I spent my junior year of college abroad in England and became close with this cute guy in my program named Pete*. We never hooked up, but we had a flirty friendship. After graduation, Pete and I both moved to New York City, but we lost touch…until I got my current job at Cosmo.Because I have to report a lot of quotes from guys for our stories, one of the first things I did on the job was put together a huge e-mail list of every guy I’ve ever known. Then I started bombarding their in-boxes with totally TMI questions. ("Happy Monday! What’s your favorite sex position?”) And Pete, to his credit, started to respond to my callouts. After he made a particularly funny confession about the time a girl peed on him in the shower, we started e-mailing back and forth about our personal lives, and he asked me out for catch-up drinks.Pete and I met at a sports bar, and I swear, he’d gotten cuter! We had IPAs and wings, and between our flirting and reminiscing, he told me that he’d just come back from a trip to Germany and met a cool girl there. He didn’t talk much more about her though, so I mentally dismissed her—especially after we started making out at the bar, then in the cab, then in his bed. We had a great time. But in the morning, Pete told me that the German girl was actually coming to New York for two weeks…and staying with him. And she was arriving later that day! Turns out, she’d had a work trip to NYC planned before they even met and decided to stay with him instead of at a hotel after they hit it off in Germany. Pete told me that he hadn’t expected to hook up with me but that he really liked me. He also said he wasn’t sure how he felt about her, so this was pretty much the most awkward timing ever. Agreed.For the next two weeks, I tried not to think about the situation, and I was mildly successful (and by mildly, I mean there was one 30-second period when I wasn’t obsessing). When she left, Pete texted me to ask me to go to a concert on Saturday night. I took that as a sign that the German girl hadn’t worked out, because why would he ask me out otherwise? When I got to the show, Pete was already there, so I gave him a kiss on the cheek, we listened to the music, and then he asked if I wanted to go to another bar to get drinks. Yes! I couldn’t help but think, Future boyfriend, here I come!Wrong. In a nutshell, Pete and I small-talked about nothing for half an hour, at which point I couldn’t take it anymore and asked, "Sooo, what’s up with the German girl?” And he says, "Oh! We’re going to give dating a try.” Um, what? I was baffled, trying to comprehend what was happening. I thought it couldn’t get worse, but then it did. Pete said: "But you’re so great, Annie, and you deserve a great guy. Have you ever thought about trying OkCupid?”Understand: I am in no way a drama queen, but that was just plain heart wrenching. There I was, thinking I was on a romantic date, when really, I was so not on a romantic date…and my "date” had just told me to try online dating! I put down my half-finished beer, told Pete I had to go, hailed a cab, and started bawling the moment I got in. Feeling sorry for me, the cab driver offered me a tissue and assured me, in broken English, "Tomorrow be better day.” At least he was right.*Name has been changed.www.cosmopolitan.com