Well, as I prophetically said…

This "thing" would work itself out—and so it did. It lasted all of a week, and he's disappeared for most of the past week. 

Last weekend, I went with him to the MoCCA arts fest, and had a great time; I attended panel discussions, got autographs—including Gary Panter's autograph on my STUDIO TAN LP.

So here I am not even a week later; I just mailed him a letter in which I expressed disappointment but was surprised only that the whole thing had run its course within a week. The trajectory—predictable. I figure he went back to his girlfriend, even though it was supposed to be an "open" relationship. He had tried to diminish her importance to him by letting me know she was bi—and I think that's kind of heinous in itself—but I wasn't fooled.

Of course, it's possible he had a second catastrophe he had to attend to—his father died a couple of weeks ago and he had disappeared, resurfacing in time for the MoCCA fest. (He had gone to the funeral in Cleveland.) But I'm not going to hear what happened either way.

I wrote him a "Dear John" letter and sent it via postal mail; in it, I assure him I don't blame anybody—least of all him—and closed it wishing him well, because "you deserve to be happy." There's a small chance it will come back to me stamped "DECEASED", but in light of the events of the past two years or so, I don't think it will faze me if it does.

And so it goes.