Dear Maggie,

I’ve been with the same guy for more than two years now, and I love him madly, but he still hasn’t proposed to me. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m wasting my time. How much longer should I wait before giving him the ultimate ultimatum? I mean, sooner or later, he has to commit to me, or I should walk, right? Otherwise, he’ll just keep putting it off forever, won’t he? He has it made. We live together, so he has all the benefits of having a wife, without the paperwork. We never fight – in fact, we have a lot of fun together and this is the only issue I have with our relationship. So what should I do to make him marry me?

Signed,

Miserable

Dear Miserable,

I wish you could be an uninvolved third party and read your letter, because it’s so obvious to anyone else but you. (Isn’t it, readers? Tell me it is!) You say you love this man. You say you never fight, have a great time together, and that this is the only issue you have with him. So what you’re saying is that there are several hundred great things about this man, and one irritating one, and so you’re choosing to focus on the one? You’re going to throw away, or threaten to throw away, all those wonderful things because of one not so great thing? A thing that might very well change with time and patience, anyway?