Random Negro Stories File: The Mason

So many of you may be wondering what happened to the guy from “The Date That Went Well” blog. Well guess what?!? So am I.

The Mason, much like many of the other guys I find myself digging, is a mess. What a disappointment.

A week after that date he promised a day of quality time with lunch, shooting pool, and then DVD watching at my house. Well the night before all of that was supposed to go down, he went to his ten-year high school reunion, got drunk off his ass because it was open bar, and canceled on me. Fine I said. I know all too well what a hang over of that magnitude can do to a person. So I didn’t trip. He said he’d make it up the next day.

Well the next day came and went with nary a call, text, smoke signal, or carrier pigeon from The Mason, to offer any explanation about why he stood me up. You think I’d learned from Iraq and just let it go right. No I can’t leave well enough alone so I asked him what was up. He apologized saying he had an emergency and that he fucked up by not calling. Ya damn right you fucked up. Again he promised to make it up. Silly me I believed him.

I did see him once more after that great date, but it was an impulse come over and spend the night with me type thing. We didn’t do the hokey pokey after acknowledging that it would muddy an already unclear situation. We even chatted the next day. But then communication faded to black. Again I asked him what was up and he said that he was busy and probably too busy to date and ended things saying he hoped I was available when he wasn’t as busy.

So there it was: my brush off. Or so I thought. Three days later he sends me an unsolicited text message talking about how he owes me a date and that he wanted to pick back up where things left off that night he came over. Figures. So I text him back saying “Oh, guess you’re not too busy for that.” We go through this whole exchange over text (that by the way really should have been a phone conversation) about how he wants more than a FB, but that it’s hard for him to devote the time to a relationship that he should. Foolishly I told him that I was still willing to work with him. He said fine and said that we would talk about it after he got out of his class.

Well of course you know he didn’t call. So I did but it was sometime later. I just had to know why this fool keeps breaking his word. He said something about how it slipped his mind and I shouldn’t let him forget. Whatever. But still we make plans to meet up one day after I get off work. So day of, I call him and am like what we doing tonight? He said he wasn’t expecting me to get off work as early as I did and he made plans to feed the homeless. How convenient. But he says he’ll be done in a couple of hours. He lives out in Alexandria so I said well I have to run an errand at Pentagon City so I can waste time there and you can scoop me from there when you’re done. He agrees.

No sooner than I step foot off the escalator at Pentagon City do I get a text message from him saying, “Bad news I have to go into work.” I’m like are you serious. Now I’m hotter than the pressing comb that my momma used to straighten out my hair when I was young. I say to him this is no longer cute. He says, “It never was, but I don’t know what else to say other than I’m sorry.” He offers to come over if he gets off work at a reasonable time. I’m mad, but I accept anyway. He never showed up, but the next morning I got a text talking about how he was just getting off work and he was just going home to shower and change and go back.

Like a week later he texts me asking to email him my available off days as far as I know them. This was during the SuperBailout period of my life so I told him what my usual days are and said that it was subject to change at any moment because of my crazy work schedule. Congress always has a way of ruining my love life. I’m going to write my local Congressman and ask him to try and keep all Congressional matters to normal business hours.

Eventually things died down at my full time job and then my part time job canceled evening work “until further notice.” So I was excited that I might actually get to see him again. I told him of the changes and he said that he’d probably have time on Thursday. So I said great.

I figured I would spend the night over there so I was going to pack a bag so I’d have clothes to wear to work the next day, but I woke up late that morning and figured that he’s so flaky I better not waste any time trying to get an overnight bag together. Good thing I didn’t. I got to work and sent him a message on Gmail chat. No answer. Several hours later I send one that says, “Hey I know you’re busy but I’m just trying to see if we’re still on today.” Still nothing. At 5:30 p.m. I gave up and went home. I called and left him a message saying, “Well I guess you’re standing me up again. I mean you could have at least called and said you weren’t going to be able to make it, but then that wouldn’t be considered standing me up would it?” I paused and said goodbye.

On my way home I called New Dude and we made plans to go out instead. Around 7 p.m. as I’m getting dressed for my date The Mason finally calls and says that he didn’t intentionally stand me up and that he had been swamped at work all day. He said he guessed I was already home. I responded with a series of mmm hmmms. He didn’t even try to fake a make up date this time so I knew it was time for me to just let it go.

I guess I was just hoping that at some point he would stop disappointing me and we would get back to that fun time we had. He was perfect on paper. Single, no kids, stable job, working on his a degree, non-smoker. He seemed to be everything I've been looking for that I just wanted so badly for it to work out. That and the fact that all I had going on otherwise was a series of baby daddies, but I'll have to tell y'all the story on that another day.