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Relationships

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Has anyone met the right person at the wrong time and it worked out later?

87 replies

maybeeknot · 13/01/2016 21:28

I am just about to end things with someone I am in love with because he's just not in the right place to be a good boyfriend.

Long story, but I basically met him at the absolutely worst possible moment and I do think he feels the same but is in total denial over it.

I don't think either of us ever expected to fall in love or feel as strong as we do and we keep calling it something else to avoid the elephant in the room but we just met at the wrong time and I feel like the relationship we have now is hurting me (and him probably) and the best thing to do is to leave.

Has anyone else ever been in that situation, and has it ever worked out some times in the future?

OP posts:
Cabrinha · 14/01/2016 14:02

I'm picky, I know I am Grin
I smile when I read PPs where it wasn't easy and simple from the start but have worked out - really I do.

But there's a big difference - IMO.

People posting about being in a bad marriage when they met someone, or that person being with someone else, or about to deploy - even just being very young. Even substance abuse and MH issues.

These were all big barriers which disappeared over time naturally, or were overcome.

There is NOTHING to get in the OP and this man's way. The only thing keeping them apart is his decision.

That's why I think it's not a go-er. He just doesn't want it enough.

And if I sound harsh - well, it's only because I've got the T shirt! I mooned around after a "right person wrong time" ex in my 20s. He still sends me "I wish I'd made the right decision all those years ago" texts. Had offered to return from a different continent for me. Funnily enough, those offers are always when I'm with someone, or he is, and always start "you must tell me if you're single and I'm single and I'll move back..." HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY WANT ME.

If this guy loved you, he'd not be chit chatting to Ms One That Got Away, end of.

Offred · 14/01/2016 14:05

And he has begun a dating relationship with you. It doesn't matter that he had never met you when you went on the first date.

He wouldn't have begun a relationship with you or sought out dating if he was a guy without issues.

He is fixated on thinking she is responsible for his whole future. He sees the answer to the pain of not having a proper relationship with her as using other women for affection, sex and intimacy.

This has been his pattern since he was young, that makes it a problem with his behaviour towards women, not a nice guy at the wrong time.

You can tell that by the way he compares you to her.

Cabrinha · 14/01/2016 14:06

Oh big cross post!

He's a total headfuck, isn't he?

If he never felt about her the way he feels about you, why does he need to grieve?

He's lucky, he got to have his closure - he slept with her, and it was crap.

He's got zero excuse for being all hung up over her.

Offred · 14/01/2016 14:09

It's essentially a madonna/whore thing really isn't it. He's been disabused of the idea that she is his madonna but he is still hung up on the idea of madonna/whore.

It doesn't matter what he says to you or what he implies he feels about you. You still do not measure up to his idea of her and you never will, SHE doesn't even measure up to it...

Cabrinha · 14/01/2016 14:12

You need to stop seeing him as a little wounded bird. Lame duck, maybe.

You say he loves you. If he's been with you long enough for you to think that, he's been with you long enough to get over her.

He's got no business telling you he never felt the same about her as he does her, unless he means it. How can he say that, but not be over her at the same time?

I really feel for you because he's a right old head fuck.

Cabrinha · 14/01/2016 14:17

I actually am slightly more "on your side" now that this could be the wrong time for him. A guess at his "big barrier" Charles and Camilla style.

Sadly, 3 months apart won't fix it.

Basically: could be the wrong time for a LTR for him because he needs a mega fuckton of therapy to stop obsessing about his ex, and to change the kind of person he is that led him to hang around after her too.

She dumped him.
He had a week with her and realised he was over her.
The sex was crap.
She had him on a string for years.

The sex is amazing with you.
He talks to you all night.
He's never felt this way, not about her.

OK.

So...

WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING WITH THE PHONE CALLS NOW?

Head fuck head fuck head fuck!

TheOptimisticPessimist · 14/01/2016 14:22

Yep. I met DP when we were teenagers and while we had an amazing friendship and ignored everyone telling us we'd end up together it took eight years for us to reach the right time to be together. We both had other relationships, moved around (he moved abroad for a year in this time), had mismatched feelings for one another (one of us would have purely platonic feelings while the other kept deeper feelings secret, then it would flip around Confused) and if we'd tried for a real relationship at anytime before we did it wouldn't have lasted for one reason or another.

We haven't looked back since, we own a house and are looking forward to our long future together!

maybeeknot · 14/01/2016 14:58

Whatever his situation is or isn't, I do believe he has to sort it out himself -probably over months or years before he is emotionally available to be a boyfriend to anyone which is my point of ending the relaitonship.

I don't think he will meet someone else after I dump him, fall in love and live happily ever after. He's a mess.

I've never mooned over anyone whp didn't want me. I have dated people who weren't that into me and this is nothing like that. I have never chased after a man, never gone for broken men, never been drawn to wounded birds. I'm not the type so I'm not worried that I am reading into it more than is there.

I feel, deep in my gut that we are rigth for each other and would / could make each other really happy but not now.

Maybe never. You're right. Maybe he does need a fuckton of therapy. It's something we have dicussed. He seems in a total tizz.

There he was all these years wanting her like mad, he sees her and doesn't want her at all. Now she's casing after him like mad because she knows she's lost her "backup" plan and a part of him loves it. After all those years, the tables are turned.

I get it. Maybe you lot don't but I get it completely and I don't think it is 100% fully resolved in his head and don't want to hang around while it is becoming so.

I didn't say he loved me...I am sure I did not say that. I said he said he was falling for me and he didn't feel ready.

I do just think simply put that if we'd met a year later we'd be together and be really happy - that's all. Just right now I can't have a semi-relationship with someone who's in such a mess.

I feel like he has to clean house.

