Crossing That Line

This platonic thing. With the guy I like.

It's not working out too well.

I got tipsy last night on precisely two beers - an event that has not occurred since my freshman year of college, which led to a string of more than platonic text messages between me and Mr Unavailable, as I shall call him due to his situation.

My friends and I were at this quirky little neighborhood bar earlier that night, where I was introduced to a rather engaging game of bocce ball that was being played in the specifically designated area in the outdoor patio. Basically, the point of the game was to throw some balls on the ground and get them closer to the main white ball. At least, that's how understood it.

So as I was about to play the very first round of the game with my partner, the back pocket of my shorts began vibrating with a new cell phone text message. I dropped the ball rather carelessly and watched it roll towards and then way past the white ball. Lousy throw, but I didn't care - I needed to check the message.

"How are you doing?" the message inquired.

It was none other than Mr Unavailable himself.

After a few rounds of bocce ball and a dozen of text messages later, our conversation turned to the never-spoken-about subject. His girlfriend.

Well, first he said, "I can't wait to hang out with you." Followed by, "Kinda stinks cause I have a girlfriend and I wanna be single and have fun, so I don't know what to do."

Is he really asking me for advice on this one, I thought, but decided to do the right thing and give him the most level-headed response I could conjure up in my head.

"Being single is fun, but don't feel pressured to break up with her. Those kinds of decisions take time."

"I just wish I stayed single this year, I guess. You're so fun to hang out with."

And a lot more of pointless back-and-forth semi-flirting, which really could come across as being almost innocent. That is until this little gem he sent me,

"I didn't know if you liked me or not when we were hanging out all these times. I mean you're really pretty, fun and smart and there's that line I didn't want to cross. I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to ruin the friendship."

Well, dear, you've sure said it now.

I wanted to tell him all these things about how I don't wanna flirt with him because he's unavailable. I don't want him to tell me how his girlfriend is so boring and never wants to do anything because it makes him come across as sort-of-a-douchebag for bitching about her behind her back. I wanted to let him know that he should give their long distance relationship a try that spans more than a three week period.

Instead, I flirted back.