Seeking advice on a dilemma

How cool is Will Freeman?

Will has nothing else on his mind but himself. A childless single man aged thirty-six, who spends his life avoiding any emotional or rather any problems at all. 

Doing nothing all day gives Will the endless opportunities to do whatever he likes, including inventing new personalities to impress the womankind. Only the "coolness-score" he achieves in the questionnaire of “Men’s Health”, women and music are of any interest to him.

To put it concisely, Will is “the star of the Will Show!”

On New Year’s Eve he falls in love with Rachel, a beautiful, ambitious and intelligent single woman. Intimidated by Rachel’s charisma Will feels like a dull idiot, ruggedly pulled out of his self-indulgence.

Suddenly he realises that he neither has achieved anything reasonable on his own nor had actually cared for anyone else than himself.
Pressured by getting Rachel’s attention, Will starts to search for something that he could use to pique her interest. Unfortunately the only thing that comes to his mind is Marcus. So he mentions him coincidently in the conversation.

Rachel assumes that Will is the biological father of Marcus and Will, who is too afraid of telling the truth (again), does not correct her.  

Will's request for advice 

  

To begin with, be assured that I am not doing that very often, telling my personal problems to a random columnist. Actually, thinking about it, I hadn’t had any problems until this boy Marcus decided to mock things about by showing up at my flat randomly, forcing his companionship on me!

However, he is not my problem right now.

I’ve met this woman on a New Year’s Eve party and I have to admit that I’ve fallen in love immediately. I actually never wanted to fall in love. For me it means nothing else than the destruction of your personal freedom!

Well, at least I thought that until I met Rachel. She is beautiful, intelligent and her charm got me right from the start.

But as I talked to her, I felt like a blank twit, like I had never done anything reasonable in my life. There was just nothing to be proud of. 

I don’t have to work for the money I earn, you know, what leaves me with tons of time to do whatever I like. And I loved it! But how could I catch her interest without having anything essentially to show?

Marcus came to my mind. Inventing Ned for the SPAT-meetings gave me this little extra bonus back then. Being a single dad means that you can’t be a complete idiot.

So I mentioned him and she just assumed that he is my son. She even smilingly told me she has a twelve-year-old herself. We connected. Thus I did not correct the misunderstanding.

What am I supposed to do now? If she finds out that I lied to her about Marcus on our very first meeting, isn’t she going to dump me in a blink of an eye?

Will Freeman

The columnist's advice

 

Mr Freeman,

Without wanting to offend you, I have to advice you to grow up and deal with your problems like an adult.

Firstly I have to say that not having a job does not mean that you are a “blank twit”. You still have things that interest you, haven’t you? 

However, maybe it is time for a change.

Regarding the problem with Rachel, there is just one simple solution:
You have to face the facts and tell her the truth.

Be as honest as you can, tell her the reasons why you lied and how you feel about her.

If you are lucky, she is sensitive enough and understands. 

Wishing you all the best,

The columnist

Why Will is going to heed the columnist’s advice

Certainly Will is already aware of the fact that his life is nothing more than an empty shell. Because he is too afraid of being hurt, he shuts real life out by dealing superficially with things. It is pure self-protection.  

Rachel represents the turning point. Will realises that if he wants to impress Rachel, he has to change his attitude to be worthy by starting to tell her the truth.