I think the point of online dating is to talk to a bunch of people and see which ones you find interesting, but I’m not very good at juggling so I tend to find the first interesting one and then stick with them until something weird happens. At that point I get disgusted, delete the apps, swear to never do it again. It typically takes about a year or so before I work up the courage to wade back into the pool. This particular experience had me swearing off dating for a good long while!
I met Patrick on Plenty of Fish and we hit it off right away. His pictures showed him to be an attractive, fit, well dressed guy and the photos we began texting each other proved it was the same person. He was a pilot instructor at a nearby military base so I knew he’d passed a background check, and he volunteered at his local church cooking spaghetti meals for homeless people every Wednesday. Sounds like a great guy right?
Patrick also had a 16 year old daughter who lived with him every other week and we could never seem to work out a time in our busy schedules to actually meet each other. One weekend he traveled out of state with some of his guy friends to a college football game and he texted me a picture of them in the stadium. I texted him back a picture of me and my best friend on my patio having a glass of wine – and then I never heard from him again.
I honestly worried a little bit – did something happen to them on the way home? We’d been getting along so well that I was pretty sure he hadn’t ghosted me, but I wasn’t about to chase after him so that was that.
Fast forward a few months, it’s the holiday season, and we’re prepping for my best friend’s annual blowout “glitter bomb” party. She tells me that she just recently ran into her best friend from high school, Cassie, that she’d moved back to town, and she was looking forward to us meeting at the party.
When Cassie came in and we were introduced I gave her a big hug and thanked her for “passing the baton”. We had a laugh and then as the front door opened again she turned to introduce me to her boyfriend of two years – it was Patrick! Turns out he hadn’t just ghosted me, he’d recognized my BFF from Cassie’s Facebook page when I sent him our picture.
I said hello then made my way outside to the patio and frantically texted my friend. After she came out and heard the story she asked what I was going to do, I said “nothing, not my circus, not my monkeys, and I don’t want to give her any reason to hate me”. Once she went back in, Patrick actually had the nerve to come outside and ask me the same thing. I gave him the same reply then proceeded to stay far away from him the rest of the night.
In an even more remarkable twist, two weeks later Patrick and Cassie broke up. He tried texting and calling me a few times immediately after that. Dude for real?!?!? WTH???? Once someone shows you who they are, believe them.
Photo Credit: 30023312 | Pilot Instructor © Amaviael | Dreamstime.com
Leave a Reply