Weird Stuff Always Happens in 3s

Within a very short period of time at the beginning of the summer, J and I broke up, LA Jim and I swerved off the path of friendship toward something more confusing, and I met one of the cutest/smartest/least terrible guys I've ever gotten to know in a long time.

The guy, we will call him The Russian, I actually mentioned in the post about that silly little heart defect. Which I've come to realize was just an expensive hassle to finally figure out why it is I have zero rhythmic capabilities - hello I have an irregular heart beat! My internal metronome is whack! This totally explains amazing my terribly awkward dance skillz!

Anyway, The Russian worked literally two feet from me (separated by a glorious cubicle partition) for the first half of the summer for a small investment bank we share office space with. From literally the first second I saw him I thought, "Oh crap how could they have hired someone so good looking!"

I made it my mission to not let myself like him, especially once I found out he was a Foreign Ivy League FJO-in-training. They are the worst. Except that it turns out he wasn't. He was actually ridiculously nice.

We became lunch buddies, eating in Bryant Park together, running errands, and getting ice cream.

Once we coordinated a picnic with friends for a summer movie in the park, sipping wine and watching Sean Connery's James Bond cross the line with a woman in a situation that can only be described as not really consensual.

And one time we even met up to play tennis on a Saturday morning, which somehow included a trip to Donut Plant, the best donut store ever. (Clearly anyone who thinks it's totally fine to combine eating and working out might be my soulmate.)

Sigh.

But through all of that I figured it was platonic, total friend zone. Then the weekend before he was scheduled to go abroad for the rest of the summer, we kissed. Mission Accomplished.

And now, the next time someone asks me "What's a goal you ultimately reached after facing initial obstacles?" I'm totally going to bring up this example.

Anyway, since he's been gone, a lot has changed. But really, nothing at all.

And, because the universe is a crazy place, within the same week, all three guys came crashing back into my reality.

Having not heard from J in months, I got a text about meeting up. We went to dinner, discussed the good and the bad of our lives, and then out of nowhere (in my opinion), he announced he thought we should get back together. Whaaat? No. This time last year we went through this same song and dance. It's just not right.

The real icing on the cake of that night, though, was literally five minutes before I met J, I got an email from LA Jim telling me he had finally mailed some running shorts I'd left there. And PS, he "met someone," in case I was curious why he was acting weird and being uncommunicative. Oh I figured it was that he lived across the country and nothing was going to happen? Oh, and the real kicker, he felt compelled to tell me he met her right before I came to visit. Because obviously I really needed to know that.

The only good of having ghosts of "boyfriends" past coming back in my life was seeing The Russian last weekend. Still as cute (I'll be honest, gorgeous is a more accurate adjective) and adorable as ever. Who knows if anything will come from it, but even The BFF recognizes what a catch he is (and she was not a fan of the aforementioned others).

Like I said, so much has changed but really nothing at all.