Let me tell the tale of Harry and myself. I've known him for years. There has only been one constant in our relationship-- bad karma.

I don’t remember when I met Harry, maybe 97, it was before Brian and I were partnered. The first night I met Harry he told me he was thinking about selling his house and moving in with his mother. My first impression was “Momma’s boy. Not interested.”

I didn’t keep in touch, but Harry was infatuated with me. He took out a couple of “I saw you ads” and started visiting my regular haunts. I heard through the grape vine that he was a good man and that he was looking for me. Eventually he gave up the search and started a brief but very crappy fling with Rob, a man who turned out to be a friend of my ex, Brian. I didn't know Harry and Rob were seeing each other when I finally decided to call and ask if Harry out for dinner. Harry had to say no. Harry and Rob broke up shortly afterwards, but not before Rob threw out Harry’s address book and my number within it.

Well, I met my Brian and we started dating. We started spending a lot of time together. We started arguing. We started patching things up. We had a lot of fun together. We kept arguing. We kept patching things up. Then after two and half years of this, we called it quits. That was May of 2000. The most frustrating moments of my life were all with Brian; but I don't regret it.

At this point, as someone pointed out “Most guys are gonna go through a ‘I don't wanna date anyone’ phase. Then it's the ‘I'll show him by being a big slut phase.’” That’s exactly what happened to me. Only I didn’t handle things right. I ran into Harry and he used every trick in the book to snag me. We started dating. He was a great man, only I didn’t care. My heart wasn’t in the relationship. I wanted to be single, I wanted to slut around. On top of that, my ex-Brian, because he knew Harry’s ex-Rob, was feeding me bad gossip about Harry. After two months with Harry, I ended it. It hurt him and he cried afterwards.

I became a slut but I kept in touch with Harry. After a while I developed feelings for him. Harry, being a bit gun shy, wasn’t big on dating me again. I was still a slut but my slutty feelings changed. It was something I could do for fun and to get off; but it didn’t make me happy.

Then last March Harry met Chris and they moved in with each other right off the bat. It broke my heart. I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for me, after all I’m not innocent, but it still hurt.

And now Harry is single again. So am I. The waiting game begins.