The Tangled Triangle

41 Marbles 
A girl can wait for the right man to come along but in the meantime that still doesn’t mean that she can’t have a wonderful time with all the wrong ones. 
Cher

     I’ve talked to dude a few times since I’ve been home from New Orleans.  He wants me to come visit him again, come down for Mardi Gras. I said I’d think about it.
     Today, however, I got a call from a Latina woman, dude’s friend from Costa Rica. Apparently she had surreptitiously garnered my number from dude’s phone and she called me to give me heck.  I think she was expecting a fight from me but when I agreed with her that I shouldn’t be talking to him whilst she is visiting, she completely relaxed.  Then she proceeded to warn me about him, “He’s a dog.” “Yeah, I got that,” I replied, “But we have an understanding.” She tried, “I know you have children. He wouldn’t be a good father.” Hmmm, I got that too but my kids already have a good father and she didn’t get that dude would never even meet my children.
     She then gave me some details of my last day in New Orleans when dude was juggling both of us. There wasn’t a bone in my body that was jealous. I wasn’t her competition, just another one of his female friends with benefits. I apologized again and told her that I wouldn’t talk with dude until she was gone.
      Then dude called, pissed off that she had phoned me. By that point I was annoyed with the tangled triangle and I told him we could talk when she had went home in a week or so. 
       I’ve never had a connection for which I’ve felt so much ambivalence. 

I’d like to ask some profound question inspired by this marble, but at this point I’m still feeling around in the darkness of a blackout. The questions I’m asking are: When do you know you’re ready to have a new love in your life? Is it coincidental when the first person that comes along would never fit into your life? Is it a sign that you’re not truly ready?