On a recent Saturday night, my roommate and I were out at a neighborhood bar when in waltzes my ex-boyfriend, blonde-haired girl in tow. I have absolutely zero feelings for him, so the more my roommate and I drank, the more obnoxious we became at watching them. After a couple of drinks, he led her to the dance floor where a smooch-fest ensued, eventually leading to them walking out hand-in-hand.

Flashback to February 2013 – it’s our second date and we have a few drinks at a bar, make out on the dance floor followed by us taking the same cab home (no, we didn’t sleep together, that much I can promise you…). Besides the annoying ex-girlfriend gawking at us, these two situations played out in exactly the same way: drinks, dancing, kissing, and my ex leading a girl out the door.

Obviously, I have no idea where they ended up and it’s none of my business, but I was slightly shell-shocked as this scenario took place. All along, I thought I was special. That the magical feeling I had on the dance floor with him was something unique; I honestly thought it was the first time I knew that someday I’d love this boy. Yet here he was a year and a half later, acting exactly as he had with me.

So is this his game? 

We all play games – wait two hours to text, don’t call until three days after the first date, etc. – but I had no idea that a game was being played on me that night on the dance floor. Playing games is not my schtick, but I’m sure people do have games they play to get their dates in bed with them, almost like an MO.

How can I figure out when I am being played? I dated this guy for months after the date and we did fall in love as I’d predicted, but was it all because of a game? Does that cheapen the experience because he’d played a game on me?

An aside: this happened weeks ago and I’m only writing about it now because I’ve had it sitting in my phone’s notes since then annnnd I write a dating blog so it was another topic of interest. But, I did have some fun coming up with a name for this post (tee hee ^_^):

• Mono-play
• Tic tac ho
• Twisted Twister
• Back-it-up-gammon