Is 'I Love You' Enough?

Personally, I'm a fan of the big, grand gesture. Yes, 'I Love You' is nice, but if it's just an I love You, with no big gesture to accompany it, I don't want it. The words just aren't enough sometimes.

Let me start at the beginning.

I was reading an older category-type* Nora Roberts last night (I think the story was originally published in '83) and the hero accused the heroine of being a whore. Literally.

The story goes like this:

She shows up in Hawaii to reconnect with her estranged father, whom she hasn't seen since she was 7, some 17-or-so years before. Quite by accident, she meets his young, handsome, extremely rich business partner, who is immediately suspicious of her. You see, her mother - who died a few months before this - was a selfish witch who took the money the father sent and kept it for herself, while she left her daughter in falling down boarding school. When the mother died, the daughter (I think her name was Laine) had to sell everything she had to pay back her mothers debt. That's when she found the Hawaii address and decided to use the last of her savings to see her father.

She truly was the innocent who'd been raised by nuns, but the young, handsome, virile business partner figured she was a gold-digger looking to fleece her unsuspecting father out of more money. He basically attaches himself to her so he can keep an eye on her, and after a day, in which he treats her like crap, she falls in love with him.

I'm already irritated at this point. He's insulted her, degraded her and basically treated her like a leper for ONE DAY and yet, she falls in love with him. This is the reason I hate this '80's novels.

But that's beside the point. Well, the point of this particular post, anyway. I'm sure I'll have another rant post about the above mentioned later.

So, he seems to be starting to care for her over the next week or so, but then some jealous Island Hooker (That's a technical term, you know) overhears Laine asking the housekeepers cousin to come and look at a locket she owns, because she needs the money to get home. The IH then runs and tells the hero and the next day, he walks in at the tail end of Laine's sale of her locket and thinks she's performed some unnamed sexual act for money.

You know, the virgin who was raised by nuns?

Well, Laine takes off back to Paris, totally depressed, and a few weeks later our darling hero tracks her down. He says, "I'm sorry I said those things. I love you" and she falls right into his arms. "I'll only come back with you if you marry me before we leave Paris"

Huh.

Yeah, see, I don't get it either. I guess Love just isn't enough for me. What about the groveling? What about the BIG.GRAND.GESTURE.? Yes, I realize this was written many moons ago, but I'm only picking on the lovely Miss Roberts because I read that particular book last night. If I thought about it, I'm sure I could come up with 50 more examples of this, in novels published within the last decade or so.

So tell me, is 'I Love You' enough, or do you need more? If what he's done is truly terrible, does him admitting his love make up for it? I don't think so. I guess I equate that to real life. Say my current boyfriend (love you MM) accused me of handing out sexual favors for money (you know, prostituting myself) a week after I met him (and he was serious, mind you), I would have booted him out the door so fast he'd have left skid marks for miles. And if, a week later, he showed up at my door confessing his undying love, I'd have kicked him again. Harder.

What about you?

*the story was Island of Flowers in the antho Going Home