I started talking to a guy who seems really respectful, hardworking, and family-oriented. We went on two great dates that he thoughtfully planned around my interests and around covid-safety measures. He checked all of my “boxes” for the early vetting process of figuring out his lifestyle, health, hobbies, and goals. On the third date he cancelled and did not attempt to reschedule. Normally, this would obviously be a block and delete but I think this situation might be different.

On the first date I asked how his family was doing with the pandemic and he told me his grandfather was really sick due to reasons unrelated to covid and he might pass away any day now. I think he only brought this up because I asked. On the second date I asked a lot of questions about his job as a paramedic because i’m really interested in what he does and he told me he loves it and he can usually handle it but every once in a while when something really bad happens to a child it messes him up for a few days and he has to take off work and mentally process it.

He also told me on the second date that he signed up to be “on call” for his off days so if they are ever short staffed they can just call him in which is something I like because to me it shows how he’s a hard worker. I’m very much a married-to-her-career type of woman and I prefer my men to be the same. So he cancelled the third date because he was called in to work which was fine but he never tried to reschedule or contact me after this.

I waited a few days thinking he might reach out, but, against FDS’s better judgement, I decided to reach out and ask how he was. He sent me an apology paragraph and told me that something really upsetting happened when he was called in to work and he found out his grandfather passed away when he got home and said he didn’t mean to be so distant. I felt like his apology made sense considering the little details he told me about on the first two dates after I asked him those questions.

Since then, it’s been a few more days and he still hasn’t messaged me but I know he’ll come back because men literally always do. Is it okay to give him some more time with no contact or should I have expected him to keep in touch a bit more? I had good gut feelings about him when I was around him but now it’s been so long that i’m starting to get nervous.

Edit: I should also add, he’s usually pretty active on social media but since he “ghosted” me he hasn’t really been on social media at all so that’s kind of another reason why I think he might be genuine.