The Thought Counts

Platonic Ex got dumped. I thought they were a pretty solid match, but in the end, his cynicism and callousness proved to be too much. His insensitivity isn't intentional. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. He's just incredibly clueless when human interaction is involved. You'd think he was raised by wolves.

Things went from bad to worse when he failed to give her a thoughtful Christmas present. She'd told him many times that Christmas was the only holiday she cared about and that he didn't have to get her anything for her birthday or any other time except Christmas.

For his birthday, she took him to dinner and arranged for a ghost tour because he'd expressed interest in haunted houses at the time. For Christmas, she gave him a wine seminar/tour because he's big into wine now. When she realized he wasn't going to make it to the scheduled wine event due to a work commitment, all he said in reply was, "Oh, that sucks."

Not to mention he failed to give her something on December 25th, simply saying, "I'll have to have your present shipped to your house." When I asked why he failed to get her a a gift, he said he had one all picked out online but hadn't ordered it. His thoughtful gift: a bookshelf. He said a bookshelf was thoughtful because she loved to read and her bookshelf couldn't hold all her books. This is what I mean when I say he's totally clueless.

After dating a social retard for so long, I'm surprised by many of the small acts of common courtesy performed by TheGuy. He holds doors, lets me order first at restaurants, he apologizes, he says "thank you." Last weekend I laughed at him when he thanked me for driving down to his house to hang out.

Believe it or not, these are all things Platonic Ex never did. I remember constantly telling him, "You don't even care!" And he didn't. Yet I can't help but feel sorry for him. He told me his most recent ex got really upset and thought his detached ways were due to his malicious nature, which I know for a fact, to not be true.