The end of the new beginning..

The deed is done. I ended my relationship with P in as amicable and friendly manner as possible. In all honesty it went pretty well. A week or so ago I told him we needed time apart and expressed my dissatisfaction with the level of effort he was exhibiting towards me. What followed was the standard “I don’t want to lose you, I love you, I need you, blah, blah, blah..” (I realize it’s probably in poor taste to “blah, blah, blah” an emotional moment in a relationship but in hindsight, it’s actually very appropriate..).. Anyways, after 2 days of him professing love and a desire to make things work I agreed to head to dinner at his place.

Ladies and Gents, if you were on the verge of losing the woman you “love” and the impetus of her departure was a lack of romance and effort on your part don’t you think, if given the chance to show her you could make things right, you would knock yourself out to show that you had listened, understood and knew what the hell she was talking about? Maybe some candles, flowers, hell, you’d at least turn the TV off of auto racing and maybe have some soft music going, right?? Uhh, not so much.. Not only were there none of the above accoutrements, but in the middle of watching a mutually agreed upon movie, he announced he had to change the channel to watch some show on cars that would be featuring automobiles that had been in James Bond movies. I left shortly thereafter, with virtually no objection out of him.

That was Monday. We had agreed to go to lunch on Thursday, which by my way of thinking was sort of his last shot.. And he shot himself right in the foot.. Having not received a call or an email or a text from him since Monday, by 11:45 I gave up all hope of hearing from him for lunch and headed out with co-workers. When I retunred, I had the following email:

Sorry, I will not be able to make it for lunch today.
Many, many apologies.
Have a great weekend.
Maybe see you on Sunday. Be good and send G my apologies.

Later..................P.

Riiiigggghhhhttt.. To which my reply was:

Not going to Charlotte, have to be on stand-by for storm duty with the pending hurricane.

Figured when I hadn't heard from you since Monday, lunch was a no-go. Actually, let's just go ahead and admit the whole thing is a no-go. I'm going to swing by tomorrow after work sometime to pick up the rest of my things. I can either drop the key off next week or leave it up at the pub with M or B.

No hard feelings, babe.. It's just not meant to be. Hopefully we can still be friends.. I'd hate to see the good thing we had turn into something ugly.

Interestingly enough, at least 3 of my friends said I was way too nice, stuck it out way too long and put up with way too much shit from him. Funny how hindsight is 20/20. I think I probably should have terminated the relationship back in March when he went to Vegas for 5 days and didn’t even call me once. The signs were there, even then.. The apathetic manner with which our relationship ended is why I feel pretty justified with "blah, blah, blah"-ing his emotional declarations.. That's exactly what they were: Blah, blah, blah..

So on that note, boys and girls, let us observe a moment of silence for this oh-so-dead relationship. To be honest, it was not bad. P definitely eased me into the post-marital dating world quite nicely.. He was a very nice person, good sense of humor and very sweet, just not at the same place I am in life when it comes to expectations. I had a lot of fun and realized not all men are womanizing bastards, as some of my girlfriends experiences had led me to believe. Each man, each relationship is a new experience, like taking a test drive on a new car.. It may look nice on the showroom floor but sometimes it’s just a disappointment when you really get it out on the highway..

To be honest, I can’t wait for the next test drive...

Is there some kind of inherent irony that my analogy for the end of this relationship is based on cars?? Hmmmmm...