Moving on

Him: How have you been?

Me: Good. We were talking a month ago and you just disappeared. What happened?

Him: I was MIA for a while. I'm back now.

Me: Gotcha. I saw you online, so I figured you'd just moved on.

Him: I have the app and I never logged out so it looked like I was online but I wasn't.

Right.

I've used that excuse. I've told people I was going to delete my profile and asked if we could text, to avoid being "seen" online. I've hidden my profile, but still used it to contact new people. I've told people "I just signed in to delete messages."

Eventually, I grew tired of inventing excuses. I got frustrated with a dating process that requires me to explain my every move to a guy I just met. I learned when to move on. (Hint: If I'm still online looking, or irritated by a question, it's probably time.)

I truly don't care if we were talking, and you met someone who you found more interesting. It happens, and it happens even more often when meeting people online. But I do believe you have to own that decision - even if it turns out to be the wrong one.

He's not the only one. I dated another guy briefly last fall. One day, we were talking. The next, he texted to let me know he'd met someone and decided to be exclusive, so he was deleting my contact info. We were still friends on Facebook - and a month later, he messaged me to let me know it had not worked out. When I pointed out that he was clearly not that into me, he got very cranky - and unfriended me.

So when he messaged me again recently, I reviewed this all again. His take was that all happened in the past. My take was that may be, but it's still an indication that we are not a good fit. He asked if I wanted to start over, or move on.

Definitely moving on.