IN DATING, A LITTLE FACEBOOK STALKING GOES A LONG WAY....

A few weeks had gone by since my visit with Rodrigo.  We stayed in touch through phone calls and sweet text messages.  He said he was excited to come visit me in L.A.  Maybe spend the day hanging out in Manhattan Beach, then go out in Santa Monica for some drinks and dancing.  But the funny thing is, he'd never actually commit to a date.  Then his phone calls started to come less frequently.  He was still texting me every other day.  He'd started out with texts like, "Good morning beautiful.  I hope you have a wonderful day."  Then they became a little flirtier, "Send me a picture of you. I want to see how gorgeous you look today."  There was also, "I just saw your new profile pic on Facebook.  When can I get you to lean on me like that? ;-)"  And yes, he did use the winky face.  Eventually the messages were downright freaky! "I can't stop thinking about you. I'm so hard right now thinking about seeing you again."

I figured before I invest anymore time and energy into whatever this thing was, I should probably do a little investigating.  So I called up one of our mutual friends from back in Miami.

ME:  Katie! How are you girlfriend?

KATIE:  Uhhhh.  Girl-I am exhausted.  Little Leah is wearing me out!

ME:  How's your pretty little princess doing anyway?

KATIE:  Lovely.  She's sassy as ever and full of piss & vinegar.

ME:  Just like her daddy.

KATIE:  Exactly.  But can I just give you a piece of advice?  Don't be a single mom if you can help it.

ME:  You're day's been that rough, huh?

KATIE:  Rougher.  But how are you Sweetness?

ME:  I'm good. I actually had a little reunion with Rodrigo a few weeks ago.

KATIE:  Oh DID you?  Do tell more.

ME:  Well, he invited me down to San Diego for his birthday.  It was really nice seeing him.  It's been, like, 7 years since I've been in the same room as him.  I didn't even realize he was living in San Diego.

KATIE:  You know he and Jana are going through a divorce, right?

ME:  Yeah.  He told me.  He seems pretty torn up about it.

KATIE:  Well so is Jana.  Do you know why they split up?

ME:  He mentioned that he wasn't the best husband.

KATIE:  That's an understatement.  He cheated on her.

ME:  I thought it was probably something like that.

KATIE:  You know how much I love Roddy.  He's been like an uncle to Leah.  Every time he's in town visiting Leah's father, they come by and pick her up and take her shopping, and to the park.  He's got a great heart.  He's also got a curious penis.  So be careful.

ME:  He's always been like that.  A ladies man.  A rolling stone....

KATIE:  A snake in the grass.

After I hung up with Katie, I felt a little bad.  I didn't want to completely write Rodrigo off.  Not yet anyway.  I mean, he HAD made the effort to get in touch with me.  And he was open enough to introduce me to his friends.  I shouldn't judge him because he hadn't told me the ENTIRE story about his divorce.  It's not really my business anyway....although I do wonder if he and his soon-to-be ex-wife Jana were friends on Facebook.......

So I logged on and began doing a little "Facebook Researching."  Ok. I was stalking.  But how else is a girl supposed to protect herself?!  There was no Jana at all on his list of friends.  Check!  Although there were quite a few comments from his friend Julie that I'd met at his birthday party.  So I clicked on her photo....and there were 3 photos of them- at a baseball game, at a bowling alley, and at a bar.  If I found a photo of them at a Nascar race, I'd assume they'd soon be planning their white trash wedding.

WTF?!?  It's obvious from Julie's Facebook page that she & Rodrigo's relationship was a lot deeper than he had let on.  For goodness sakes, I thought Julie was with that dude Brian. She'd been playing pool with him all night and Rodrigo had barely spoken to her the entire evening. And he had flirted with me openly in front of all of them.  Oddly enough, there were no pictures of Julie and Rodrigo together on his page with the exception of one group picture with 3 other people at a Charger's game.  This was going to take a little more digging....

And then I came across Brian's page. After a few clicks, I put 2-and-2 together.  Brian and Julie were not dating. They were cousins.  I navigated back to Julie's page to read some of the comments.  A few of her Facebook friends left messages about how cute she and Rodrigo looked together.  Hmmm.....so according to my Facebook deductions and my incredible women's intuition, I'd come to a deduction.  Rodrigo was hittin' that.  That also explained why Julie kept checking me out the whole night I was in San Diego.  And clearly, they were not in a committed relationship and Rodrigo was using me to make her jealous.  Or maybe he just wanted to keep his options open.  What a dick!

This whole situation was going to have to be tabled, because my first article for BE Fitness is due in 24 hours and I'd only typed three words.