Pierce Turner: Who is to blame in Phil and Jenny’s tragic story?

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Both were clumsy, neither of them fighting suitors. She, rather skinny, and he, rather plump, they even joked about it while eating hamburgers and milkshakes at McDonalds. Their lack of success in this area only brought them closer, so close that they got engaged when they were 18.

Phil was from a large German-Irish family, and they gathered around the two young lovers like a tribe. Big-faced and kind like Phil, they embraced Jenny in the fold and saw the commitment of young couples as a great example.

The wedding wasn’t going to be rushed, however, they both had their heads screwed. With decent careers ahead of them, they wanted to put together a nest egg so they could raise their own family in their own home. With high grades at Phils, he had been sought out as the future dean of a prestigious girls’ college. Jenny also had leadership qualities and was already a junior manager at a Chase bank in Manhattan.

After their engagement, nothing really changed in their lives. They always wore jeans with holes in the knees and went to rock concerts. No one could tell by looking at them that they were engaged, they just looked like kids having fun.

However, they began to change physically. Phil had flirted with an expanding size and he was getting more and more colorful. Jenny, on the other hand, was filling in all the right places and getting noticed. Phil didn’t pay much attention to his appearance and thought Jenny liked him the way he was.

Over the next five years, their friends went through all sorts of changes, in and out of romances and swappable crushes. But Jenny and Phil just sailed solidly towards the big day. And it was a big, sunny day, with over 150 guests in the finest banquet hall on Long Island.

Over time, the disparity in their looks became more and more evident, Jenny wore shorter dresses to show off her shapely legs, and Phil had to crossover with plus-size stores. They were starting to look a little mismatched.

Emil, one of Jenny’s underlings, a very handsome Italian-American, took a particular interest in her, having lunch in the park with her and working together.

Unlike Phil, Jenny came from a broken family, her parents had divorced when she was 12, and now she lived alone with her mother. His new friends at work, especially Emil, were becoming a kind of new family. Phil has met Emil several times and liked him enough to invite him to the wedding, he didn’t even notice Jenny was spending more time at work, coming home later.

One evening, by surprise, Phil went to the bank to take her home. Realizing he must have missed her, he turned his car to drive away, when there, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jenny and Emil crouching down to avoid him. In this shared moment, in this bistro opposite the bank, he saw his whole world collapse.

Just three months after that massive wedding, Jenny admitted she had fallen in love with Emil and she returned his ring. Some thought she was cruel, and some thought she was brave. Phil blamed Emil, then himself, but who could blame anyone?

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