Introduction to Triangle (Part 1)

As I’ve shared previously, my friends and I have nicknames for the suitors (or love interests) in my life. That makes it easier to keep track of at times, as the friend who started it doesn’t retain names anyway. I posted a picture a while back from a trip I was on with a companion that we call “Triangle.”

Triangle and I have a shared passion and mutual social circle, which is how we met. We were always pleasant and flirted occasionally, though I never thought much of it. He was nice to me, and I thought he was attractive.

One Wednesday night, he was giving his phone number to a mutual friend. I was in a bold and flirty mood and joked, “You’re really gonna give your number out in front of me but I can’t have it?” I honestly didn’t think anything of it, but he made it a point to exchange numbers.

The next day, I received a text. I responded. We went back and forth all day. We found that we had more in common that we originally thought. We even grew up in the same area. We certainly had a similar sense of humor. I giggled like a giddy school girl all day, and then all weekend.

After a few weeks of texting and occasionally seeing each other in group settings, we decided to spend some one-on-one time together. We hit it off even more.

He did share that he was currently cohabiting with the mother of his children. He explained that he tried to leave before, but she wouldn’t let him see the children. He was saving up and getting his finances together to be able to split cleanly, and they had discussed going their separate ways once their lease was up.

I knew it seemed like a story, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt until I saw otherwise. Afterall, I was roommates with the father of my children for a couple of months after we decided to dissolve our romantic relationship.

I had a major surgery shortly into our one-on-one time. The surgery had more of an emotional impact than physical, though that was trying as well. I had a hysterectomy, which brought a lot of my personal struggles to the surface that I had been stuffing away for many years.

My boys were both away for the summer – the oldest was at his AIT for the Army in Missouri and my youngest was visiting my brother and nephew in Arizona. I planned it that way because I wasn’t sure how the surgery would affect me, and thought it would be best for them not to see it.

My mother came and stayed with me to take care of me, and to make sure I didn’t do anything I wasn’t supposed to. I can be hard-headed. And while I’m being honest, I would have done nearly everything I wasn’t supposed to do, like take out the trash, because that’s just who I am.

Triangle came over almost every day during that time. He didn’t balk at me being incapacitated and unable to do much of anything. We watched movies and shows together, listened to music, talked about my classes and his work, and just enjoyed getting to know each other further.

He didn’t have an issue meeting my mom, or hanging out and playing games with both of us. He even brought his two-year-old son over to meet us.

I honestly thought he was on the up-and-up with me. I saw a future with him. He started inviting me to hang out with him and his friends. He didn’t care who saw us together. He sent me songs to listen to, which I took as cute little messages. About a month or so into this, he told me that he had never felt like that about anyone so quickly and he thought he was falling in love with me. I was elated.

He was asking me how I felt about potentially moving with him in a couple of years. He was including me in his future plans. We were talking about finding a place together that would be large enough for all of our kids and his mom, who helps him with his kids.

I wanted to sleep next to him, but understood it wasn’t possible at that time. Then, he got a work assignment to go to Florida for ten days. He invited me to go with him. My mom had already gone back home and the boys were still gone for a couple of more weeks, so I decided to go.

The week we spent together in Florida was amazing. Him and his co-workers (Air Force) took me out every single night. We spent time in Destin, Panama City, and Pensacola. We ate nice dinners, went to bars, strip clubs, parties, and we enjoyed each other. We went to the beach and spent time on different piers.

We hung out and had fun – in public and in the privacy of our room. We cuddled up in the room and read together and studied with each other. We helped each other with our homework, as we were both taking college courses. We watched movies. We did what “normal” couples do.

My last night in Florida was certainly bittersweet. I came home a day before he did. Something changed. I wasn’t sure what it was, or what I was feeling, but somehow I knew things would never be the same once we got back home. He told me just to enjoy the night, and we’d figure everything out once we were both back home. I tried, but I couldn’t shake that uncomfortable, nagging feeling. I was right.