And yes, because he was flying in a day early and going to some extra expense to meet me, I agreed to lunch. Seemed the least I could do. His emails and phone calls were good. But the non-verbals I described wouldn’t show up in those.

The more I experience these long-distance false starts of relationships, the more I’m convinced they don’t work. Perhaps if you met someone first, at a conference, on vacation, etc., they might. But to try to get to know someone a bit first, then meet and have it fall apart seems to be my pattern. It is easy to be on one’s best behavior when you are hundreds of miles apart.