As I have mentioned a few times, I am a very lousy bachelor. Not only do I not enjoy it, I am not very good at at striking dialog with people in bars, etc.. Since I live on the internet, I am somewhat comfortable with corresponding with people here. So without getting into how weird that may or may not be...on with the story.

In July of 2006 I began corresponding with a woman who lives in California...we'll call her "D". It started with a few emails back and forth every few days, and escalated into chatting for at least an hour every day or so. Recently divorced, "D" is a 31 year old mother of two beautiful girls. We seemed to have a lot in common as she loved the family activities that kids and parenting brought...something I was really missing lately. "D" was very pretty, witty, and had a great sense of humor. The one thing that did worry me a bit was her close group of girlfriend's fairly consistent partying. They seemed to go out several times a week...and where they went, a party followed. These are all pretty women, and the young guys flocked! Although partying a lot, "D" said that she was not really into it, and that she is going out more because she was single. I understood that...and besides, who does not like all the attention!

As you can imagine, over the course of almost 6-months we got to know a lot about each other. Naturally, it felt like we were getting closer, and we tried to get together several times...even though the gods kept us from meeting on about 5 separate occasions. We finally had plans to meet in the last week in December. She and the four girlfriends were booked to come to Vegas, which would have been perfect for us to figure it out while the other girlfriends did their thing.

As fate would have it, all but one girlfriend backed out at the last minute leaving only "D" and "W" to come. I thought "W" was quite funny and arguably the wild one of the bunch, and I had actually secretly corresponded with her a couple times to surprise "D" with a few things over the course of our communications. See, the rough plan was for "D" to come into town, and we would go out on Saturday night, and she could spend New Years with her girlfriends, and then I might spend a day or so with her just hanging out.

Travel day...she and "W" were suppose to arrive from California mid-day on Saturday. Again the gods had something different in mind. A two hour traffic jam which left them and hundreds of other motorists sitting in traffic. Well, it didn't take long for these women to find a few carloads of young dudes with alcohol to party with right on the road. This event, I am sure set the stage for the 4 days the girls were to be here in Vegas. A few text messages to me indicated "D" would be running understandably late. Almost time to finally meet and pickup "D" to take her to dinner. I arrive at around 8PM and finally met her in the lobby of her hotel. She was even more beautiful than the many photos I had seen of her. Now, I am not sure if she had a plan A (if I was a stud) and a plan B (if I was a dud) upon meeting...but "D" immediately asked if "W" could go with us as she felt bad about leaving her friend alone. Hmm, Bad idea! Remember, this is a close friend she sees all the time, and this is the first time that "D" and I got together after nearly 6-months of corresponding. What could I say...I reluctantly agreed, but sensed things were not going to go very well. They didn't!

A ten minute drive, and we were at the Venetian Hotel at a nice Italian restaurant that I occasionally liked to go to. Almost immediately, I got the feeling that I did not live up to "W's" standards. Yes, I said "W"! Something didn't feel right. Another bad bit of luck was that "D" was seated next to me, and "W" across from me at the table. Although nobody's fault, I felt like I was on a date with "W" instead of "D". It was also weird trying to pay attention to both women, but I just got the sense that "W" could not wait to get out of there! Near the end of dinner, "W" went to the ladies room which gave me and "D" a few minutes alone. Looking back, "D" got a text message that was probably from "W" with an exit plan. After dinner, the girls did the group bathroom thing and emerged after a fairly long time. OK, now what, I asked? Any particular place you want to see? I did promise "W" a drink for earlier setting some things up for me. 10PM on a Saturday night in Vegas with a woman I really liked...Woo hoo! Somewhat sheepishly the women said that I should drop them back off at their hotel as they were going to go to a swanky nightclub, and that they did not think I would be able to get away so they didn't get me on the list. Didn't see that coming, nor I did not see her again the entire trip! I could not believe it! Six months of getting somewhat close, and I was ditched after only 5-minutes of alone time. I was very sad.

I am not even sure what happened that night. See, "D" and the girls live on MySpace, so I get to see all the partying pictures. Most of the girls have their profiles set to private, so you have to be a friend to view anything. The next day, while still in Vegas, "W" deleted me from her friends list of over 1,100 friends. Talk about harsh! What did I do besides take them both to a nice dinner? I swear, I was a gentleman.

I have Instant Messaged with "D" a few times since then, but it is not at all the same. What used to last for hours, lasts only a few minutes. I did ask her about that night, but I never really got more from her than "things went badly". You can't help replay in your mind what, and when things went wrong. This post is not a slam on "D". I guess we both just miscalculated her desire to slow down, or what she was looking for. I definitely don't think that "D" is sleeping around or anything, and I know being a mom is very important to her...but with her social circle, she probably meets ten or so younger guys a week. When you have that kind of pool, you can be selective. I guess I just didn't make the cut! Dammit, I really liked this woman! Oh well, there is always the next story!