OMG...I'm so confused by this guy's behavior. About 12 hours after contacting me that he wanted to focus on his daughter, he texted me that he was wrong. He'd opened up to a friend about things with his daughter and "meeting this great girl who lives in the city," and the friend told he was a idiot for not pursuing things with me. He said that opening up to his friend relieved some of the pressure about the family situation and that he wanted to talk to me in person.

So, he drove 40 minutes into the city to tell me how much he likes me and to spend some time together. I thought that maybe he'd just had a small freak out earlier that day and that things would just be more normal from that point forward. It was a very normal date...he told me a bit more about his family, asked me about mine, played me some music he likes...we chatted about books. I even opened up and told him that I was concerned that the same thing would happen again, and he said, "No, it helped so much to chat with my friend. I don't want to screw this up. I'm here and I know I won't get a third chance." The next morning (Friday), he sent me nice little text messages but, by the afternoon, was only briefly responding to those I sent back. I didn't respond immediately to each of his messages (I was at work) but did get back to each one of them. However, since early last evening, nothing more...no suggestion to get together this weekend and no texts or phone call. It's only been 24 hours, but I have that sinking feeling that the same thing has happened again and I've just been played....

The phrase "fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me" keeps running through my head. But, to have it happen again within 24 hours is just weird. It's not even about him and me at this point...don't think I could trust him to be honest. Too inconsistent. Could this be a pathological thing...or was he just using me for some reason (loneliness, guilt)? I had told him in a very kind way that I understood about his wanting to focus on his daughter and would have walked away respecting him had that been our last exchange. I don't understand him apologizing, driving 40 minutes to spend time with me only to blow me off again. I was forgiving about the first "hiccup," and never took him for a player. I'd never treat someone like this but can only blame myself at the end of the day for being a fool.