Do you have a plan B?

When life doesn't work out the way you planned and your perfect spouse hasn't shown up on time, it's always a good idea to be prepared with a backup plan.
My good friend K recently broke up with her long term boyfriend.
"There's no-one left out there for me", she sniffed over the phone.
"But don't you have a backup?" I asked quietly.
"A what?!"
The backup. The emergency. The plan b.

Today it seems girls and guys are making the plan b promise to each other: if they haven't met "the one" or aren't married by the time they're a certain age, they vow to get married to each other. And voila - gone is the fear of ending up alone.
Yep, today the plan b isn't only the reserve of those nifty action heroes in the midst of high-fangled movie plots, but an essential part of the modern dating cosmos.

The concept is quite simple really. Take the plot of the 1997 romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding where protagonist Julia Roberts declares to best friend Michael (played by Dermot Mulroney), "if we're not married by 28, then we'll marry each other."
While things didn't quite work out the way Roberts planned, a generation of desperados was spawned, clinging to their best mates/high school sweethearts/gay best friends in hope of cooking up the perfect plan b plot.

Testament to that is 28-year-old model.
"I am the queen of backups!" she declares. "I have about seven or eight backup boyfriends, just incase things don't work out. I always know they are there, so if later down the track I'm still alone, I can just call on one them - provided they're still single of course."

The plan b seems perfect in theory: you never have to worry about getting dumped, breaking up, or - heaven forbid - ending up a sad singleton for the rest of eternity. Nope, you've got your backup bloke or emergency chick standing in the wings.
But what if the "backup" doesn't stick to the plan?

Just ask L, a 27-year-old banker; "She found someone else," he scoffs after reading an email from ex-backup T. "She was my high school girlfriend and I always thought we'd just end up together. When she moved to other city, we pledged that if we didn't find anyone else and weren't married in five years, we'd marry each other. Now I have no-one!"
Either way, if it helps you sleep at night, the Plan B might just be your best plan yet.