Cultivate mystery to spark chase

Advertisement

Advertise with us

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’m in love with a separated guy at work who isn’t in love with me yet. He’s still mixed up with his ex-wife, who dates openly. He’s a super-competitive sportsman and thinks he has to win her back and beat out the other guys. Then he plans to dump her and be with me… maybe.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/03/2020 (2356 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’m in love with a separated guy at work who isn’t in love with me yet. He’s still mixed up with his ex-wife, who dates openly. He’s a super-competitive sportsman and thinks he has to win her back and beat out the other guys. Then he plans to dump her and be with me… maybe.

Miss L., I love this guy, but he’s no great shakes in bed. But then I’m not that good myself. I was brought up in a religious family like him, and only now am I learning, as a divorced woman, about passionate sex as opposed to see-sawing. I’m reading novels of the hot variety and will be much better at sex in the near future. Then maybe I can teach that goofball something.

He and I have been friends for years, and I just love him to pieces! How can I get him to drop the idea he should “win” his wife back, and then dump her on her head? She picks younger guys who are sporty like him — kind of like he looked in his earlier days. She isn’t discreet either — she likes to rub it in. She wants him to know. No hope for him there!

He and I are best of friends and tell each other almost everything. He doesn’t know I’d take him and marry him in a minute, if I could. Then I’d teach him a few things in bed. Ha! Me, a Mennonite girl, teaching him how to be a hot rod! That’d be good!

So how can I hurry this issue of his along? I want him sooner, not later, and we’ve only been to bed three times in a year.

— Lady in Waiting, Manitoba

Dear Lady in Waiting: Right now, his wife is chasing men in general, her husband is chasing her, and you’re chasing him. It’s time to drop out of this craziness and introduce a new project — creating a more fun life for yourself — open to meeting men other than him.

That may awaken his competitive side, and point it in your direction. Tell him breezily you can’t wait forever and that you are looking at who might be available to you other than him. Don’t wait for an answer.

Start with nice clothing at work, a great haircut and some jewellery. Start going out more with friends. Stop reporting everything back to him. The point is, right now you’re just waiting around for him, and he’s s sporty type who needs to chase. How can he chase you if you’re right there for him?

One evening when you’re going out after work, go into the bathroom and change and come out looking sexy and smashing. Wave bye-bye quickly and let him digest that. Don’t give him the blow-by-blow the next day. Say, “Sorry, that’s personal.” You need to create a little mystery, without telling lies.

 

 

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: Another option for the Son of Fighting Parents who has a new girlfriend would be to prepare his new girlfriend in advance for family dinners. As soon as the battle starts (with his right-wing dad and his wife over U.S. politics and such) give them ONE warning about having a pleasant dinner, or he and his lady will leave. If they continue fighting, simply walk out. Parting words? “I love you both, and we will be happy to come back if we can have an enjoyable evening.”

— Different Idea, Manitoba

Dear Different Idea: Your idea is good. I like the take-charge attitude and then the soft exit line as they depart, leaving things open. But, if that doesn’t work, I still think it’s a good idea to take dad and mom out separately for meals or activities, and to sometimes include the girlfriend, explaining you can’t take their fighting anymore and won’t expose your new lady to it on a regular basis.

 

 

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I have a problem with being honest to the lousy dollar, or so I’ve heard through the grapevine. If a friend gives me $10 to buy a couple of beers and it costs eight, I’ll keep the change instead of giving a tip. You know, unimportant things like that. I see that as being a smart guy, earning myself a little extra coin here and there.

I asked this cute girl out I often see at the bar, and she said, “No, thank you!“ and then “Never!” I asked her why, and she said no in two ways. She said the gossip about me is that I’m “cheap” and “nickel-dime dishonest.”

I’m a good-looking guy and I don’t see how a few bucks I pocket here and there should upset her. So I had myself a few more drinks, cornered her and asked for more information. She said: “You’re a character, but you have no character.” I don’t even know what that means. Should I wait a few weeks and ask her out again?

— She’s Worth Waiting For, Downtown

 

Dear Worth Waiting For: She said no twice, and then explained you lack honesty and strength to do what’s right, and have a weak personality. That’s a big no vote — a thumbs-down. So don’t pester her, or you’ll get rejected again.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

Miss Lonelyhearts

Miss Lonelyhearts
Advice Columnist

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Plenty of alternatives to U.S. wines on the shelves

Ben Sigurdson 5 minute read Preview

Plenty of alternatives to U.S. wines on the shelves

Ben Sigurdson 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

In February 2025, Manitoba (and most other provinces) pulled American liquor from store shelves as part of the ongoing trade dispute with the United States.

