Date 40

"I say no, I'm gonna kill my dog."

I had a very pleasant afternoon and evening's drinks with this University lecturer who lived locally. She had wanted to bring her dog along which I thought was a bit weird for a first date. I'm not a huge dog lover and I do like some but I was quite relieved when in the end she wasn't accompanied by him. Although, there weren't any flying sparks in the air between us, I enjoyed her company so I thought I'd e-mail her to see if she wanted to do it again as I thought that at least she would be a good local drinking buddy if nothing else and I was very impressed that she matched me pint for pint. I ended up mailing her and a few days later I'd still not heard back from her, and then, bizarrely, I randomly bumped into her. I was out for a jog and she was walking her dog down by the river near where we both lived. It was a bit awkward but we exchanged pleasantries and I told her I'd mailed her and she said she hadn't checked her inbox for a few days. We then parted ways. She replied to me a couple of days later and said that she'd be happy to be friends but she wasn't ready to be dating. This last statement has been trotted out to me by quite a few women in the past and it constantly confuses me as to it's validity when I still see their active profiles on Guardian Soulmates. If they're not ready to be dating then why stay on the site? She also said I should have gone with her and her dog for coffee when I'd bumped into them. I found this a bit strange also as she hadn't replied to my e-mail and so I thought she wasn't interested, plus I was in my sweaty jogging kit, without any money, so the last thing I would have suggested would have been to go for coffee. I replied to her e-mail as she'd asked if I was free on a certain date to go for drinks and I'd said 'yes.' The day came when we were meant to meet again and I'd heard nothing so texted her to ask if it was still on. She replied by saying she had a cold and had forgotten to text me to tell me she was cancelling. Well, thanks for that. I decided not to contact her anymore. Then, out of the blue, she mailed me a couple of months later to apologise for not being in touch and asked me when I was free again. I replied telling her when and then I never heard from her again. Yawn.