What just happened?

Do you ever really know someone?

You're going along in your relationship and suddenly, seemingly out of left field, something completely out of character happens. You're absolutely blind-sided.

This was the hot topic during my haircut last evening.

My beloved hairdresser (who is also my new neighbour, if you remember previous posts) was a week into a recent break-up with his partner of more than two years.

The partner came over one night (they weren't officially living together), had dinner, they watched a bit of Family Guy on TV, went to bed, had sex (we share the deets, my hairdresser and I) and, when my hairdresser was leaving for work the next morning, his partner announced that he'd bought himself a condo. A week ago.

Whump! You what?

I think we've all been on the receiving end of these kinds of revelations.

One minute you're on steady ground and the next you're flat on your back and looking up at the aurora borealis.

In my hairdresser's head, the future was joyful co-habitation and Kermit and Miss Piggy running through a field of daisies.

But the story is never as simple as it first appears. They never are.

When something like this happens, you tend to examine the past with the greatest of care. And you realize that there were signs along the way. Plenty of them.

But sometimes the desire for daisies suppresses all reality.

God do I know that drill.

My hairdresser said that his partner had never once told him he loved him in the last year and a half that they were together. No amount of pleading, cajoling or pouting brought the desired result.

But rather than leave, he did back flips to try to make him happy. He did more, bought him more dinners, and took him on more trips -- all even though my hairdresser makes considerably less than his more affluent partner. He swallowed his own needs as he poured every ounce of energy into fixing the unfixable.

But this is the sad truth. No matter how hard you try, sometimes we love someone who has no love to give.

They broke up last Friday night after a conversation that lasted for more than two and a half hours. It was, my hairdresser admits, the longest period of unbroken conversation they'd had in a long, long while.

And when he was leaving, the now ex-partner turned to my hairdresser and said (you guessed it), "I love you very much, you know."

Whump squared.