The lowest low of the year and a half I spent single after I left my husband, started on my birthday that year. The kids had gone out of town with their dad and not only would they be gone for my birthday, they’d be gone over the holiday season as well.

As usual, I tried to be the bigger person and when it came to divvying up which holidays the kids would be where, I let him have the kids for the first Christmas we were split up. I don’t know what I was thinking. Christmas without my babies. I had no idea what I was in for.

Somehow I had still kept in touch here and there with “Mr. Right Now”. I don’t even remember how often we had talked or if we had continued seeing each other since our fling the spring before. But on that birthday we made plans to meet up.

Of course he was still technically in a relationship and all the bullshit he fed me was just that, lies. For some reason I didn’t care. He parked his car somewhere on a random street and I picked him up.

We went to my place and before we were even in the door we were attacking each other and taking our clothes off. Both so hungry for the other. The chemistry was hot.

As soon as we were done he got dressed and I took him back to his car. It was about three pm. Wham bam, thank you ma’am. Happy Birthday to me.

A girlfriend insisted I not spend my birthday alone and so I started getting ready to go out for some drinks with her. I hadn’t known her that long and met her through another friend but she was single like me and always ready to go out and have some fun.

We went to a lounge and as soon as we walked in, she noticed a table of three guys she knew. We went over to them, she introduced me to them and they insisted we pull up a couple of bar stools and sit down. The place was packed so we were happy to have somewhere to sit.

She told them it was my birthday and soon the rounds of drinks were showing up on tray after tray. We had fun and we were all quite inebriated.

When it was time to call some cabs and head home, the taller and very cute guy of the three (and the only one single), said “I’m going wherever she’s going”, pointing at me. I was pretty okay with this. I found myself very interested in this man that I had never laid eyes on before until this night. Besides being super hot, he was polite and not boisterous or obnoxious, he had a good job and a son he shared custody of with his ex.

Now I know it looks bad that I’d already had random sex with someone else that afternoon and here I was taking someone else home to my bed but I really thought his guy might be something, might lead to some kind of relationship. I had such a good feeling about him.

My intuition is notoriously wrong ninety-nine percent of the time and this night was no different. He was too intoxicated to even properly have sex. He couldn’t get hard and basically passed out before much effort was put into it.

So okay, we won’t be doing that on this night but that’s okay. We slept beside each other and in the morning we talked and he asked for my number. He said he would call and asked if I would go out with him sometime. I happily agreed.

Phew so I actually only had sex with one person in that twenty-four hours.

I later found out through a friend, who was friends with his ex, that this guy had been accused of inappropriately touching or trying to touch her daughter. Nice. Oh my god.

I was disgusted. I messaged my friend, who I had gone out with that night and who had introduced me to this supposed amazing guy and asked her if she knew about this accusation. She blew it off and said it was just the ex being spiteful and making up lies about him.

I never did find out the truth and I never heard from him again. And I actually didn’t see him again for over ten years. Then one day at work I was waiting for elevator to go downstairs and this guy got on with me. He stood on one side of the elevator and I on the other, facing each other. He said hi, how’s it going? I figured he was just a stranger being friendly but as I looked at his face I started to recognize who he was.

He had aged so much, I’m sure he was thinking the same about me. I said oh wow, I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you, you are…..and I couldn’t think of his name. So awkward. Thankfully the elevator doors opened and I turned left and disappeared as fast as I could.