Two Too Many

Submitted by Janet:

I had exchanged a few online messages with Justin on a dating site, which led to a couple of phone calls.  Then he stopped calling.  I was just starting to date someone else and was working 60+ hours a week.  Shortly after that I inactivated my profile for several months.

After a while, my crazy schedule eased up, the guy I had been dating was no longer in the picture, and I reactivated my profile.

Within a few days, Justin wrote and apologized for disappearing all those months before.  He explained that a crazy woman had stalked him on that site, that he had recently moved, and that he had found a new job. 

We exchanged a few online messages, I was out of town and told him I still had his number and would give him a call when I was back in a few days.

When I returned, I sent him a text message.  He called back right away, telling me how glad he was to hear from me, and how the timing was perfect. We spoke for two hours and agreed to meet for coffee a few days later.

When he walked into Starbucks, I have to be honest, he didn’t look that much like how I had remembered his picture.  He seemed a bit older and a bit shorter than his old profile (I had looked it up to refresh my memory), but we had a good time.

I asked him about the stalker, his new job, his new place, etc.  A couple of times during the conversation, I mentioned a topic to him, and he said, "I told you about that?  Really?"  Overall, it went smoothly, and we agreed to get together for dinner sometime soon.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and there was another message from Justin.  The message said, "I totally forgot to tell you that I've changed my number.  I hope that's why I haven't heard from you."

Huh?  I was confused and looked back through my old messages and e-mails from six months before.

I had mixed up two Justins.  They had sort of combined themselves into one in my memory (I had only talked to each of them once or twice almost six month before and had never met either one).  This meant that I had actually texted a different Justin, just out of the blue, after no communication for six months. 

As I reviewed our prior communications, I found that the Justins in both profiles shared similar appearances and similar professions.  The only real differences were height and age.

What really spun this out of control was that, given that "coffee Justin" and I had discussed an online stalker, a new job, and a move, I had asked him about life details that the other Justin had told me, but that this Justin also had in common.  No wonder he repeatedly asked me, "I told you about that?"

I did call “coffee Justin” and explained what happened.  We had a few more conversations, but never did have that dinner date.  As for the original Justin, that's its own bad date story...