Friday Night Blues

I was really excited. I hadn't seen him in two weeks, and I had lots of time on my hands to plan a fun dinner. It was farmer's market day, so I bought all kinds of fresh veggies, and two heaping baskets of strawberries for a shortcake dessert. I cleaned the house and made the bed, and debated between fried plantains and mashed sweet potatoes, satay or teriyaki chicken. I went to my usual class at the gym and came home buzzing with hormones and ready to start cooking. I was just washing up some earlier dishes when my IM pinged. He was sorry. It was his friend's surprise birthday party tonight. He'd forgotten to mark his calendar...

We have a casual thing. It's an open relationship, and we mostly only have time to see each other on weekends. Also, I respect the importance of friends, and their birthdays. But I was so excited. I was going to tell him about my trip, and make an amazing dessert. I'd been thinking about it all day. I have to go down to Santa Cruz on Saturday evening, and I'll be gone through Tuesday, so this is the only real time I have before another week goes by. Well meet for lunch tomorrow. I probably won't cook. Part of me doesn't even want to see him at all. We may be casual, but we've been seeing each other for months. Couldn't he have invited me to the party? Or split time and made it here for a quick bite before heading out with his friends? Or...something?

So here I am. It's Friday night. None of my friends are around. The house smells like strawberries, but I'm not hungry.