I kept running into this guy in the elevator.
Every time, he’d make me laugh in the short 15 seconds we shared.
Earlier this year, we were hosting cocktail parties in my loft and inviting cool people to get to know each other.
Eventually I thought, why not invite him?
It took me a minute to work up the nerve, but I did.
He emphatically said YES.
Yay. New friend.
The day of the party came.
He no-showed.
Which was odd… because he’d confirmed the day before.
The next day he texted to apologize and asked me to invite him to the next one.
Yay. Still a new friend?
The next party came.
He no-showed.
Again.
Well damn.
I didn’t follow up. I just let it go- with my mildly bruised feelings.
Three weeks later, I ran into him in the elevator again. By then I was over it and had no intention of bringing it up.
(My ass may be dumb, but I’m not a dumbass.)
He recognized me immediately and apologized … again.
Said he’d text me later to explain what happened. Insisted I invite him to the next one. “Please invite me.”
DING. His floor. Off he went.
I never heard from him. Which, honestly, I expected.
So what’s going on here?
My best guess: he has a hard time saying no.
Declining in real time. Maybe I put him in a difficult position.
He defaults to charm and enthusiasm instead.
And I mistook that for genuine interest.
“No” is a perfectly good response.
Now we’re left doing the awkward thing – pretending not to see each other in the building. Which is hard to pull off when we find ourselves trapped together in a floating box for 15 seconds.
Oh well.
Not a new friend.
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What do you think? Any other plausible explanations?
