Some Things Don't Change

I'm sure you're dying to know what happened with Mr. Match last night. Or you're not.

As I mentioned yesterday, he had asked me to supper (as opposed to dinner -- dinner implies dressing up and spending a period of time across a table from each other; supper indicates meeting someplace on your way home from work and consuming food at the same time without lingering or spending inordinate amounts of money). In the afternoon he called and said he was going to have to work late. We agreed he'd call me when he saw things were winding down. He called at 8:00. I had been grocery shopping so told him to drop by and I'd feed him. Ever the consummate hostess, I had bought a bottle of his favorite white wine. He came by and we sat on the couch and sipped wine and chatted for 90 minutes or so.

The themes are never-changing. He talks about his work and the incompetency of upper management and the idiocy of some of his coworkers. I mention that I also have idiotic coworkers (i.e. welcome to the real world), talk about work I'm doing on my house, and brag on the latest accomplishments of my kids and grandkids. We're predictable.

But we're boring. Or at least he's boring. He calls every two-three-four weeks. This is the second time he's asked me out in six months or more. (We had coffee near the airport prior to my last trip to Ohio.) There's no flirting, no romance, no touching, no indication of anything other than a friendship. He still is heavily involved with his ex-fiance, and has no plans to change that. I'm really not sure why they broke up. He should have just rented the apartment next-door to hers and continued their lifestyle. That's basically what they have now.

As Jaci says to me near the end of every single freaking relationship or near-relationship I enter into, "He's just not that into you."

The day will come (again) when I ask him what he wants. I question whether either of us are getting anything out of this non-relationship.

He broke my heart once. He's a very poor risk, and I'm not letting him break my heart again.

I'd rather be single with a scarred but unblemished heart.