The concept of a palate cleanser is (hopefully) familiar to you all. It’s a small bite of something that neutralizes the taste of whatever you just had, to prepare you for the next dish. Like having a little piece of ginger in between sushi courses. What if I told you such a thing exists in the dating universe too?
Let me paint you a picture. You got out of a serious relationship. I’m talking years and years of togetherness. You go through a nasty-ass breakup and spend some time by your lonesome to heal. After a while you’re ready to get back into the proverbial saddle, but you’re slightly worried you’ve lost your mojo. What do you do? You get yourself a palate cleanser. Something to rinse out that last bit of taste of your ex and prepare you for the next serious step in your dating life. Dust yourself off, if you will. And no, this is not the same as a rebound. Why not? Because rebounds are for projecting your residual feelings on. Palate cleansers are not.
So if this is something you wanna get into, there are some things you have to keep in mind. First – and this is important – don’t go and get you a softhearted, kind person that’s looking for something serious, OK? There’s plenty of people who are perfectly fine with being a palate cleanser, we don’t need you ruining some of the good ones out there.
Secondly, and we’ve talked about this before, you need to manage expectations. Even if it starts out as a casual situation, a lot of times someone will eventually catch feelings. And the rule to keep in mind is: if you notice that the other person is feeling more than agreed upon, it is your job as the less-emotionally-invested-participant to shut that shit down. Otherwise we’re right back at point number one where you’re not supposed to damage someone that’s looking for something serious, mmkay?
Finally, you need to know when it’s time to get out. I can’t tell you when that is, you have to decide that for yourself. Thing is, it’s supposed to be an in-betweener, so you don’t wanna get so caught up in something that isn’t built to last that you’re going to miss out on something that is really great for you.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going out for some sushi.