I’ve had a great couple of days digging myself out of a hole I put myself in through a set of misunderstandings. This isn’t about blame, defending myself, or showing who is right or wrong, but rather how easily these things can go wrong.

So without further ado reason number infinity plus one why I’m useless when it comes to women.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from someone I barely knew (I’ve only met her twice). In it she stated that she had just left her job, and would like to meet up for a drink as she needed a friend at the moment.

I read this as she was having some problems and needed to talk to someone. You know me and damsels in distress. So, I replied that I had no problem about meeting up. I also asked how she was and I was told that she would rather talk face to face.

When I didn’t hear anything back about when or where for about a week, I decided to force the issue (which is a first, and I’ll wait while people recover from the shock). So I sent an email with a suggested time and place, which she agreed to.

The whole situation raised some red flags in my mind. I barely knew the person, but thought to myself that if she was taking a risk to open up to someone she didn’t know I should at least make the effort to listen. I ran through the scenario with a couple of friends to make sure I wasn’t doing anything too stupid.

Well, yesterday she emailed me to say that she wasn’t going to make it. She gave a valid reason why, which I completely ignored. My thinking became that I wanted her to know that I would be there. On reflection, I probably came across too strongly (I was being proactive again), mainly when I said that I wouldn’t be fobbed off so easily.

When I got her reply (which mentioned things like it wasn’t a date), the penny dropped and I realised that somehow I got the wrong end of the stick. She was OK and just wanted to expand her circle of friends. How much of a prat did I feel? I probably came across as some sort of sad sicko (to make matters worse I was replying fairly quickly to her emails as I was on my blackberry).

We’ve been able to smooth things over now, after much coughing, spluttering and apologising. But it goes to show how easy it is to pick up the wrong thing, and how easily it gets out hand.

And people wonder why I’m so inactive when it comes to women.

Bye for now