@mrfriendly8181
Thank you, it really helps to read your reasoning for what happens. I was reading a very popular story and gave up when the protagonist was not only the best lover, best football player ever, but also every girl wanted to fuck him when he was only 15. If a character starts out on the top there's no real arc, sure you can have the character end the story worse off then they started but, honestly, no one is going to have a bad ending.
Well, I kept many things in mind as I wrote it, including ages and time frames. And though the main character probably boinks a dozen or more gals in the series, he really only has a "real connection" with maybe 4 of them. By the time he becomes an adult and the time shifts to mid 80s and early 90s, a bit more of just "recreational sex", where both admit they are just using each other for fun.
And it also however obviously leaves him feeling kind of hollow. He does it, cause yeah, he's a guy. But he wants that special gal, a romantic at heart in the end. And the characters at the end are very different than when they started. Older, a bit more jaded, but still have their ideals in mind.
But yes, I have actually written more than a few stories with "bad endings". On purpose, because that entire trope of "happily ever after" gets to me sometimes, and I can appreciate a good story with a bad ending (think of "To Serve Man" from the Twilight Zone). Or Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes, or The Omega Man (Charlton Heston really made some "downer flicks" in that era).
And yes, some complained that in the story a lot of the last book was about him growing his business, and boinking some chick then about business again. But what they missed is that he did not have a "love of his life" at the time, so between one gal leaving him and finally getting with his "true love", that was his life. Mostly alone, just work and occasional sex that ultimately did not mean much other than just sex.
And once again, in keeping with the early 1990's. HIV rates were on the decline, grunge and the like were changing attitudes and stuff, and once again "casual sex" was popular. Plus we had won the Gulf War, the Cold war was over and not in nuclear Armageddon, some of us went a bit wild.
But even so, almost never going from "Hi, my name is XXXX" to "Should I wear a condom?" on the same day. Only exceptions are to be honest professionals, or "professionals still with an amateur status". Or in the case of one, simply a horny cougar getting divorced, who after getting what she wants moves on to other guys without a second thought.