"God! My brilliance is becoming a bit of a burden...

Get back to me."
--"Scrubs" on NBC

I hope I'm not right about this. Over the past few weeks, I've seen a friend stepping out with a new guy. The problem is she's engaged, or at least I ASSUME she still was before I started seeing her out and about.

She's not a person I share in-depth conversations with: friendly hall chatter is about our speed. I'm familiar with her fiancee, who's a decent guy. As a quick aside, when I say "decent guy", that seems to be code for someone who tries hard, does everything right, and treats women appropriately. But while that description of someone in a relationship might merit a "great guy" label, once they're having trouble, in my mind they get their title changed to "decent". I'm not sure why.

Anyway...

She and this guy I've seen together before. They're in the same meetings and organizations, so they have a perfect reason to hang together. I've seen them together a fair bit this semester, but that was nothing I even really paid attention too. I noticed, but it got filed at the back of the brain, with all the other stuff your brain observes but considers unimportant. For example, what color was the first car you passed this morning? You may not remember, but you definitely saw and stored the information.

Then I saw them pick up food from a restaurant while I was dining. When I saw them, I thought, "there they are again. Wonder if they're "together" now?" I did actually think this, but it was mostly in jest, seeing as how I know she's engaged. So I put them out of my head as soon as I turned back to my salad.

But I saw them again. And again. And again. And the little voice that started out as a feeble joke gets louder and more insistent. And just this evening, I noticed she and her fiancee have pulled out of social calendars and events. No big announcements; just a hole in the schedule where you think something might have been, but you can't quite remember.

I have a tendency to over-analyze people, even to the point of making up stories that I think go with my perceptions of the facts. It's not a pretty skill, I admit.

That being said, I don't want to be right this time.

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