DA22 You've been a supporter of my project and I'll forever be grateful for that, but we're going to disagree immensely on this. I think you did hit the nail on the head that your vision and my vision of Nikki don't match in this case. Nikki is not in love with Taylor. She loves him, but she does not want to spend the rest of her life married to him. We don't see any of her relationship with Marc since the story is told from Taylor's perspective. But here are the things we know about Marc: He plays football with D'Brickashaw, he's a virgin by choice, he's a nice guy, and he's good to Nikki. He is almost the male version of Molly that we never really get to meet. And he's the opposite of Nikki but that's why it works. He is intended to balance her out. The ying to her yang, if you will. I'm sorry you see that as a bad thing, but that is not the way it was intended at all.Well maybe my vision on Nikki does not match that of Sumo. But my experience with relations like that between really deeply religious people and atheists, the fact she jumps to the first guy that does not treat her like a sex object which basically is the same kind of pattern as she had before running away from her true feelings for tales by having many boyfriends in a row and her not acknowledging that her feelings for Tales go way beyond the physical and have done for years, make it for me a very unhappy ending whatever Sumo says.
Love does not conquer all, I am old enough to know that, but just running away from the fact those emotions do exist in yourself and throwing yourself at the first available option is no solution either. Like I said I could have lived witha n ending where Nikki and Tales would not be together but Nikki had grown up, accepted her feelings and had then decided to look for her own path. That is not what she did in that ending though in my opinion, exactly the opposite and her unhappiness that would follow from those choices would drive her back in Tales arms or wish for her to be there. remember her first choice is very much in her life and she knows he is available if she wants him. So second best will never do and she never dealt with that fact and keeps denying it.