"Aren't I smart enough? Aren't I pretty enough? Don't you love me?"

Those thoughts were roaming through author Marilyn Logan's mind the first time she discussed money with John, her fiancé at the time. The wedding was four weeks away. A fabulous dinner, tears and sex could not derail the conversation to other subjects. He was resilient and determined to bring up finances.

Logan was flat broke living in Chicago's Lake Shore Drive and working on Michigan Avenue, and had accumulated what today would amount to $45,000 in debt. She revealed the ugly truth.

"When I was going to the store to buy something, I felt important," Logan says in the Straight Talk video segment. "Opening my designer wallet, of course, and sorting through my credit cards to figure out which store I was in — that made me feel a sense of significance.

"A lot of people suffer from the same disease I suffered from. We place importance on what we look from the outside. People go through that phase in life. Some people stay in that phase forever."

John came into her life to slap her into reality, she says. Once he added up all her debt, he realized she was a liability and couldn't afford to marry her. She didn't financially make sense; he would be getting her debt. Yet he felt inclined to help her. John wrote a big check to wipe her obligations clean, but with that gesture, they would no longer be on equal ground. That relationship didn't last.

Logan's trials and tribulations are captured in her book I Can't Afford to Marry You: A guide to understanding the true cost of love.

In this Hidden Houston video interview, Straight Talk host Lloyd Gite chats with "The Money Lady" to learn what a credit report says about people and how couples can keep things together through financial struggles.

Click the photo (above) or here to watch the video.

Editor's note: Hidden Houston, an interactive multimedia series, aims to reveal the many things that are unique about the Bayou City and its surrounding areas.