Throughout "Selway", the narrator struggles with thoughts of whether or not her relationship with Jack, her boyfriend, will last. The couple has known each other for almost a year, and she is "...the fourth in a series of long-term girlfriends he's never gotten around to proposing to." Jack's previous girlfriends had been seeking marriage, while he was not. This is not to say that the narrator is not hoping for marriage as well; but she does not pressure Jack as they had. Eventually, she realizes that she and Jack are looking for two different things in life, and by the end of the story, the narrator has changed too much to be able to stay in a relationship with him
             When we first meet the narrator, it appears that she and Jack are truly in love by the way she says, "...I should know better, but I love it when he calls me baby." She is aware that Jack's previous girlfriends had all been opposed to his daredevil-like nature, and wanted to settle down together. "They wanted him to quit running rivers, to get a job that wasn't seasonal, to raise a family like any man his age." However, because the narrator is a more understanding woman, she desires to stand by her man and show him that she is supportive of his quest to conquer life. It is also her hope that this will be Jack's last wild adventure and that afterwards, he will propose to her and they will settle down and get married and live "happily ever after".
             In contrast to this serene picture, the sheer ferocity of the river struck the couple almost immediately when they started off. The intense chaos of the narrator being bounced back and forth while trying to bail the boat, and Jack's concentration muscle movements, "It was hard for me to take my eyes off Jack, the way his muscles strained with every stroke...", worked up the sexual lust in the narrator.
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