Sean's AM Journal

[Sean]

I've had two very interesting experiences lately, regarding exes:

Weird Ex Interaction #1

I send a monthly payment to my ex-wife, and historically she's nagged me on the day that it is due. Lately, I've been putting my foot down on the nagging, telling her to be patient.

On the 15th, I sent her the payment early in the day, and sent an email letting her know it had been sent. She wrote back, thanking me, and saying that she'd planned to not nag until the 18th. This has typically been her praise-seeking method, so I wrote back, "Would you like a button?" [For those unfamiliar, this is a common sarcastic question asked when one is praise-seeking for lame accomplishments]

I get back, "Yes. How about best ex-wife ever." Without thinking, I replied, "Let's start small. How about 'I managed to not nag my ex-husband for ten hours and 24 minutes.'" "You're an asshole. Were you always this funny?"

While I've no attraction whatsoever for her, keeping my ex in a state of having positive-and-platonic feelings toward me benefits our son, and makes it easier to deal with her. I consider this a huge success, and not something I'd have done six months ago because I was constantly knuckling under in an attempt to keep the peace.

Weird Ex Interaction #2

This was with my most-recent ex. She's been unusually polite, lately. This is significant, because being polite toward me has been exceedingly rare since the breakup. While picking up my daughter, she's started talking to me like she did during the happier days early in our relationship. "I saw her doing this thing the other day, and if she inherited [random behavior] from you, you're in trouble." This was always said flirtatiously when we were dating. She also bragged about changing her diet to match the one I was doing before we broke up. To me, this meets my definition of mild flirtation and qualifying herself to me.

This has a more-conflicted feeling around it. On the one hand, I don't want to deal with that craziness at all. She handles her anger and frustration in bad ways, and these ways were the straw that broke the camel's back in our relationship. On the other hand, I have an immature desire to have her try to win me back.

This is further complicated by the fact that the sex was fantastic, and she always handled by sexual desires very well, so there is a bit of temptation there. Fortunately, I start WM2 in about a month, so I'll soon have far better options than her.

Strange Mall Girl

I frequently take my daughter for walks at the mall. I carry her around, since she's only just starting to walk, and the time spent in close contact warms my heart. I was sitting on a bench with her sleeping on my chest when a young woman walked by in obvious pain from her high-heeled shoes. A few minutes later, she comes back and sits on a nearby bench. I smile and toss my chin at her, and she smiles back. She opens me by asking how old my daughter is, and saying how cute she is. I thank her and return to my ebook.

Then she asks what I do, and explains that she's in charge of expanding a well-known financial services group into my city. She mentions that I seem like a friendly and outgoing person, and asks for my number, so we can talk later about job opportunities.

I got her number in return, had a brief discussion about the company, her aching feet, the present she's buying her sister, and then my daughter started waking up. I thanked her for the time, shook her hand, and focused on my little girl because that was my priority at the time.

This morning, I decided to send her a text, saying I hope she was able to walk today, was fun meeting her. We'll see if she was really looking for a new employee, or she was just overwhelmed by her attraction to me.

What do y'all think of these interactions?