Round 2: Michael

it was a nice surprise when michael got in touch with me the morning after our date and invited me to go skating on the canal with him. seeing as i never heard back from alex (and still haven't!), i opted to join him. i've never been skating on the canal at night - it was actually really relaxing and peaceful to have the ice to ourselves!

at one point in our conversation, michael brought up his ex. i discovered that he is only very recently separated from a 9 year marriage...as in two months ago! to be honest, that kind of freaks me out. even if he had checked out of the marriage years ago, i certainly don't want to be anyone's rebound relationship. why not give yourself some time to yourself to figure things out before jumping right back into something? he explained that he misses being affectionate with someone, etc. ummm, it's only been two months! and take me for example... i'm kind of the opposite: i've been single for most of my life! his breakup was more recent than mine. michael went on to tell me that he got married really young (at 21), and that he and his wife sort of grew apart and are two very different people now than they were nine years ago.

we went for drinks at dow's lake after our two hour skate, and our conversation didn't really seem to flow as well as the night before. there were definitely some awkward silences... i just wasn't feeling it. i think our conversation about his separation certainly added to it. yes, it's flattering that i'm the "coolest chick" he's met up with so far from POF and it's nice that he's very attentive, attractive, etc, but i couldn't shake my gut feeling that it wasn't meant to be.

after walking him to his bus stop, i went in for the hug. he is a horrible hugger! he definitely wanted to go in for a kiss, but i truly feel that you can't force that sort of thing. to make things more/extremely awkward, his reaction: "so do you kiss on the second date?". i was taken aback and said "sometimes" and then left awkwardly. i haven't heard from him since, so i'm positive he got the message loud and clear. i really don't think i would go on a third date with him for all of the reasons outlined above. ah well, another one bites the dust!

biggest pet peeve: when a guy asks you for permission to kiss you! just do it already.