Jordan loves Dog Woman and returns to her after 13 years at sea. She knows if she loves him, she must let him go. She has loved him from the moment she found him she finds it difficult to watch him go to travel the world but knows that she cannot keep him at her side. Fortunata and Jordan's relationship shows that love does not necessarily require two people to be in the same place, or even in the same time. He will never forget her and finally realizes the meaning of love. Once he finally finds her, he cannot stay with her, but finds it hard to leave her. Jordan seeks to find Fortunata after seeing her at a dinner party. His encounters make him wonder if he has ever experienced love, or if love is just an illusion.

Jordan travels the world to find love, and in hopes of better understanding it. It shows how their lives connect even in the distant future and how important they are in one another’s lives. Time is important in the novel and allows the reader to see the characters in different times throughout history (if we assume that Nicholas Jordan and the woman represent Jordan and Dog Woman at another point in time). Time is seen as always bending and the story slips from the past to the future and back seamlessly and in a nonlinear fashion.

This time manipulation gives the characters the ability to see times within the past and the future although they may not understand what they are seeing. The characters are able to experience events in the past, present, and future at the same time.

Sexing the cherry by jeanette winterson