There are many elements of old-fashioned romance I'm swoony over, but there are also a handful of traditional tropes that make me the eensiest bit squidgy.
One is the concept of The One. I guess I don't mind that so much, on some level. It's sweet. But the idea of pining over The One but not doing anything about it or making an effort to get acquainted with that person, much less romance them, gets my dander up.
It isn't proactive or attractive to not at least make some small effort, in short. That's all I'm asking of fictional characters. Take a minor break from the silent pining to try and make a connection. A note, a cookie, something, anything. The shyest little forward movement. I'm rooting for you.
So...
Has Fair been waiting for Gomery when "Wilfair" starts? Nope. She is fond of both Overbove cousins, true, but anything interesting happening has never, ever, ever, been a possibility in her mind. She's so focused on her still semi-new role at the hotel and being managerial that romantic notions are miles from her snooded head.
Maybe not miles. She has a window which conveniently faces in a rather wonderful direction. And seeing the guys below cleaning the pool, working inside the Fairwil lobby, and tying their neckties as they hurry to open the diner provides her busy, brain folder-filled nargin with Thoughts. Many, many Thoughts.
Has Gomery been waiting for Fair when "Wilfair" starts? I don't think so. Gomery thinks his slightly daffy, costume-rocking neighbor is pretty delicious, no doubt, and there've been a number of years he's thought about her, often (as discussed in "Stay Awhile"). She's nice and she's intelligent, two things Gomery likes, but she's weird, blurty, and makes mastodon claws, too, the cherries on top of his particular sundae.
But his science-smart brain also sized up the situation early on, with the hotel and motel, and figured it would never happen, Fair Finley would never be interested in him, and if anything started it would only make murky (pool) waters murkier. He's always liked his neighbor and didn't want to mess up the one good thing between the two households: The pleasant, chatty, and mostly distant relationship he and Monty share with Fair.
With that in mind, he's asked a few other women out (also mentioned in "Stay Awhile"). I can imagine Monty pushing him on the topic of "getting out there" and dating. I can also imagine the topic of Fair Finley burbling up around the motel lobby with frequency, with either Monty dissuading Gomery or Gomery dissuading himself. The more likely scenario.
But I think Monty came around to embracing the idea of his cousin being with Fair before the idea fully occurred to Gomery. Things not panning out with the other ladies -- including the classmate who told Gomery she had a boyfriend "out of town" -- paired with Monty realizing both he and his cousin would soon turn 21 and would one day leave the motel stepped matters up.
Monty can't wait to be out on his own and making his films, but he also worries about his family, and his cousin, and likely wanted to lay some positive groundwork for him before they parted ways at age 22 or 23. Parted ways in the "leaving home" sense.
Not that matchmaking is "laying positive groundwork" but emboldening his cousin definitely fits that idea. So when "Wilfair" starts, and Fair calls upon the Motel Fairwil, I think Monty is Ready, capital R, to get things moving and see if anything takes. (This is a big growing moment for Monty, who has always been pretty testy about hotel-motel pool issues.)
And Gomery is more than Ready. It is the aspiring architectural physicist, after all, who asks Fair if she wants to return to the motel the next day to watch the TV show shoot scenes.
So, in summary: Has there been waiting? No. Has there been wanting? Yes.
Maybe a character holding out for The One can be regarded as super tender by some, but I must stand firm in my feelings here. I don't mind The One as a concept, but some effort should be made. One person pining while the other person blithely goes about not realizing the pain they might be inflicting is not ultimately a satisfying paradigm.
It's a topic with many shades, but I'm satisfied with how Ms. Finley and Mr. Overbove enter our story: Longtime neighbors, reluctant business rivals, and pleasant if slightly uneasy acquaintances who likely want the best for each other, in the way those two want the best for everyone.
But they're not attracted to everyone like they are to each other, so, yeah. There's that situation.
