It's all my mother's fault...

I've been challenged by Gayla to write about non-couples and any experiences I have with them.  At first I had no idea what she was talking about, but then I read her post where she mentioned Rachel and Ross from Friends, and I got it.  In fact, I immediately thought of Jim and Pam from The Office and started pining away about their romance-that-never-was-OR-could-it-maybe-possibly-still-happen?

 

But I started digging deeper.  You see, most of my romantic relationships started out as "non-couple" relationships.  I was that girl in high school who is friends with every guy.  In fact, I didn't like most girls because of their associations with cliques and perfect hair and smooth skin.  Now I wasn't the "I hate girls so I'm going to go whore off with the guys" type of girl, but I just felt more comfortable with the relatively non-judgemental attitudes of the guys.  Trouble was that I was totally naive.  I didn't get that most of them were friends with me because they wanted more.  As Harry says, "Men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way," and though I don't exclusively subscribe to this idea, I do think that it might have been largely true in high school.

 

And so somehow in high school and into college, I unwittingly became the other half of the non-couple.  People would ask me questions in a subtle manner: "Are you guys dating?"  And I would proclaim, "NO!  We're JUST FRIENDS!"  Meanwhile, the guy would blush and start humming Something To Talk About, while I just stood there, completely unaware.

 

My final non-couple situation was destined to become an ironic one.  I met my husband while I was still in college, and my first thought was, "Wow, finally a guy who doesn't want to get in my pants!"  He seemed so sensitive and sweet; so easy to talk to; so honest and kind.  We emailed back and forth, I, spilling my deep thoughts about current boyfriends into the emails and, he, apparently pounding his head against the keyboard.  We remained a non-couple for several years until, one day, everything changed with a few fateful words on the telephone.  And with those words, the suspense was dropped and the non-couple became a couple.

 

Turned out that he really did want to get in my pants.

 

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