Jake Barnes

"Oh, Jake," Brett said, "We could have had such a damned good time together."

"Yes," I said. "Isn’t it pretty to think so?" 

" (Hemingway 251).

I still have feelings for Brett, but I don't have the energy to imagine a happy ending. I've been trying to fix our relationship, but now I know that Brett and I can’t be together. I now recognize that it could never have happened, even in the past. The idea of our relationship is simply a pretty, but impossible dream.