In early July of last year, I’d made a commitment I wanted to make good on, and then get off my plate.
For weeks I’d been casually chatting with a suburban Ohio dad I’d met via the r/affairs subreddit. At the time I replied to his ad, he was married living at home. By the time we were scheduled to actually meet, he was separated, living in an extended stay hotel experiencing FOMO watching the migrant guests partying in the parking lot each night.
As a person in a relatively stable open marriage, the separation/divorce thing made me uneasy from the start. Men in this situation have a reputation of being the opposite of stable.
But this guy seemed nice and a little bit funny too. And so in June I casually mentioned meeting up for a drink the next time I was in his city for work. From that point on, he was pretty much a digital Stage 5 clinger.
So on a hot, humid Monday night in July it finally happened. Going into it, I thought to myself “this is strictly a courtesy drink and then right back to my air conditioned hotel room for shut eye.”