Is it possible to have a close relationship with a friend of the opposite sex especially if they are dating or married? For many, this is up for debate and opinions may vary. In Mary-Anne Maloni’s eyes, the answer is no. She explains why in Julia Averbeck’s Friendships Hurt.
About Friendships Hurt
Mary-Anne is convinced that it is impossible to have a close relationship with someone of the opposite sex. Readers are introduced to Mary-Anne who describes herself as an only child who struggles with making friends. She didn’t begin to make friends until she spent a semester abroad and developed a friendship with a guy who was her supervisor. Mary-Anne begins to open up to this man who wasn’t given a name in the story. If Mary-Anne had questions, she turned to him for help. They had a lot in common including the same books and movies. So it’s obvious that she had a secret crush on her supervisor, but hid it from him because he had a girlfriend and didn’t want to be the type of girl who broke up relationships.
After she returns home, they were able to keep in contact. However, their keeping in contact ceased. He wasn’t answering her emails anymore and Mary-Anne began to worry. So one day, she decided to email him and ask if they were still friends. Mary-Anne’s friend sent her a reply, but it wasn’t the answer she was looking for.
Freindships Hurt Review
Even though, I think that Friendships Hurt was a good story, it could have been better. My biggest problem with this story is that the plot could have been further developed. The story and the characters feel flat. There is no dialogue between the characters; therefore we do not get to see Mary-Anne interacting with the nameless male friend. The story feels like a letter Mary-Anne is writing to a friend or an advice column instead of a story. The author is simply telling us what happened instead of showing what happened between Mary-Anne and her friend.
I think that it was probably a bad idea for Mary-Anne to write her friend to ask if they were still friends. In my opinion, it sounds childish to have to ask someone this question. If someone doesn’t return your calls or email it most likely means that they are busy or they may not want to talk anymore. I think that Mary-Anne should have taken this as a sign to move on. As the story comes to a close, it’s obvious that Mary-Anne has given up on friendships. I think that Mary-Anne wanted something more than a friendship even though she wanted to just be friends with her former supervisor.
About the Author
Julia Averbeck is an independent author on Smashwords. Her other ebooks include: This Summer, 7 Reasons to Fall in Love with Stockholm, and September. The author's books can be downloaded for free on Smashwords and readers are welcome to stop by her Facebook fanpage and leave a comment.
Source
Averbeck, Julia. Friendships Hurt. Smashwords. 2011.
