Types of Relationships

The Traveler has now had his second date with a lovely woman in Chandler, AZ (outside Phoenix, about an hour-and-a-half away, for you non-Arizonans). He likes her, she likes him. I'm so hopeful that that situation will continue. Lee is such a good guy who has had some bumps in his life and deserves a really wonderful woman to care deeply for him. I want only the best for him.

As I was reflecting on this feeling yesterday, I thought about Frank. I adore Frank and am jealous of his relationships. I am not jealous of Lee's relationships. I think that's because Lee and I determined after one or two dates that there really wasn't chemistry between us but that we liked each other a lot. We've become very dear friends and I cherish that. We talk about his visiting me in Ohio on his way back from the Run for the Wall and Rolling Thunder in D.C. next Memorial Day.

But with Frank, he and I had a relationship. We had been dating for three months when some other skirt caught his eye and he chased off after her and began ignoring me. Then when she decided he wasn't enough of a high-roller for her, she began ignoring him and he came back to me. We would go out to dinner no less than once a week, until he met Mariah. Then his longtime love Wendy committed suicide and he felt his life turned upside down. Now I'm lucky to hear from him once a month. But I miss him. When I'm totally and completely alone and want to touch the delicious sweater-clad back of a man, it's Frank I miss.

So what's the difference? Is the difference that Lee and I started out as friends and have developed from there, whereas Frank and I started out with instant chemistry and then fell off from there? That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

I wish Lee happiness and love and stability and peace. I wish Frank would settle down and, if he's in a relationship with a woman as he apprears to be with Mariah, take his profile down off the dating sites and quit looking around!