Then Came Chad

If you've followed along with the story at all, you'll recall that when I last shared, I was thinking how I could show Jon that I was, in fact a desirable woman. That's a loaded topic if ever there was one.  The women who could tell stories on this topic are endless in number. I'd venture to guess that most every woman can relate on some level.

In the case of my young self, the best way seemed to make him jealous. I needed to find someone else who would want me and then, surely, Jon would see what he was missing.

Lee was the most obvious choice. Lee and Jon worked together, only Lee was Jon's superior AND I'd had a thing for Lee for a while. So I began my pursuit. I'd find any excuse I could to talk with Lee, so much the better if Jon was around.

I was a pretty outrageous flirt in hindsight.  If I had been my mother, there would have been a LOT of correction happening. Alas, I had no mother looking over my shoulder, nor anyone else really so I fell headlong into that particular mud bog.

Lee was amiable enough and I think he was even attracted to me. The trouble was, he'd only recently ended a rather long relationship with a nice Catholic girl whom his mother well approved and I was pretty much that young lady's opposite. Not even a little bit Catholic, or nice or from a good family. And so, Lee, being the oldest, slated to take over the family business and a very responsible young man was diligently redirected by his adoring mother. I was not on the approved list and Lee was responsible for alerting me of this fact.

Lee wasn't trying to hurt me, he was unfortunately caught between his mother and a flirty girl and it made the most sense to him to listen to his mother.  So he did.  But not without some effort on his part at compensation. In the hopes that I wouldn't fall too hard, he suggested I invite his best friend on an outing.  (Lee had canceled a date with me due to Mommy's call). Desperate, as I was, I decided I didn't have anything to lose and so I called up Chad.

Chad was, himself, on the rebound from a two year relationship wherein the girl had dumped him.  He was truly in the dumps as a result.  Chad was a nice enough fellow, if you enjoy guys who are a bit on the techy/geeky side.  I apparently did.

And so, Chad and I began our relationship.  We went to a local park and sat and talked for hours, sharing our woe's of relational heartbreak, and on that level, we connected.  The truth was, I didn't find him at all physically attractive.  In fact, I found him the reverse.  But people weren't really supposed to care about such superficial things, so I told myself to let that go and stick with this a while to see where it led.

On that first night, we kissed, in the dark, where I didn't have to see him very well. Anti-climactic would be a perfect description of that kiss.

I failed to notice that Chad hadn't offered me anything at all save for his complaints about the last girl.  I didn't notice that he neglected even the courtesy of buying me a cold drink.  It would be a while before I noticed that.