His best friend Ben Franklin had casually told me that people fell in love with Joshua when they met him at first. I could understand why. Joshua was extremely outgoing, funny, exceptionally witty and could make us laugh. If taken in small doses. But as soon as they hung out longer than that, they HATED him.
Hmmm.... I really can't see why.....
I'd spent three weeks with him, two of which had been spent fighting over the phone and arguing face-to-face. I didn't like the stress. It was unneeded and I sure as hell didn't deserve it. He didn't have much to give either- he was broke with no job and a terrible habit.
I decided that the next time he called (and got into a fight with me) I would tell him it was time to end our friendship. Which is exactly what happened.
Except he didn't really believe and/or accept it since he continued to call back to check that we weren't friends anymore, you know, just.... for real. Taking him off of Facebook didn't hint at it either. The only thing that sucked was that I'd forgotten a necklace, a Christmas gift from my mom, and a Biolage pot of conditioner balm at his place one morning before leaving for work. I definitely wasn't okay with forgetting a $25 pot of conditioner balm, so I tried to play nice and make arrangements to get my stuff back.
His friend Ben Franklin had mentioned that he'd purchased tickets to the Houston Symphony. Joshua had already gone a few times, and had suggested that I go with Ben instead, because "Ben's a great guy, and don't break your friendship with him just because of me." I'd never been to a symphony, and definitely wanted to try something new, so I picked up Ben and we went together. That night, I asked him if he could do me the favor of gathering my things from Joshua so that I wouldn't see him. And I also mentioned that I didn't want Joshua brought up in our conversations. I was done.
That same night of the symphony, Riveroaks Theatre was presenting their monthly showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had originally intended to go with Joshua and Ben, but due to the circumstances, had completely kicked Joshua out of the picture.
Around this same time, the IT Pilot had made a brief appearance through texts while I was at Bingo with my mom a couple of days earlier. Ben couldn't go to RHPS, and I couldn't find anyone else to go either, so I messaged the IT Pilot to see if he was free that night since, you know, we were on "good speaking terms":
Ren: "I'm hoping to go see Rocky Horror tonight. I wanted to know if you'd be interested in accompanying?
Pilot: I'd really like to go... I have my friends from Alabama so I'm not sure they'd wanna go.
Ren: Too crazy for them?
Pilot: One of them has a 4 year old.
Ren: I understand. My sisters weren't too happy when I took them either. Jk.
Pilot: Yeah.... I bet... lol. You mean your twins... lol
[I use "my sisters" and "my twins" when referring to my twin sisters. Except every guy who's seen me thinks of something else when I say "my twins"]
That night I ended up going to Pearl Bar to meet a guy I'd been talking to from OkCupid since before I met the IT Pilot. It was finally time to meet (as friends) to see if there was any mutual interest. There wasn't. I was bored and I left around 1:30 am and got Mexican food on my way home to indulge.
The next day, the IT Pilot texted me to ask how my weekend had been. I told him I had gone to the symphony and then to the bar.
Pilot: Cool... was it free?
Ren: Well I was invited to the symphony so yeah :) and same for Pearl.
Pilot: lol... Nice. I'm guessing you're seeing someone?
Ren: No, I went with Ben Franklin. You remember him?
Pilot: lol... yeah, I remember Ben. He was cool, just a little nerdy. I would have went with you last night to see Rocky, but I was busy with my friends. Did you go?
Ren: No, and the bar suckeddd.
Pilot: I'll go with you next month if you want.
Ren: If you remember to, sure I'll go with you. And have you managed to get any dating done?
I asked him this because I had stalked on OkCupid and saw that he had activated his dating profile again.
Pilot: Nope. lol. With what time?
Ren: Your lunch hour.
Pilot: Right.... what about you?
Ren: Not really
Pilot: Not really? Did you and Joshua?
[Silence]
Crap. What do I say...?? I had to admit that the IT Pilot was not out of the picture fully (at least in my movie.) I was still interested, but I didn't want to lie or tell the truth about what had happened between me and Joshua. I felt if I told him the truth, he'd be disgusted, and if I lied and we got back together again, luck would have it (against all odds) that we would one day run up against Joshua and he'd make a gnarly comment about us two having sex- considering we all met each other on the same night, remember?
I know it was a hard thing to believe, but things happen for a reason and God works in mysterious ways.
So I took a deep breath and continued.
Ren: Not quite. He was really friendly at first. Then he turned into a complete asshole.
Pilot: lol... you sound like me with the answers... or not so answers.
Ren: We have communication problems. He talks, I zone out.
Pilot: Yeah I could have told you that.
Ren: Could have told me what? That he was an asshole?
Pilot: He's the guy you hang out with once a month... too much and he's a douche.
He had hit it right on the mark. It was exactly that.
Ren: Omg. Yeah!!! But I had to find out on my own.
Pilot: Yeah, he's a douche bag... but cool to laugh and hang out with a few times... can't believe you tried it. lol... Was he good at least?
I wanted to avoid the inevitable. So I played stupid.
Ren: Good what??
Pilot: Plumber. You can tell me geeesh.
Ren: He had a drinking problem too. I mean, it's not like you could tell him that, but after I hung out with him for a while, I never once saw him sober.
Pilot: So did you fuxk him?
Deep breath. And now the moment of truth. He'll probably never talk to me anymore.
Ren: Yes we had sex. Jeez that's forward.
Pilot: lol... You dodged my other attempts...
Ren: I don't see why you needed to know. I don't like talking about him. He was really mean.
Pilot: Just curious since we are friends and all ;) What did he do? Do I need to kick his ass?
Ren: Well, he actually made me cry once.
Pilot: Fuxker.... what'd he say?
I went ahead and told him about the night we'd had too much to drink and had each slept separately at his friend's house. I was trying hard to divert the fact that I had just told a potential suitor that I'd had sex within the three weeks we'd broken up.
Oh God... if only he knew of the other story with Wes. He'd think major sluttage on my part then.
At the end of my rant he said:
Pilot: Wow.... asshole. You're a really great girl and you deserve the best. If you need someone to go out and do things with, let me help you with that.... leave that fuxker alone.... I knew he was bad news the first time we met him.
The IT Pilot had surprised me. We'd never texted more than 5 texts before, and we had been texting for nearly an hour and a half so far. He asked me if I watched True Blood (which I didn't anymore) but mentioned that I watched Weeds. Surprisingly, he did too and suggested I come over to his apartment to watch them sometime.
Ren: Maybe we can get together this week and watch the first two episodes
Pilot: That'd be cool... I'm open all week.
Ren: Ok, see you Tuesday night then.
And with that, we had made plans to get together once again after being on a no-contact code for nearly a month.
to be resumed.....
Fencing around the monkey in the room is always more fun.
ReplyDeleteActually finding out the information sometimes feels like a let down compared to the reconnaissance process. Seems like things are going well though...