The Wrong Course of Inaction If I could take back my misunderstanding, I would, but back then – even more than now – I read too deeply into everything and extracted whatever information I wanted. This left a huge gap of reality that, in my mind, was unnecessary in the first place.

I gave her gifts of flowers and sincerity, but in my haste, I overlooked the insincerity of anonymity. I must have believed too heavily in Hollywood endings, must have seen Can’t Hardly Wait too many times. I took her first reply as interest; a sign of equivocal pursuit. I made a second attempt but never heard from her again. It wasn’t nearly as warm and gentle as I imagined she would be.

The worst feeling at the time wasn’t that I was wrong. It was something much deeper, something desperate that I completely understand now. And some days I think that it would be nice to talk to her again, to apologize for the shy and hopeless romantic that I once was. But that would be making the same mistake again.  ¶ 1:40 PM