This column was originally published in spring 2012.
Country Boy and I have been playing the waiting game all month and, while I’ve been patiently waiting for our reunion, I’ve also been painfully aware that this break might be a break-up in disguise. As it turns out, that is exactly what it was: a break-up.
At the end of last week I sent Country Boy an excited message that game day was only a week from Tuesday. His response was first to cancel because he has a playoff game of his own on Tuesday and then came the blow a BBM message that ended 6 months of dating: “When ya know, ya know. Ya know?”
After six months, all I got was a barely legible text message that reminded me of the Sex & The City post-it note, “I can’t. I’m sorry. Don’t hate me.” With my romantic life reduced to a sitcom-worthy ending, it would be safe to assume that I consumed an entire bottle of wine and wept. But I didn’t. Like learning how to skate, the only way to find the good relationships is to stand up from the fall, brush yourself off, and move on.
So, I’ve got a date with a charming, intelligent and talented city boy who has spent every day of the past week reminding me that I’m beautiful and cute – apparently he thinks I’m adorable, even when I’m being weird.
After I got the most juvenile text my phone has ever seen, all I could think was, I’m too old for this. I’ll be 25 this year and with that realization came another; I want a serious relationship. I want to be with someone who wants a future, I want someone who is looking for something real, but most of all, I want a partner.
It is high time for the games to end; I can’t be dating a 30-year old man who thinks that a break-up via BBM in 7 words is an acceptable way to end a relationship. I can’t keep getting involved in dead-end relationships with boys who wouldn’t know chivalry if it slapped them in the face.
I have a great career, an amazing apartment, and wonderful friends, but I’ve let my love life slack. I’ve stayed in relationships that weren’t what I wanted, because I thought I was enough to make them change their non-committal ways.
But Country Boy was right; when ya know, ya know. Ya know?
Onto the next adventure …