Flak for Flake

I've been getting a lot of flak from concerned friends over dating Flake. Let me back up a bit - there's a good story. Last week Flake and I had a very nice evening that eventually led into morning (if you know what I mean ...). We obviously dig each other, and there was no awkwardness in the morning. Just nice, comfortable times spent with Flake. Keeping this in mind, the one downfall to Flake is the fact that we seem to go about 2 weeks between dates - he is a busy guy and there is a bit of resistance from him. We are both going out on dates with other people .... probably for very different reasons though.

Anyhow, that evening I was out with my friend J for a drink and as we're sitting down the guy at the next table leans over to say "hi" to me. It's Flake .... with another woman. I was so flustered - not what I expected to see, especially considering the wonderful time that we had the previous night. J was furious - I, on the other hand, don't want to jump to conclusions. I go out with my male friend M all the time. And I had dates with 2 different people that very same week. Flake and his "friend" left before we had even finished a beer, and he looked very sheepish as he waved and said goodbye.

Awkward, non? The proper thing to do would be for Flake to call me the next day, but I recognize that men are cowards (verified by all the men I polled - not one of them said that they would call the next day out of fear of a big freak-out). So I made the first move, and to make a long story short yes, he was out on a date. So we've since had a big discussion about how to proceed from here. He feels good about the conversation, and I feel .... well .... okay. I won't bore you with the details.

So now some of my friends aren't happy - consensus seems to be that (a) he's not into me, and (b) he isn't long-term material. Some of my other friends think otherwise. I know that ultimately I have to do what is right for me, and to go with what my gut tells me. The one thing that Flake and I seem to do really well is communicate, and we pretty much lay it all out (at least I do). I don't want to waste my time with a guy that's not into me. My discussions with my well-intentioned friends are creating doubts - and I hate doubting myself.