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Yes, he was perfectly polite about it. Well, except for the point in the evening when someone came up and inferred that I was his new girlfriend and he didn't correct them - but it was loud in there making conversation difficult so I just used the head cock-raised eyebrow look at him and let it slide.
But the tension makes things uncomfortable (for me) and I don't have the patience for that discomfort. I missed all the years in my 20s and 30s when I was supposed to be learning how to navigate through these kinds of relationships and now I'm just too old - too set in my ways, I guess. I want everything to be on the level and mutual. If I'm interested a guy will know that explicitly and if not, then I don't want to deal with the bullshit of his hope that the relationship will be something else while we're carrying on the facade of a platonic friendship. And I don't say that to judge him or anyone else in that situation because a person cannot help their feelings. I'm just tired and cranky.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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