Monday, July 16, 2007

Ted redux

[image removed]
I went to a pool party Saturday night. It was my treat after a long, hot, sunburnt day not selling anything. The drive was long, but I needed a pool and a party. I will not post pictures of me in a bathing suit. This one guy got a little shutter happy with my bad sexy self. Overall, the people were great; I met new ones, and I got up the nerve to swim after it got dark. The pool was lit, so I didn't get away with much, but it was fun and refreshing.

The only shadow on the evening was Ted showing up, but it wasn't a big shadow, thank goodness. Now with his cheapo reputation of not driving and with him living even twenty minutes farther away than I (adding up to at least an hour and a half for him), there was no way I could have predicted him arriving late for a grand entrance. He came, of course, as I was in the bathroom changing into my bathing suit and even sat on the deck of the pool observing me swim and trying to win the inflatable banana race, which I literally sucked at.

He seemed very pleased to see me, kind of followed me around a bit. His face just plain beamed. It was clear he misses me. I didn't mention it here, but he IMed me a 'Happy 4th' message as well as an 'Are you watching this incredible Wimbledon final with Nadal and Federer?' message last Sunday while J and I were camping. I was pretty surprised, two messages in a week after he'd taken a month off from his random emails which willfully acknowledged that he knew I didn't want contact from him.

I knew I'd have to face him eventually. I handled it well on Saturday. Maybe the bottle of wine and relaxing pool helped. Enough time has passed that he didn't bother me, except sort of as a mosquito. He was like a puppy, so happy to see me. He tailed me, inquiring about me and my son. He made fun of my sunburned face a few times. One time, our mutual friend of the same name, Ted, above left, just curtly exclaimed, "Aw, you two!" as he wanted us to behave like friends, or whatever. This Ted was the only other person who knew more had happened "romantically" between us.

At closing time, I said my first round of good byes, could have lingered for another round of hugs as is often the case, but chose to dash out so that Ted would not be tempted to try to follow me home because I would need his help and guidance so much to get back.

I do just fine on my own, thank you very much.

Chris gets his spot on the blog tomorrow. I like his gentle spirit very much. Not a bossy finger pointing in sight.

1 comment:

Klynn said...

Nothing better than running into an ex and being able to be self-confident and have fun *without them*. I hope you did truly have a good time in spite of him being there.

Oh, and "inflatable banana race"...the mental image that gives is hilarious. With all the suggestiveness of the set up, the mechanics must have been a total riot.