Perhaps it was Carrie Bradshaw who first posed this philosophical love question for the world's women to ponder: "Did I ever really love Big, or was I addicted to the pain?" she asked. "The exquisite pain of wanting someone so unattainable." Or perhaps it was Olivia Pope who took the question and ran it home: "I don't want normal and easy and simple," she said. "I want painful, difficult, devastating, life-changing, extraordinary love. Don't you want that too?" But as Carrie eventually concluded—and as Olivia's companion concisely pointed out—love isn't supposed to hurt. It's only in the wanting of someone who doesn't reciprocate our affections that pain creeps in.

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