I suppose Chuck Klosterman is not as irrelevant as I once thought.

Let me explain:

Just recently I have been in a rather interesting situation. I have become decently good friends with a girl who has a boyfriend. Now this is not really a big deal, I have had friends who were girls that were not single. However, within our group of friends, there has been a fair amount of chatter of something going on. Now I am hearing this all third, fourth and fifth hand, so I really have no idea who is starting this and who believes it, but suffice it to say that I have heard from quite a few people that some people within our group of friends believe that my relationship with this girl is not strictly platonic.

For the record, it 100% most certainly is. The amount of time spent hanging out with this girl outside of any kind of large social gathering is non-existent. I will admit, however, that there was a time when I and this girl would flirt a lot, but again, it was all strictly platonic. I have never given this girl so much more than a hug. In the scope of the past couple months, we have both reached out to the other when we were in some kind of woe situation. But i must reiterate that we have never done anything. Ever.

I can understand how this must seem a little fishy on the surface, but, like i said, there is nothing going on, so I really dont feel like I am doing anything in the wrong.

But this all comes back to Chuck Klosterman because of something he said in one of his books (they are all essentially the same). The reason dating is so hard is because guys who are looking for single girls have a very high bar to hurdle. What i mean is that you have to be more desirable than every other guy on the market. You have to seem more interesting and like a better investment than every other guy who will hit on that girl that night.

But with taken girls, you simply only have to be more desirable than the person she is dating. With taken girls, the bar is only set as high as the person she is dating has set it. I dont think this girl is at all interested in me, and really she is just a friend to me (i understand that this constant reaffirmation of the platonic nature of our relationship sort of goes against my argument, but I swear, we are just friends), but I think that if I wanted to get involved with the girl, all I would have to do would make myself seem more interesting and desirable than her boyfriend.

Lucky for everyone, I am a nice guy. Because I would honestly never want to put anybody through the strain of having some other guy scheming on their girlfriend.

anyway.