Easy Come, Easy Go

My readers will remember me recently writing about a new lover I'd met at the supermarket.

I've taken her out a few times, and we've had a good time, though she's never been anything approaching an intellectual companion for me.

The other night, after grabbing a meal together, I stopped at the gas station/convenience store to fill up. She waited in the car while I went inside to pay.

As I came back out to leave, I ran into my primary lover coming in.

"So that's the new one, huh?" she asked me. "I knew you had a new one on the string when you stopped visiting me so often." Her tone of voice was matter-of-fact, as this pattern has played several times over in the course of our relationship.

"Yeah, that's her," I told her. "No big deal. Just a bit of fun, you know."

"Don't forget to come by on Tuesday night", she told me. "I'm going to cook a steak."

"I'll be there," I promised her. I leaned down to give her a kiss before heading out to the car.

My new lover was silent as I cranked up the car and drove away. Several blocks from the gas station, I finally noticed her silence and asked her what was wrong.

"I think you should take me home," she said.

I gave her a sideways look, wondering what the hell had gotten into her.

"That women at the gas station," she finally elaborated."You kissed her. Who was she?"

I heaved a loud, exasperated sigh, then said, "Come on, now. You know we don't have an exclusive relationship. I thought I explained all that to you when we first went out."

"But I thought that after you kept asking me out, that you'd changed your mind about all that stuff," she said.

"Trust me, I don't change my mind about things like that," I told her. "It's who I am."

I turned the car to head to her apartment. "You're right. I should take you home."

A few minutes later, I let her out, telling her I'd not call anymore, as it it was obvious our arrangement wasn't going to work out. Before driving away, I added that I'd enjoyed the few times we had gotten together.

So, that's the end of that. Easy come, easy go.