An...Interesting Surprise

Well. I certainly didn't see that one coming.

I'm currently hanging out with my lovely wife Katie, keeping her company while she works the front desk at Nerd Camp. All of a sudden, my phone starts ringing. Hoping it's my boyfriend calling to tell me good night, I grab it and take a look at the number...and I don't recognize it. It's from the 502 area code (the Louisville area) and I can't think of anyone who would be calling me from there--especially at this time of night. I press a button and take the call with a hesitant, "Hello?"

A Latino accent hits my ear and my eyes roll skyward in exasperation. It's an ex of mine. And not just any old ex, but one that I told explicitly never to call me again and was saved as "Do Not Answer" in my cell phone (that is, before it ended up in the sewer system of Jefferson County). He's asks me how I am and I reply with a terse, "Fine." I'm then obligated to ask him how he's doing--it would be un-Southern if I didn't at least pretend to be polite to him.

He asks me what I'm doing on Thursday night, the ONE night of the week I have off. Damn. He invites me to a local bar to hang out with him and some of his frat brothers. I don't have anything else to do but really don't want to hang out with him, and answer with a simple, "I'll see what I can do." He laughs and starts to end the conversation, but I interrupt him.

"Why did you call me?"

"I told you, to see which people were in town."

"I know, but we haven't talked in forever."

"Yeah, but I thought that was all water under the bridge."

(The somewhat...dirty water he's speaking of is the fact that he was the first guy I dated after my boyfriend of two years dumped me, and he then ended our quasi-relationship to try to work things out with his ex. When that didn't work he was calling me again, but it was clear that he just wanted one thing from me--and I think you know what that one thing is. Our last conversation ended with him basically asking me if we could be sex buddies and me telling him that I didn't have time for his bullshit and to never call me again. He called me a child for not being willing to sleep with him whenever he wanted.)

"...Yeah."

I don't hate him, but I don't want to be friend with him either. I've seen what kind of person he is, and it's not really one that I want in my life right now (which, by the way, is pretty damn good). I told him about graduating from college, working full-time, and how awesome my boyfriend is at the very end of our five minute conversation, so he knows that I'm over him and his foolishness. I've got too much going for me to even worry about him now.

I used to smile every time I heard that Dominican accent. Now, it just makes me roll my eyes, sigh, and wonder what ridiculousness I'm going to hear next. I'm probably going to go on Thursday to socialize with my bruhs and enjoy my night off--I do want to go out and have a good time, after all. But I won't be worrying too much about what this particular person does or says. I had to go through some bad times in order to truly savor the good ones.