Then in December, the province followed a similar course to others and put American booze that was already on hand back on shelves, selling off inventory that had been wasting away in warehouses for months, and directing proceeds from those sales to charities.

Lineups sprung up at numerous stores as consumers snapped up bestselling American products — think Maker’s Mark, Jack Daniel’s, Apothic Red and the like. After that initial rush, what was left has been languishing on shelves ever since, with many products eventually being drastically discounted for a quick sale, lest they become too long in the tooth.

I decided early on not to write about/review U.S. products in this space until things were well and truly sorted. But a few months back, I found myself in the mood for a big, oaky red wine and — in a moment of weakness, or nostalgia, or maybe just curiosity — I picked up a $30-ish California Cabernet Sauvignon.

Read
Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

Wooed by wood, Cedarella founder takes pride in handcrafted designs

David Sanderson 8 minute read Preview

Wooed by wood, Cedarella founder takes pride in handcrafted designs

David Sanderson 8 minute read Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

Marina Bulan is the founder of Cedarella, a two-year-old venture that turns out eye-catching wood products such as jewelry, kitchen decor, children’s toys and, most recently, metre-high outdoor planters that double as home street-number indicators.

Ahead of immigrating to Winnipeg a decade ago from their native Russia, Bulan and her partner thought it would be prudent to conduct some research on their soon-to-be new home, a city they knew next to nothing about.

Imagine their surprise as they were viewing the 2007 surrealist film My Winnipeg, which comically blends historical facts about our burg with what Winnipeg-born writer/director Guy Maddin has termed “mystical hypothesizing.”

(For instance, there is no proof that, as reported in the award-winning flick, Winnipeg is the sleepwalking capital of the world, and that residents keep keys to their former abodes on their person in the event they turn up there during a bout of somnambulism.)

Read
Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

Unresolved issues leave little space for you

Maureen Scurfield 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My boyfriend — who is newly divorced — has two great children from his marriage. Although he and I have been together since Christmas, it’s obvious he loves his kids much more than he loves me! For instance, he lavishes affection on the kids when they’re over and completely leaves me out. I’m just the cook and dish-washer for the night.

When I brought this up recently, he said, “My girlfriends don’t last, because if I’m openly affectionate with them, the kids tell their mother we’re making out in front of them! They want all my affection and attention when I’m with them.” Then he added, “Stick around, and the kids will probably loosen up.”

Stick around? The explanation and his “advice” totally turned me off. What do you think?

— Not Second-Best to Anyone, St. Vital

BigXThaPlug misses Country Rising appearance after arrest

1 minute read Yesterday at 12:05 PM CDT

Country-rap headliner BigXThaPlug, scheduled to appear at the third annual Country Rising festival at Blue Cross Park on Friday, missed performing at the festival after being arrested on drug charges in Texas earlier in the day.

According to Dallas’s KDFW, the performer, born Xavier Landum, was arrested by the Allen Police Department and booked into the Collin County Jail on Friday.

The jail’s website states Landum was charged with driving while intoxicated, marijuana possession of less than two ounces, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

‘We got attacked’: Carney says retaliatory tariffs on U.S. to take effect next month

Catherine Morrison and David Baxter, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Preview

‘We got attacked’: Carney says retaliatory tariffs on U.S. to take effect next month

Catherine Morrison and David Baxter, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:46 PM CDT

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney says retaliatory tariffs will hit the U.S. starting next month after Canada walked away from what he called a "bad deal."

The U.S. introduced new 50 per cent tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian exports on Saturday after trade talks failed.

"We got attacked," Carney told reporters on Parliament Hill Saturday when asked about the escalating trade war.

Carney suspended talks with the United States late Friday and summoned his negotiators back to Ottawa.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 3:46 PM CDT

Provincial teacher watchdog releases names, details in three disciplinary matters

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read Preview

Provincial teacher watchdog releases names, details in three disciplinary matters

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read Friday, Aug. 21, 2026

An Interlake teacher with a history of “intimidating” outbursts has been ordered to participate in counselling and study anger-management strategies after he made a child cry.

Read
Friday, Aug. 21, 2026