Compromise, What's That?

Jimmy + Comprising = Fatal Error. Reboot.

Being a man of no attachments, I have always done things my way without the need to keep in mind anyone else's feelings. With the exception of salsa hottie Lisa as my ex-girlfriend, I've never been serious until my recent girlfriend.

My girlfriend and I had a fallout on Thursday, things started bad right from the beginning at 6:30; someone had gotten into the store room and stole most the mints I use to sell during the class. They would've take the cases of water, but I guess it was too heavy. It was probably some kids.

I place the mints outside and returned for the water. I come back out and see a guy grab a pak of mints mint on his way out towards the back. "So you gonna pay for that?" I yell. "Oh, I thought it was free" the guy says. How convenient to say that when there's a sign that says "$1.00 for mints."

Girlfriend was supposed to be at the studio 30 minutes before my salsa class. She was supposed to assist me and she was supposed to be there at 6:30 like the other 2 weeks.

7:10 rolls around and I'm getting ready to teach or should I say, supposed to be ready to teach. She hasn't called at all yet to tell me she's late or whatever, so I decide to call her instead.

She tells me she's blocks away. So I'm pissed at this point. She's not in a car accident, she didn't call, so what the hell?

She tells me that her sister made her late. She was supposed to be ready a certain time when she came by to pick her up, she wasn't. They left, only to have the sister say she doesn't like the outfit she's wearing, and needs to stop by the other house to change.

She would've called, 'cept her sister's phone ran out of batteries and wanted to use my girlfriend's phone. She would't give it up even after the girlfriend attempted to get back the phone to call me.

So now I'm just fuming (I'm fuming just writing this section) at the sister for being a chronic slow ass. This isn't the first oh no, not here but other things not related to this moment.

When they finally arrive the sister is *still* on the damn phone. Fortunately this time around she had the decency to talk on the phone outside of the class, unlike last week's event when she spoke on the phone while my class was in session. Some people actually looked at her wondering when she'll get off the phone.

My girlfriend is very understanding, and she knows that I'm on my attitude run at this point. I tell her how I feel, how I'm annoyed at what how inconsiderate her sister is. I make no eye contact with the sister all night, that's how pissed I was. The only words I say to her was "thank you" at the end of the night, when she held the door open.

(Note: the sister is on my network of friends. If she reads this, good; saves me the breath of saying it out loud.)

By night's end and after venting my feelings to my girlfriend, all is well...somewhat. Girlfriend and I resume to flirting and we're on our way, with friend Alexis, to the local club.

I hadn't seen Alexis for months now, so the fact that she wanted to go out dancing meant that I was obliged to bend over backwards to get it to happen. Alexis was hungry and was going to get a bite before heading over, and girlfriend was also hungry. During a moment of quick decision the girlfriend asks if I was hungry:

"No I'm not hungry. But I have to stay with my friend."

She was upset I could tell, as she said "Fine. go with her then" and slammed the car door on me on her way out of my car. Geez.

Alexis and I decide to go to straight to the club instead. After hanging out in a sea of hotties and getting my freak on with one of the girls, the girlfriend has yet to show up. I feel guilty and sad, and so I leave the whole gang and head home.

I call up the girlfriend sometime later and we start our first major bout in arguments. She had just left the club.

After some talk she tells me that "that how you are and I accept that."

Now most guys would take this as an advantage, the girl being all considerate and compromising however I didn't take it well. I guess it's hard for me to believe anyone would accept me, faults and everything.

So I tell her I don't believe her, that she's keeping something from me. When we get down to the core, I found that she realizes that I'll always drop everything for my friends...even if it means dropping her.

You see, she was hurt when I told her that "...I *have* to stay with my friend." Giving me the "put yourself in my shoes..." bit, I could see why she was upset. From her eyes, I would rather be with another female friend then with my own girlfriend.

So wrong of me. Realizing my mistake I apologize and continuing our conversation. Rather than get into all the details I will summarize the things learned.

I have a tendency to drop things, at a call's notice, for my friends. My girlfriend has asked me to take her dancing on a few occasions, only to have me say no to her. Hours later, Jose or whatever will call me to go out on the same night...to which I drop everything and go out with them. My girlfriend has always been second to my friends, yet she's always been there for me.

She tells me that she's happy with me most of the time, except during moments such as this. I tell her I don't mean it, I'm just so used to being single.

Compromise is an interesting thing, you don't really know how strange it is until you've been single for a very long time. Instead of thinking about what would be best for me, I have to think about what's best for *us*.

The fact that she tells me she accepts me for who I am, because "that's the way you are" shows a lot however I tell her I'm not happy that she's letting me be completely who I am, without compromising. That's just unfair, and I'm not into being unfair.

So I finally come to the realization that she really does mean it everytime she says "I love you."