Palliative Care is Over, But What Next?

I recently met someone great.  I was on palliative care as usual, just minding my own business, working, socializing.  Doing the usual things that I do--the comfort measures.  I went to a house party thrown by a friend about a month ago, and I met him.  We'll call him Grad Stud.  We talked for nearly three hours.  We emailed back and forth for about a month, and then we went out.  Three times in one week.  They were the best dates I've been on in over a year.  I got nervous.  Nothing had been this good for so long.  I worried that I would screw something up.  And then I did.

Then, he told me he ran into his ex, and realized he wasn't over her.

I knew there had been a recent breakup, but based on how things were going, I was surprised.  I didn't know what to say, so I said the first thing that came to my mind.

"I'm not a rebound kind of girl."

Well, I'm not.

The date ended quickly after my statement.

I have to say, I've been a bit distraught after this.  I gotten a lot of advice from many people.  There have basically been two camps.   Camp #1: I screwed this up royally by not being empathetic and helping him through this as a cool girl would.  Camp #2: I made the right choice by not playing second fiddle to the ex.

My head is swimming with the amount of conflicting advice I've received from a myriad of people--both men and women--and I have no idea what to do.

This experience has made me realize that I don't want to spend the rest of my life on palliative care, and that there's a great guy out there that I may have screwed things up with.  A lot of the advice I've gotten is all about little games, but I don't want to go that route.  Some folks are masters, but I'm perhaps a bit too simple for it.  It always seems to blow up in my face.

No resolution yet.