[Blarg]

You aren't fairly casting the slant of the article, and some others here have done the same. The author in fact repeatedly points out that the fault was not all Janna's, but also Audrey's. He made fun of her and her credulity and her insufferable smug certainty about her deep love over and over.

Another thing you are unfairly discounting is that not only are people not always rational, but often abandoning rationality is part of the charm of infatuation. Letting a "partner" get built up in one's mind can be very gratifying and be a kind of wish fulfillment. Running with that is tempting, because it's so glorious, so thrilling, so refreshing, so bookcover, slo-mo perfect. For people who are very gullible, a little too dreamy or impractical, or harbor some fundamental insecurities they aren't adequately able to compensate for in real life, the draw of the unknown and at that point in time unknowable perfection, the desire for release and the safest of landings, can exert a pull strong enough to imperil good judgment.

A situation with some parallels is how many women are attracted to prison pen pals. The absence of the person, and the inability therefore of the relationship to fail or simply be less than the ideal one makes of it in one's own mind, can not only inspire the bond but lock it in place. Even the most despicable and revolting dirtbags, like Richard Ramirez, with his terrible stench, rotting teeth, and deep sickness, can get huge fan clubs. They exist and persist because people can never really know him, and can create in their minds as exciting and unlikely an image of him, and of a mutual destiny, as they desire. In a sense, he doesn't even exist or have to, because the affair is already complete and in its own way satisfying within the lover's mind regardless of either the nature or accessibility of the beloved. The beloved is actually fairly interchangeable. His importance is as a fantasy, not a reality. His realistic contribution is pretty much nil.

These affairs are retreats into the mind from a less satisfying reality. Sometimes quite unlikely notions (Jesse Jubilee James is a heroic firefighter who for some reason can't meet the woman of his dreams, Richard Ramirez is a great guy if you give him a chance) must be willfully embraced to steady their shaky foundations. For some people, reality is simply not worth it.

We are always living out the repercussions of who we are while trying to create a reality we can enjoy, or at least stomach, living in. Logic is just one option among many, and often by far the loneliest. It isn't unusual to choose something else.