I realized about, oh 12:25 that I had a meeting scheduled at 1:30, so I needed to go to lunch soon. Whoooops. So I called H, thinking he was probably close.

H was flustered, sounded close to tears, when I told him that. Said his card had gotten stuck in the ATM, the machine didn't want to spit out the cash, and he didn't want to just leave because he didn't know when/if the ATM would spit out his card. Said he just wanted to get some money so that we could have a nice lunch together. And that he was still 20 minutes away.

I told him it was okay, I would just take a shorter lunch to see him. He said he wanted to go by his place to get the face to his CD player, but now he wouldn't. Just that he wished he had it, since music calms him down. He sounded really stressed out. I told him to just go and get it, if it would make him feel better. He said he already passed the place, and that he would go 90 on the interstate.

I told him it wasn't necessary, that I would just leave work and meet him somewhere so that we would have more time. He promised he would slow down, then.

Then he started ranting about roommate. (I think this is what was really bothering him, anyway.) Said he had gone ahead and hidden the rest of his quarters. Went off on how he felt like she was taking advantage of him. Said, "You think you know someone, and then they relax around you, and you see what they're really like." This is soooo completely different from his unwavering support of her. (Okay, I admit it, I was in some perverse way kind of enjoying it.)

H went on to say that he felt like she had an anger problem, that she would just flip out about stuff that didn't matter. Kind of interesting if H says that, since he has a pretty nasty temper. He told me that she gets really bad when she's driving, or is just plain moody all of the time. Which...interesting...are some of the same bad qualities in my H. Although I get the impression from him that hers may be worse, that she just flies off the handle for now reason (H doesn't ever do that). He's been much calmer lately, and I wonder if observing her over-the-top behavior might be part of that.

At that point, he was practically screaming in my ear, going on about how he felt like she had abused their friendship. I was just calm, just listening; hopefully I didn't sound too patronizing. After a moment, he paused, realized what he was doing, and apologized for screaming. I said it was fine, he was stressed out, and just venting. In all honesty, it didn't even really bother me.

Lunch was nice. I could tell he was tense. I offered to rub his shoulders, and then I asked him if he wanted to talk. I don't think he was in the mood, probably because we were in public, so I switched strategies to distraction. That seemed to help some, but I can tell his mind was elsewhere. Too much stress, I think.

I had to cut out early to head back to work, but it was still nice to see him. I did happen to mention that I was glad he cooked dinner, and he asked (yet again) if I had liked the chicken....

Poor guy is all over the place. I think he's really ticked off/stress out by the whole roommate things. I wonder if this is how the LBS comes across at first??

[color:"purple"]Nevanna[/color]