Giving Him The Dry Heave-Ho

After a great date with a guy I met online, he suggested going out again. Later that evening, he texted that he looked forward to hanging out again. Four days later, he e-mailed, wanting to know my schedule. I e-mailed it to him and never heard back. A week later, I got an apologetic e-mail, saying he'd had the stomach flu all week. Pardon my insensitivity, but how hard would it've been to e-mail that he can't hang because he's puking his brains out? Part of me wants to give him another chance, part of me wants to say "See ya."

--Flake Avoider

It takes a special kind of person to stare into a toilet bowl of their own vomit and wonder what's in their inbox. Come on. It's not like the leaves changed while you were waiting to hear from him. Besides, he isn't your boyfriend, just some guy you had a single date with. And, by the way, he actually showed a pretty remarkable level of communication and consideration -- verbally, and by e-mail and text -- before he found himself watching instant replays of his lunch. Part of you wants to give him another chance? Which part, the part that hopes to not be so prosecutorial as to find no guy appropriately perfect to be your boyfriend? Sure, we all have about five modes of near-instant communication, but having the ability to respond instantly doesn't translate into a mandate that we do. Okay, maybe you'd leap up out of a coma to check your e-mail, but he isn't a bad person if he doesn't do the same. What kind of person is he? Go on a few more dates with him and you might find out. (Time, not angry assumptions, will tell.) Consider yourself lucky if his big character flaw is an inability to multitask while projectile vomiting.