Mary

I just found out that a guy I'm casually dating was arrested for theft about a year and a half ago. He was 26 at the time, which in my opinion is too old to write it off as him just being young and stupid. I'm reevaluating the relationship, but this whole thing got me thinking-- where do you draw the line with dating someone who has a criminal record? Obviously, if they did something violent or perverse, that would be a dealbreaker, but what else?

There is a guy that I've known for about 5 years now (I'm in my early twenties), but I usually only see him once or twice a year. I live in Washington state, and he lives in California. We've generally not really stayed in touch between the times that we see each other, but when we do see each other, we're totally comfortable and really great friends.

He was up here in my town this last weekend, and we spent a lot of time together. He kissed me on the cheek a few times. It seemed like we really clicked, and neither of us wanted to say goodbye. We exchanged phone numbers, and he told me to "call anytime I needed to." Then, a day after he left, he texted me saying what a great time he had, and that he was really sorry he had to leave.

Well, I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. I want to text him, but I don't have anything important to say, and I don't want to look totally desperate. Unless I go visit him (which would be pretty expensive), I won't see him for another year. While I know that the sensible thing to do is to just forget about him and focus on other things, I can't help but wonder what might happen if I do reach out to him, you know? What should I do?