Mr. Unavailable #127: Last Call

See Fro-Yo Guy and The Strawberry Fields Fairy for the background on this one.

Five days after lunch with #127, I was heading back to New York City from Boston on the Chinatown bus when #127 texted me.

#127: How are your fro-yo levels?

Me: Low. It’s been three days.

#127: Wow. That’s a while. Been a couple for me too. Might hafta hit handles.

Me: Yeah, that’s totally understandable. It’s a Saturday night. Lots of people are doing it. It’s not like you have a problem or anything.

#127: Exactly. EVERYONE is doing it. I just DJ’d all day in the heat. Gonna shower and then might get my fro-yo levels straighten out. If you’re free let me know if you’d wanna join me.

Me: Wow. DJ. I had no idea. I’d love to join you for some Handles but I’m on the Chinatown bus heading back from Boston. Won’t be back until late.

#127: OHHHH YEAH, I forgot you were in Boston. How’d it go?

Me: It was really good.

#127: When’s your bus getting in?

Let’s stop there for a moment. When I read his question, my hopes shot up. Any girl’s would. But here’s the thing: My bus wasn’t getting in until midnight. He’d just set himself up. If he didn’t offer to meet me, he’d look lame. There was no way around it. I'd already said I was getting in late. And if he did offer to meet me, he was looking more available than I sensed he probably wanted to look.

Me: My bus gets in at midnight.

Fifteen minutes went by before he responded.

#127: You should try to go straight to handles for last call. Think it’s 1230am on sat.

Ouch! A recommendation? When I got home, I did make a last call, but it wasn’t to 16 Handles. I called #98 and we went for a midnight snack.

A week later, I decided to go to Strawberry Fields for frozen yogurt after lunch. When I walked in, #127 was there. I was wearing a maroon velveteen dress, so I look pretty saucy, which he appeared to appreciate. We got our frozen yogurts—separately—and then, even though he’d just said he’d been on a two-hour lunch break, he offered to walk with me down toward the seaport. As we talked, I felt like I was making up more my previous over-availability. Not once did I ask, “When?” And, naturally, he wasn’t going to offer up a when.

He walked me back to my office building and we hugged good-bye, saying we should do this again soon.

Signs of Hope: He did seem happy to see me when we ran into each other.

Red Flags: A week after I ran into him, I still hadn’t heard from him.

Turning Point: It was more of a gradual fade-out than a turning point. As more time passed and I still hadn't hear from him, his unavailability was sealed.

Diagnosis: For him: I wonder if the whole two weeks that we were communicating, he was encumbered in another relationship of some kind. Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit.
For me: Wow, that one didn't linger. Maybe that means the unavailable encounters are getting shorter, making room for the available encounters. Or maybe I'm giving the universe too much credit.

Postscript: On Oct. 21, two and a half months after we’d run into each other, I received a text from #127: Hey Tara. It’s [#127]. Long time no see. How’s it going? Still eating lots of fro-yo?


My guess is that he was recently unencumbered. I, however, was just becoming encumbered with #133. I happened to be with Kevin when I got his text. “Should I bother?”


Kevin just shook his head, “Uh, no.”