Romance Briefs

Romance Briefs: Emotional Management

It's my temporary destiny

He wrote in his profile that he wasn't looking for a woman to marry. He only wanted to have a short relationship with a woman who was on the rebound.

This might have been the strangest profile she had ever encountered...well, she had only been on the dating site for 4 days, so she didn't have a lot of experience with these kinds of things. But, for a guy to put himself out there, seemingly, only to be involved in a rocky rebound situation? What was this guy's story? Was he asking for a doomed relationship where he would be left behind as soon as he had fulfilled his role?

She had to find out.

"Are you a glutton for punishment or are you just some weirdo looking for consolation sex?" she wrote him, even though she had serious doubts.

Her boyfriend of 6 months had broken up with her...on the phone, for Pete's sake. She was angry, hurt and feeling like she had been led down a short pier into a frigid sea. Yes, she was on the rebound, and here she was, four days later, looking through men's profiles on a dating site.

"I may be a fool, but not a glutton" he wrote back. "I'm living out my temporary destiny."

"Okay, you've got my attention. Why is this your destiny...temporarily, as you say?"

"Because you're going to hook up with some man and that man isn't going to be prepared for what is to come...I am, assuming that you are freshly out of a relationship. Do I assume right?"

"Yes, I am...as of four days." She send back.

"And that's why you responded to my profile. I'm simply telling you that if you're doing what I think you are doing, you would be better off with someone like me than an unsuspecting sort who may be looking for a lasting relationship."

"Men? Looking for a lasting relationship?" she shot back.

"I know it sounds funny, but those are the kind of guys you'll most likely encounter...it's the way things work. You attract that kind of guy because of your vulnerable state and those are the kind of guys who are only going to be devastated by what lies ahead for them. I've seen it too many times."

This was getting eerily enticing. "Are you offering some kind of therapeutic service?" she wrote.

"I'm offering a sacrificial lamb; one who knows how to handle what is practically inevitable, but who knows how to handle it without going insane."

She thought long and hard while reading this over several times. 'Practically inevitable' kept repeating itself in her mind. He may have something there. So she wrote back. "You've done this before, I take it?"

"Not intentionally, but yes, more than once...four times to be exact. I just don't feel like fighting it anymore. If this is what I'm good at, I may as well provide this...gift...to someone who wants it or needs it. So, I'm offering myself up to you...or someone like you." He wrote.

"Thus, the temporary offer? Take it while it's hot?" she wrote, "So you're offering to be a man to fill a passing need and then accept being cast aside once you've fulfilled your mission?"

"I'm not assuming that I'm the guy. You may not like the way I look or think that I'm being much too intrusive with my offer, but regardless, I like the way you look and from what you've said so far, I would like to be that guy."

"No, you've made me think about what I'm doing...it's kind of sobering...and, I do like the way you look, at least in your picture. Was it taken sometime in this century?" she couldn't help but grin as she wrote this. She had forgotten the rage and hurt that had caused her to attempt to find a match so soon after being cast aside.