In this book, I talk a lot about women and men, but I do not in any way want or intend to exclude same-sex couples from the discussion. Partnering with another human being is a challenge no matter your gender, and I hope that all women can get some help from my observations about women, and all men can get help from my observations about men. However, it would have become unwieldy to keep saying “he or she” when referring to the reader’s boyfriend/girlfriend. For that reason, and because in my personal experience my partners have been male, I generally use “he.” Please forgive the exclusion of the female pronoun if that is what applies to you, and please also, if you don’t mind, just put an “s” in front of “he” in your mind, so you don’t feel like I’m not talking to you. Because I am. I am talking, with all humility, to every one of you who has struggled with relationships. We are all human, and we are all the same in how we feel love and suffer and care. I hear you. I feel you. Let’s have the discussion, because we all need to know that we are not alone in our failures and that we all have the potential to find love.