The email arrived from overseas. It had been five weeks since I’d heard from the Recycled Boyfriend and I was starting to be concerned about his welfare.

“Don’t be stupid,” people were saying. “He’s ghosted you, we’ve all been there…”

But there in my inbox one Thursday morning was this email - the opening line, “hello Sweet Cheeks”, with an upside down happy emoji to convince me of his flirtation.

The rest of the email was all about how busy he’d been sorting life admin in a new country, (not lying on beaches swooning around drinking cocktails with random women like I thought).  

Although there could’ve been a bit of that but nobody wants to hear that right? Just as much as me filling him in with stories about Fitness Boy and our sweaty sports matches, followed by drinks and fantastic conversation.

Anyway, he signed off that he was thinking of me often and xx and that was enough to convince me we’re still in the game.

No mention of when he’s coming back though - we had planned a long weekend together in October but that month is still a long way off….

Anything could happen in six weeks - just as anything could happen in three months.

As it did. So back to Fitness Boy. We had a bet about a sports game we were playing and of course I lost, so beers were shouted and off I trotted one Saturday night to deliver them.

“Just calling in to have a drink as friends,” I politely pointed out.

“Do you kiss all of your friends?” he said, reminding me of our first encounter at his place, where I specifically remember him lunging at me on the couch after some banter.

Guilt seeped in. Was I leading him on by allowing that to happen? He knew about the Recycled Boyfriend and so I assumed it was safe to hang out and play. But Fitness Boy was laying down some strict boundaries right there and actually I fully respected that.

He wasn’t interested in getting involved with someone just for fun. He wanted to start how he intended to proceed. And I was being a bit elusive because, to be quite honest, a part of me was ‘filling in time’ until Recycled Boyfriend got back.  

At the moment, I didn’t even know when that was, if at all. And if he was still interested. There could be ‘Sweet Cheeks’ all over the world for all I knew…. Time would tell.