JULY 1979, the disco years
CHASING THE TROPHY
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During the
first half of 1979,
Victoria used
deceit, meanness and
clever manipulation of public opinion to vanquish two
rivals.
As the last
woman standing from the Temptation Triangle,
Victoria was
now the Supreme Diva of Disco. Shouldn't that have
been enough? Apparently not. Unfortunately
for Queen Victoria,
she feared her
triumph might be temporary. After all, the
elusive Trophy known as Rick was still up for grabs. Now
that Patricia
was gone, who will take her place? By definition, any woman who
became my girlfriend would hold a powerful pillow talk advantage over
Victoria. As long as
I remained a Free Agent, there might be a different woman out
there with the necessary beauty, dance skill, and moxie to
challenge Victoria's Crown. The fear of a new rival, a
woman more dangerous than Joanne or Patricia, worried
Victoria constantly.
I would not say
that Victoria ever saw me as a loser. But I don't
think she was particularly impressed either. Given her
initial low opinion, my
theory is Victoria never forgot how shocked she was
when a woman of Patricia's beauty and stature suddenly
appeared as a rival. Nor could she forget how Joanne snuck
behind her back to steal the show at the Christmas Party,
then shamelessly flaunt her interest in me.
Fearing both women had the power to steal the Trophy and pry the Crown
away, Victoria got rid of them. However, if it could happen
once, it could happen
again. It was just
Victoria's luck that Joanne and Patricia were two
different women. What would happen if a woman who
possessed both Joanne's
dance ability and Patricia's beauty crossed my path? If this Wonder Woman
turned out to be single, Victoria's Crown might be
history.
Kind in mind this is all speculation on my part. I am
not a mind reader, so there is
no guarantee I am right. But given her behavior, it
makes sense.
A worrier by nature, Victoria was constantly looking over
her shoulder.
Joanne did not have a crafty bone in her body, so she was
easily vanquished. Patricia was both smart and
diabolical, but lacked communication skills with women.
Victoria cleverly exploited this weakness to send Patricia
packing. As far as I was concerned, Victoria did not win this Beauty Contest fair and square.
Like Aphrodite, her mythological counterpart, Victoria had to play dirty to win. So what
would prevent the next woman from giving Victoria a taste of
her own medicine? What if the new woman possessed people skills equal to
Victoria's? Let's call her Matilda.
Theoretically, Matilda would occasionally spend the night with me.
As we lay in bed, Matilda would bend my ear.
"Listen, Rick, Victoria is not to be
trusted. She wants that dance program for herself and
has the guile to turn your students against you. Why
don't you let me help you get rid of her?"
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In other words, I think Victoria feared some woman would do the same thing to her
that she had done to
Joanne and Patricia. One solution would be to beat a
future rival to the punch. In other words, get to my
bed first.
Victoria was a
Wonder Woman to be sure, but her wedding ring was
her Achilles Heel. With her formidable sex appeal
impeded by marriage,
Victoria feared she was vulnerable to a coup d'état
staged by the Trophy's next girlfriend. I believe
this scenario is what tempted Victoria to take her ring off.
To be
honest, I did not
trust the sincerity of Victoria's professed love for
me. My instinct said Victoria was not really
in love with me, but rather in love with
popularity and glamour. I had a strong
hunch I was merely a means to an end. This
hunch strengthened my resolve to resist her advances.
As long as Victoria was married, I intended to
hold my ground. Unfortunately,
I did not know how much I could trust myself to keep my desire under control. So far
I had managed to stay out of Victoria's reach, but only by a razor thin
margin.
However, I had an excellent solution. Let's find someone to replace Patricia.
"Hey, Matilda, would you like
to dance?"
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JULY 1979, the disco years
THE CANDY STORE
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I had every right
to find a girlfriend to relieve me of my crushing,
perpetual loneliness. Unlike Patricia, hopefully my new
girlfriend
would support my odd dance career. In addition, I
wanted my new girlfriend to
get along with Victoria using diplomacy that Patricia
had lacked. Surely a woman
like this had to exist.
Every month a new wave of
female students showed up to take dance classes.
Most of them were single. Most of them were
attractive professionals.
All I had to do was visit
the Candy Store and start looking.
Victoria was no
fool. Watching me in action at Camelot, she could see for herself that beautiful
women were smiling with alarming regularity.
