Deja vu. I have written about this guy four times before. Four times. And I admit that to begin this post I copied and pasted part of my last writings about him, because he just keeps coming back and it’s all the same damn thing, over and over again . . .

I ran into him again. But wait, please peruse the following to you can get the full picture. This has been going on for . . . years! YEARS!

1. The Landscaper Guy — Not Digging Him — I meet a man.

2. The Landscaper Guy and the Female Chandler Bing — I give him a shot. (I shouldn’t have.)

3. The Landscaper Guy and A Phone Smarter Than Me — I shoot him down, and miss. I have to take better aim and shoot again.

4. The Landscaper Guy, Freaking Part 4 — I shoot him down, again. He expresses concern about my single status.

Are we all caught up? If not, that’s okay because it’s always the same.

Fast forward to now. It was very hot, and you know how they say to check in on older people in hot weather? Well I had to get my Mom out of her sweltering house, so we went for ice cream at an outdoor place. As I was looking at flavors, a man looked at me.

I smiled, because that’s what I do.

He said, “You look familiar.”

I replied, “Well, I’m from here, so you know . . .” It’s a smallish suburban town outside a large city. You can’t swing a dick with running into someone you know. (I’m paraphrasing from Sex and the City because Anthony the Wedding Planner cracked me up with that line. I like funny. Note to men: Many women enjoy humor.)

And here’s where I can just cut and paste, because it’s all so familiar.

“You live on Maple Street, right?” He asked.

“Yes.” Oh geez. It was coming back to me, like a bad debt.

I should have known, the white t-shirt. He had on a white t-shirt . . .

I walked away. I was only there to check the flavors for my mom and report back to her. She was waiting in the car. So that’s what I did. I just walked away.

I hoped, I so hoped that he would be gone when I returned.

My hopes were dashed on the jagged rocks below.

Oh he had gotten his ice cream and was getting into his car — but his car was parked right next the the place. Just my luck.

“Still don’t want to go out with a brother?” He asked me.

Incredibly, he had asked me out again. As I mentioned before, this has been going on for years. Check the dates of my posts. Years.

And still the answer was, is, and will always be, “No.”

Though I clearly said “no” the man continued, just like he had many times before. As he sat in the driver’s seat he motioned to the empty space next to him, “I mean — ice cream. You can sit right here. What’s wrong with getting some ice cream with me? It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

(Except that it would mean that I wanted to get ice cream with him, which I did not.)

And again, I tell you, I tell him, “No.” But like a call and response, I added, without conscious effort to do so, “But thanks anyway.”

(Why am I so polite? Oh well. At least I didn’t attempt to give a reason this time.)

He shook his head as if to say, “What is wrong with this woman ( or bitch)?” He seemed genuinely baffled that I declined to take him up on his offer.

I walked away, again, thinking, “Well, I guess I have another blog post to write.”

I was seconds from a clean get-away, but the Landscaper Guy in the white T-shirt called after me,

“You’re still beautiful, though.”

Well shit. I can’t argue with the brother.

Just Me With . . . ice cream for two — Just Me and my Mom.