Guys and romance, huh?

Oxymoron, right?

Guys hate romance, they like sex. And I'm thinking, okay--make this guy I'm working on a little more "guy-like" because men are a certain way.

WRONG!

I know this guy. He used to be a SEAL and it's still obvious, I mean--he's ripped and he looks like GI Joe. Not that his shirt is too small, but his muscles are too big.

We were talking about the Bourne series. We both liked the first movie, and we'd both read the books. (nothing like the movies) I didn't like the second movie, and neither did he, but he liked the third, and I'd been waiting for it to come out on DVD because the second was disappointing.

He came at it from a military angle--this is how the world was, and this is why David became the ex-pat killer, Jason Bourne, and stuff about intelligence, and special ops and Ludlum. The history of US involvement in Southeast Asia at the time--all fascinating stuff. I mean--the guy was an instructor. He must have taken serious amounts of school on the subject.

And I came at it from the story-telling/emotional angle. This is why it worked--in the first book because it was romance in proximity, and a tighter time-line. And in the third book (Marie doesn't die in the book, only in the second movie) because Ludlum did the Miami Vice hostage thing and made David assume the Jason identity. Sort of like the Die Hard movies. Hostage stuff. It works because love is a motivator.

But Tim said, "you need to see the movie. It works because in number three, Jason wants to go home, but realizes that he went home. Now he's lost. Because Marie was his home." And I went..."huh?" and he went, "don't you see? When he found Marie, he found his way back to the man he was. She centered him. Because they loved each other, Jason went home. In the third movie, he realized, when they flash back to her, that she was his anchor, and now he's lost, but when he finally comes to grips with her death and his love, he can turn his back on "Jason" and become "David" again. Because he loved her. And love transformed him."

My jaw dropped.

Talk about stereotypes. I'd so totally stereotyped this guy because of a) well, duh--he's a guy. and b) because of his looks. He looks like eye-candy and for some reason I'd come to think of him as a good looking computer, put a question in, get an answer. Nothing really deep.

But this guy put his finger on the emotional plot points. He knew what was going on, why, and came at it from a totally different angle. The implications made my head swim.

There really are guys like the guys I write about in books. Real-guys. Who really are--on the inside--just like we write them. It's not just artistic license.

In some ways. I'm glad.