A newcomer with a pretty face, an outgoing nature, and
sharp footwork could knock Queen
Victoria off her throne. Should the right woman capture the
heart of King Richard, Victoria feared her dreams and hard work could go for naught. What
could she do to minimize the threat? The correct answer
would be to use Common Sense. In reality, Victoria had nothing to
fear!
So why didn't she see that?
A loyal person by
nature, I did not seek a replacement for Victoria.
Quite the opposite. I prayed for Victoria to stay.
I did not need
for my girlfriend to work along beside me. Look no
further than Patricia's lack of interest as proof.
I had no reason to remove the Crown from the most
charismatic woman I had ever met. AND I TOLD
VICTORIA THAT! Considering my professed loyalty, why didn't
she take me at my word? There was no reason
for Victoria to worry, but she was
too blind to see.
Nor do I
think Victoria wanted to end her marriage.
If I had to guess, Victoria preferred to keep
her marriage while having an affair to protect the Throne.
Well, tough
luck, Victoria. I was determined not to give in.
Business partner, yes. Dance partner, yes. Lover, no.
Following the
demise of Patricia, my best solution was to replace her
with a woman I could count on to keep Victoria at bay.
Meanwhile, Victoria decided her best solution was
to replace Patricia with herself. If I
could be persuaded to cooperate with the European
Arrangement, there would be no room for Waltzing Matilda
to take her place. And so the stage
was set for our competing agendas to meet head on in the
near future.
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JULY 1979, the disco years
WHY WOULD I WANT TO HAVE AN AFFAIR?
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Under ordinary circumstances, yes, Victoria was a wish come
true. Victoria was vibrant, sexy and beautiful. She was
gifted with an incredible personality. However, after watching her ruthlessly chase two
women out of my life, disrespect her husband and bully me countless times,
much of the time I did not like this woman. The painful memory
of Victoria's vicious streak that removed
Joanne and Patricia from my life refused to go away.
I liked Victoria a lot when she was on her good behavior, but I
was far from sold on her as my Dream Girl. Indeed,
Victoria's dark side prevented me from trusting her enough
to let her anywhere near my heart.
I keep saying I would do Anything to keep my dance career alive.
However, that was
not true. I drew the line at having an Affair no
matter how good Victoria was for my career. I was
ambitious, yes, but I also had a Code
of Honor. If Victoria threatened to leave, I
would regret her loss. However, through careful
observation of the Master in action, I had acquired enough experience to continue
without her. Victoria was important, but not enough to bully me into doing something I knew was wrong.
Furthermore, my brief relationship with Karen from the
wife-swapper club had taught me I was not wired
properly to share another man's wife. The guilt I had
felt was so overwhelming that I never wanted to go through
that experience again. In addition, I greatly respected Michael.
No woman was worth that kind of guilt.
Let us not forget I had a personal reason to resist an Affair.
My childhood had been
ruined by my father's Affair. His selfishness had cost
me dearly. I blamed my childhood problems for this insidious Epic Losing
Streak. I blamed my childhood problems for getting
thrown out of Graduate School. God forbid that I imitate my father's destructive
behavior and risk damaging Victoria's daughter in
a similar way.
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If there was one
thing I learned during my Magic Carpet
Ride, I would never have trouble meeting
beautiful women again. I knew this for a fact
thanks to eight women who had shown interest in me
during the past
year. Jenny, Karen, Marilyn, Francesca, Nancy,
Joanne, Patricia, Victoria. I had a strong hunch
the Candy Store had more women just like them.
Blessed with a
skill that served as a babe magnet, why on earth would I want to
settle for an unstable, vindictive
married woman when I had so many
better options? Victoria was a
great catch, but she was not the only fish in the sea.
Given that beautiful ladies crossed my path with
amazing
regularity, why should I bother chasing a
Forbidden Woman when my Candy Store was filled with
girls who were SINGLE?
I knew
better... Don't mess with a married woman! That, of
course, was the correct approach.
Unfortunately, I
too had an Achilles Heel... my sex drive.
My Libido was
easily enflamed by
Victoria's flirtations. With Patricia gone, I
was more vulnerable than ever to giving into temptation.
When a beautiful woman
decides to
impose her will, common sense has been known to fly out
the window. I knew I would have a terrible battle
resisting Victoria if she put her mind to it.
Fearful of the Looming Showdown, the sooner I began my search for the Mythical
Matilda, the better.
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