This morning I pulled into the parking lot and sat in my car for an extra two minutes and 28 seconds so I could listen to Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know." It's a song from her pre-drug days, before she started parading around with Bobby Brown and trying to coin her trademark "hell to the no."
Anyway, the song got me thinking about the many friends I've had who have complained their potential flings are "hard to read" or are sending "mixed signals." I've always hated those terms. Sure, there's always a little ambivalence at the onset of a relationship, when nobody wants to be too aggressive or too much on the verge of a stalker lifestyle.
But if somebody doesn't even have the common decency to give you a remote indication he or she cares, forget it. Don't chalk it up to emotional unavailability or a difficulty with words. Some concerns are inevitable, but that doesn't excuse moments of blatant dismissal.
How will you know? When you don't have to ask the question.
And no...I didn't stay in the car another three minutes to listen to "Karma Chameleon." Sorry.
