎著3 8顆畫釘，每顆畫釘代表一個杰弗里去過的國家。他把房間打掃得一塵不染，里面擺放著一張花布沙發、一把皮躺椅以及一個排滿遙控器的茶幾。

除了大學時的女友，杰弗里與其他異性的交往時間從未超過數月。約會常常猶如面試，但他仍然接受別人的撮合，堅信自己的轉機終將到來。

但在四年前，他意識到那一天恐怕不會來了。更重要的是，他不肯定自己想不想有這么一天。“我斷定：‘不，那樣的生活不適合我，’”他說道，“周圍確實有很多不錯的女孩兒，但我并不適合她們。”

杰弗里明白到自己喜歡現在的生活，唯有當他試圖改變現狀時才會感到不悅。……