As many of you may recall, months ago I was posting information about two young people in my office I referred to as Ice Princess and the New Guy. I was literally writing about how these two people individually told me they liked one another, yet neither was willing to take the first step to engage the other. I was basically trying to solicit reader inputs about how these two people might be able to get together.

Here were are at the tail end of September and Ice Princess and the New Guy actually got up the nerve to speak to one another and have now been dating for about 3 months. I can honestly say they both seem very happy and really appear to be enjoying spending time with one another. Ice Princess actually started to thaw!

Here's the latest: About two weeks ago, Ice Princess went on a cruise to the Caribbean with friends and family. New Guy was not part of the trip as it had been planned months before he and Ice Princess started dating. Before the trip, Ice Princess gave New Guy a key to her apartment and asked him if he would be willing to take care of her cats and her mail. New Guy readily agreed. Additionally, Ice Princess informed New Guy that she had traveled to the Caribbean before and she did not feel she would have good cell phone coverage based on her past travels. Because of this, Ice Princess informed New Guy she didn't know how often she would be able to make contact with him while she was gone. This didn't seem strange and New Guy wasn't worried before the trip.

While Ice Princess was on the trip, she did not make contact with New Guy; however, once she returned to the United States she called him. Things seemed to be fine.

However, once Ice Princess returned to work, she made absolutely no attempt to make contact with New Guy even though they normally made contact several times a day. New Guy was bothered somewhat by this, but not overly concerned.

The evening following Ice Princesses' first day back at work is where things really started getting weird. New Guy contacted Ice Princess several times during the evening. During one of these contacts, Ice Princess told New Guy she was "confused." This threw New Guy for a loop as he had no idea why Ice Princess would be confused.

As usual, the next morning, New Guy came to me, reported the latest happenings and then solicited my inputs about what might be going on. My initial feeling was that Ice Princess was confused as she has never been in a relationship where she felt this way. As you may recall, this is the same girl that deliberately dated the "wrong guy" because she knew it would be easier for her to break the relationship off. Now, she finds herself involved with someone she really does care about and is alarmed because she has never allowed herself to be involved in this way and really doesn't know what she's supposed to do.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

To read my other thoughts, please visit my blog at: www.advice-smoke-and-mirrors.blogspot.com