Well, Dern …

My luck hasn’t been very good as of late.

I was supposed to go out with Mark, the adorable banker, tonight. We’ve been trying to get together for about five weeks but our schedules haven’t matched up. He called me yesterday after work to tell me he was on his way to two days worth of last-minute, out-of-town meetings. We ended up talking for about 45 minutes last night and I dropped the “d” word on him. No, not divorced — Democrat. Of course he’s a Republican. But we had a fun, semi-serious conversation about politics. He’s usually fun to talk to, but this was the most fun I’ve had talking to him. He also swore like a trucker, which I find oddly hot in such a conservative-looking guy.

Today Jesse e-mailed me. This came after I returned his call last Thursday AND called again on Sunday. The e-mail was really weird:

“I got your message. How are things in Indiana? Last week of the second job, not that you would know or anything. So, New Jersey, not so much fun. We can joke about Indiana all we want, but at least it isn’t Jersey. I hope all is well. Feel free to call again. For some reason, your call never even rang, it just showed up on my voicemail. I was at the airport talking with my mom when your message came through. Talk with you soon. Jesse”

I really don’t get the “Last week of the second job, not that you would know or anything.” What the hell does that mean? And is he talking about my second job or his?

After much deliberation, I decided to reply:

“I was waiting until we went out again, to see how things were, but I may as well be up front now. It’s a little confusing when you ask me out a week ahead of time, but cancel on me, and don’t return my calls for a few days, if at all. It all makes me think you’re not interested, but then you eventually get back in touch with me …

I had fun with you and we seemed to share an attraction, but we’ve only been out twice, so if you’re not interested, you know, it happens … But if you are interested in getting to know me better, we need to make sure our expectations are the same: You said you didn’t want to have to check in with a girl every 10 minutes, but there’s got to be a happy medium between that and once a week.

Like I said, I had a lot of fun hanging out with you and I think you are absolutely adorable; but I also wanted to be fair and let you know how I feel.”

We’ll see what happens from here …