Opening score fades as curtains rise and lights up on scene set stage right of a small cozy but humble study. A small desk with laptop computer and comfy but worn office chair, a coffee mug, lamp some papers, pens, neatly arranged are the only props. The Wild Mind sits in the chair attired only in casual lounge pants and a snugly fitting camisole. Her hair is in a messy bun and one leg is pulled up onto the large but worn office chair in a yoga-esque fashion. She begins typing and reading aloud as music fades.
There are a million blogs out there that address the fact that women are confusing, game-playing, bling-seeking, brats who expect men to jump unreasonably through hoops before they’ll give it up.
I propose that men are confusing, game-playing, sex-seeking brats, and some of them want bling and sammiches on top of that. And, in addition, some of those lovable brats are liars and dishonest, even though they are completely unaware of it. That’s because they are lying to themselves.
I propose there are good reasons for both these conditions to exist. It is called emotional survival and pain aviodance. It isn’t a great way to do things, but many people, myself included behave this way. Or they have, maybe, at one time or another.
Next, while I’ve been villified for villifying those who go silent or who are “just not that into” me and who demonstrate it by going silent, I maintain my stance that when a man is really into a woman, he knows it, she knows it, the world knows it and he will cross distance, time, space (or work very hard to close the distance, time and space) to make it work between them.
Cue image of The Wild Mind with thought cloud above head and image of The Beau inside it. The Wild Mind continues typing. Images appear on the large screen behind her as she continues reading.
Yes, the Beau.
A brief recap here is in order to bring all two of my readers that I haven’t talked to in a while up to speed. And…mostly for me to sort it all out so I can just move on.
I met The Beau through an online dating site. The Beau contacted me in October, I believe. This last October.
Now, last fall I did a really stupid thing at the end of the summer and signed up on a couple of internet dating sites. I do not know why I did this. It was a week or two before school started, I was learning a new job and that time of year is insane for me anyway, so I’m not sure why I did such an idiotic thing when I knew I wasn’t going to have time to breathe, let alone date. I also knew that I wasn’t really in a great place emotionally to date, since, well, I was still pretty ticked off with the whole going silent phenomenon anyway. And, while I now see the benefit of going silent, both for the party who goes silent and the one they disappear from, I still think it is the more cowardly approach. More about that later.
So, in October, the Beau contacts me. We correspond for the usual customary few emails and then got together for coffee. We liked each other right away and he mentioned he had things to do but he wanted to get together for cocktails later that evening…if we could. He said he’d call me later.
He went out on more coffee dates with women that day.
I went to a bookstore and bought a book.
We got together later that same day for cocktails, had a great time. Truly, with The Beau, we never lacked for conversation, which is a real turn on for me. I later found we could enjoy those comfortable silences too, a double turn on.
The Beau and I, for some reason or another did not begin dating until December. It was a miscommunication, a misunderstanding but we didn’t date, till December. I was kind of corresponding with someone at that point who was pretty interesting and simply needed to follow that out till he went silent on me after meeting me one time (yeah, ugh). By December, all that had played out and out of the blue, in response to a post I wrote about being alone on Christmas Eve, The Beau contacts me, invites me to his family for dinner on Christmas Eve, which I accepted and we really hit it off.
We spent most of the holiday break together.
Thus began the dating season with The Beau which lasted till roughly late January, early February, where I began sensing that he wasn’t all that into me.
How did I sense this? After all that time together (six weeks or so) he still was talking about old flames. He spoke of his two ex wives without bitterness or regret, but he also mentioned two old flames, which concerned me because of the way, in which he spoke of them. Girls, you know what I’m saying here. When a guy talks about another woman in a way that makes you wonder “if she were standing here next to me, would he even be with me?”, you know there’s a problem.
In addition, while he did call me daily, I began to sense that it was more out of a sense of duty rather than desire. He also began taking more time on other friends rather than keeping or making arrangements with me.
He also continued saying stuff like how impossible the 90 minute distance was, how he’s building a house, I’m entrenched here, how’s this ever going work, yadda yadda.
Finally, after two free weekends, where I drove 90 minutes to be with him, on the third free weekend, when I said nothing about plans he neither invited me up nor offered to come to see me.
So, I surmised that he was not all that into me. I talked about it with him. I was right. He wasn’t all that into me, but he wouldn’t admit that to me. We decided to go our separate ways, but strangely we kept in touch.
We went out for cocktails one night when he was in town for business and had a great time.
He texted and emailed me occasionally.
A couple of weeks ago, when I was out of town for business, he invited me over for dinner on my way home. I stopped in, he grilled steaks, made a fabulous meal complete with appetizers, salad, martinis, wine, chocolate dipped strawberries (I mean who goes to that trouble if they aren’t interested, right?) and we spent a long fun evening together. It was VERY fun. I didn’t spend the night because I had to be back at work (and I wouldn’t have anyway…but he did his level best to convince me to).
That night, with my help, he set up a Facebook account and added me as his first friend.
The next morning his old flame was also added as his friend and she added me which I was suspicious of but I confirmed the add anyway. After all, she lives in Texas and a 90 minute drive to see me was a dealbreaker for us. What could it hurt?
This last week, he was in Arizona watching spring training games for one of his favorite teams. This is something he does every year. Something he invited me to go with him to, which I declined. After going to the games in Arizona, he flew back to Northern California with his son for a few days before returning home to go out with me last night to see my daughter’s performance. This was something we’d pre-arranged way back in January.
On Facebook, gotta love it, I notice Old Flame is going to be in Northern California the exact same time The Beau is going to be in Northern California.
Well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what is going on there.
So Thursday night, after not hearing from him since the beginning of the week, I texted him saying, “Hey, maybe your plans or thoughts about Saturday night have changed. If they have, I totally understand, but please let me know, so I know how to plan.”
I get no response. Not that I was sitting around waiting. I was busy doing my own thing, but by Friday afternoon, I realized I’d not heard anything from him and I texted him again. He responded with, “My phone was off, plans are still on for Saturday night. I’m looking forward to it.”
Saturday night. I’m working backstage at my second oldest’s performance, playing hall monitor for the stage right stairwell. It absolutely rocked, especially since during several numbers I could sneak up the stairs and with my head about 12 inches above the level of the stage, peek out and see Briggs singing and dancing her heart out. That was a far better and more close up view of her performance than the matinee when I sat in the second row front and center. But I digress, more about that later, if I can get pics.
While I was working backstage, The Beau was sitting in the audience with my other three children.
After the performance, we presented Briggs with her dozen red roses, took pics and leaving Briggs to do her clean up and staff party, headed back to the house. Once at my house, I hustled kids off to bed, but I’d tipped off Number 1, that I was probably going to hear some news that was going to be disappointing where The Beau was concerned so she headed off to her room early also.
Cue foreboding musical score. The Wild Mind speaks directly to her audience.
You know where this is going don’t you? You, like I, probably knew several paragraphs before this.
The Wild Mind freezes in position while lights black out. Curtains fall.
To Be Continued …
The Wild Mind 