Pete had a PhD and was working as an assistant professor in public health at the university.

He’s also part of a Tale From Sip And Go Girl.

We met at a Starbucks, of course. Although we didn’t have the same area of study, we still were able to have a good conversation about working in academia.

This Starbucks was a small store at a busy intersection. It had a drive thru and the exit was just a mere few feet from our table outside.

A woman driving past us in the drive thru glanced in our direction. She glanced a second time.

Pete glared at her.

“Hey, lady, quit staring at my girl. Can’t you see she’s with me?”

Pete didn’t say it loud enough for the driver to hear. I kind of choked out a laugh and some other noise like shock.

I ignored the comment and continued on with our conversation. Pete asked me what I was doing after having coffee. I told him I was meeting some people for drinks.

“Oh I would really love to take this conversation over to dinner, ” he said. “Can I go with you?”

I made that little choking sound again and told him his appearance would be awkward. I said we could become Facebook friends though.

We spent about an hour and half together and we got up to leave.

As I got into my car he told me, “Make sure you tell all your friends that tonight you finally met someone.”

I didn’t even know what that was supposed to mean.

“Hahahe,” I laughed nervously. “I’ll tell them that.”

By 10:00 p.m. that night, Pete had sent me two text messages to tell me how much fun he had and how much he was looking forward to seeing me again. I also received his friend request on Facebook. I accepted.

By 10:00 a.m. the following morning, he had popped through many of my photos hitting “like.” He also commented on my status update I had made earlier that month. I had written, “This is the month it all changes.” That was in reference to a new attitude I was taking toward shedding some mental and emotional baggage I was carrying. Pete’s comment was “Yes it is Sip and Go Girl!” I had the suspicion he was referring to himself.

He asked me out every day. I said no each time. He also asked if I had told all my

friends that I had met a really great guy.

This went on for two weeks. Finally, Pete threw up his hands.

“Ok. I tried. I give up. If you don’t want to date, then you shouldn’t be going out with people. I give up.”

Pete promptly then unfriended me on Facebook.

I didn’t dislike Pete and in fact, I wanted to keep him in my professional network. But I didn’t want to date him. He, on the other hand, was obviously moving forward with guns blazing and high expectations.

I should be more direct with people.