Hottie1 never made a peep again. A guy friend says it sounds like H1 just wanted to get me interested, and then vanish off to get the next girl interested. Who knows? It was just--to me--an odd situation to have a guy calling, emailing, courting one minute and then, literally, vanishing the next. I still don't get it.

Fratty? We still don't get him either. He stopped emailing and texting for a day, so I figured--okay, he was just being friendly. I wasn't really into him anyway. But then he texted again yesterday, and he implied he's going to keep on texting me. Will he ask me out again when he's back from the long weekend away? I have no idea. Either way I won't consider it a big deal.

Now let's move on to "Surprise!" Surprise! jdate-emailed me last week, and if it weren't for his message, I probably wouldn't have written back. He hadn't written much on his profile, and his pics were not all that cute. Not unattractive, mind you, just on the shlubby side. But he complimented what I'd written in my profile, and something prompted me to write back. Maybe it was because I was still smarting from Hottie1, and any distraction was welcome. We emailed a bit, and it was a perfectly fine back and forth--if perhaps not exhilarating. We set up a date, I thought very little of it, and we went about our respective weeks from there.

Then I met him. Surprise! What a great guy. First of all, he's handsome. Very handsome. And the direct opposite of shlubby. Our conversation flowed well, and I had a great time with him. But I couldn't exactly tell how he was feeling about me. He seemed to be enjoying my company, but would the interest move beyond that? Earlier than I'd like, he said he had to go. It was a good reason, but I was disappointed--and a bit nervous. Was he just making an excuse to end the date? We walked out of the restaurant, to where he had his car (he has a car!), and I thought--okay, will he kiss me goodnight? Come on, Surprise!, kiss me goodnight. He took my hand and kissed that. Mmmmkay. What does that mean!? I felt my heart sinking. You don't kiss a girl's hand if you want another date, do you?

But then he said, "I had a great time with you, can we do it again?" And I said yes. Soooo hopefully we have an as-yet-unplanned date for the future. I was even more pleased when the first thing next morning I got an email saying again that he enjoyed meeting me and looks forward to next time.

That's good, right? I mean, I don't know anymore!!

Please let's not face another disappointment, Dating Gods. I've had some tough experiences with dudes in the past few months. My emotions can't handle too much more confusing disappointment...throw me a bone?