For what it's worth I got engaged to someone once, a few years back who worshipped the ground I walked on. I mean he really was in love with me and he raced into the relationship with me when he'd only been separated a few weeks from a 15 year marriage.

We stayed together for years - we were so in love and clicked and it was great but he'd definitely not grieved his divorce or anything else and grieving that had absolutely nothing to do with me or how much he loved me - it was just that he had not closed the previos chapter.

In the end , we split after years together and he said openly he wished he'd taken a year alone first to sort his head out because he would have been more open and comitted to me if he'd had that time.

I don't want to be anyone's rebound or to have half of someone. I just want him to be happy, healthy and have put the past to bed entirely if I am going to date him. If he hasn't done that I don't think it matter how much he likes me or doesn't

OP posts:
Newyearnewme2016 · 14/01/2016 15:08

So have you actually finished with him op?

Offred · 14/01/2016 15:12

It's not to do with her.

It is not normal behaviour to never get over a GF you had when you were younger, be unable to form relationships with other women because of it but still date and get into relationships with them.

He is not emotionally healthy. He may never be. He is not a nice guy, he has deliberately dragged someone else into his mess.

maybeeknot · 14/01/2016 15:17

Not yet no.

It hasn't been very long...a few months. Not long at all. It really is all just hormones and potential and I just don't ant to spoil it.

I feel in danger of becoming his therapist. His self esteem is dreadful. He said the other night that if he loved me I'd probably leave him. He's just not ready to be in a healthy relationship.

I think what he probably needs to do is spend a year dating lots of people, feel a bit of that freedom now he's cut himself loose of the past and figure out feeling ready to invest his emotions into someone else.

I don't think he wants to invest his emotions, which is the actual problem. And I do understand that. Imagine getting loose of the first woman you loved and within days meeting the second one you loved.

I am not making excuses for him, but I do think it was just a case of right person wrong time.

It's difficult because when all the obvious issues are put aside we're just so happy together, and God, so much passion. All that kissing through smiles and stuff that's so hard to walk away from!

I would just rather someone else was his rebound and I was his real one!

OP posts:
Cabrinha · 14/01/2016 15:18

You said "I do think he's in love with me too".

maybeeknot · 14/01/2016 15:19

Offred you might well be right, honestly you might be.

I thought the best way to do it was to let him figure it out alone instead of me continuing being caught in the mess.

OP posts:
maybeeknot · 14/01/2016 15:20

Ah well Cabrinha, I probably think he is. But that's just what I think.

OP posts:
Helmetbymidnight · 14/01/2016 15:22

I think you're doing the right thing op.

Just be aware that when you say 'it's bad timing' most people will understand that as 'involved with someone else' or 'still wants to fuck other people'

Offred · 14/01/2016 15:24

What he needs to do is stop dating people, focus on himself taking responsibility for his own happiness and have therapy IMO.

You are hideously over invested in someone who you have not been dating long and had never met prior to your first date.

He clearly has issues.

Being over invested in a virtual stranger who has issues is usually a sign you are being fucked over by a fuckhead...

Cabrinha · 14/01/2016 15:25

He just sounds like more of a cock the more you write!

Maybe he just needs to do everything you say, or maybe he's just a flaky twat. Maybe you're too close to see the latter, or maybe I'm too far away to see the former...

You do sound like you totally have your head on straight, not sticking around for it though.

My concern for you, is you'll be like him over his ex, waiting around for him. If not consciously, subconsciously.

Twinklestein · 14/01/2016 15:31

Hmm.. so there's a pattern here of two men who really did love you but the relationship didn't work out because they hadn't grieved for a past relationship.

You might meet this guy in a year and he's changed, or he might be exactly the same. My money's on the latter.

I would be cautious about asserting someone really likes you they just don't know it/can't deal with it. If a person wants to be with you they will be regardless of what past baggage they're dealing with.

maybeeknot · 14/01/2016 15:36

Yes I am over invested. Hence the step back. If I was able to just see him casually and not invest I'd probably carry on for the amazing sex part. Not a habitual thing for me to invest like that, but I can't explain, just happenned. It happenned between the first and second date. Never had a first date like it.

It should be quite easy to detach and let go of someone who's not been around long hopefully.

I don't think our last chapter has been written, that's all.

Maybe time will tell if he's a flaky twat Cabrinha. you might well be completely right and I will see it once I am distanced.

OP posts:
Cabrinha · 14/01/2016 15:46

Maybeeknot, I think you can feel the waves of irritation coming off me Blush
They're all directed at him, not you!

I'm all for finding it hard to get over someone, been there, done that.

I just don't think he has any business telling you he's never felt this way, then still talking to her. Tell him to shove his fancy words and his games!

Newyearnewme2016 · 14/01/2016 15:52

Op have you got a few threads about this guy? (You keep misspelling 'happenned' and it's the same story.)

That's up to you but honestly you are over-analysing this and giving yourself so much angst. It's hard but you need to start letting it go for your sanity.

Offred · 14/01/2016 15:55

That is what happens with a headfuck guy...

maybeeknot · 14/01/2016 15:58

No this is the only thread about him.

Yes, you're right about him not having business talking to her still. Maybe he's not fully done with it and they need to get back together for a bit. I'm not sure which way is up or down and probably won't until I have space.

I am going to end our relationship just trying to gather the strength

OP posts:
Offred · 14/01/2016 15:58

They love bomb you, you have amazing first dates, you over invest then it becomes apparent they are not invested at all...

Cabrinha · 14/01/2016 16:05

Maybe they need to get back together?!!!

He told you he did get back with her, for a week, and it was shit.

What he needs, is to stop pissing you (and other women, as it sounds like you found him online) about.

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