Expert: Azure - 4/23/2005

Question
I met this guy almost a year ago at a conference. I liked him from the first sight, but I did not try to approach him. He approached me two hours before the end of the conference; I was happy with that though. 2 days later, I received this flirting e-mail from him. we kept exchanging e-mails for two months, where he expressed his wish to visit me where I live, or meet up somewhere else (I would like to mention that we are from different nationalities in a foreign country). but it did not happen as he had to go home for the summer. he was still e-mailing me from his country. he said that we would meet in September when he was back. sometime in September he said that he was back, but he was busy; he had deadlines to meet. he even asked me to read his articles and give feedback, which I happily did.
things were going fine until he started ignoring my e-mails, or reply late in a 2 lines message (this happened three times). I could not understand what was wrong.
two weeks later I decided to move instead of stay and wait. so I e-mailed him saying that I have something to do in his town, I would be there in the end of the week, and asked him if he fancied to meet up for a drink. he e-mailed back saying that he would be busy but he would try to see me (the trip was 3 hours by train). I called him the first day I got there, and left a message on his mobile; he never got back to me. the following day, I called him, and we met for 40 minutes (he had to go as he had a night out with his friends!!!)
I was disapointed. I decided he was a jerk, and there was no point waisting time and effort. so, I never contacted him again.
last week I met him at a workshop. he came up to me and he spent all the 30 minutes break talking to me. I pretended not to recognize who he was for the first 5/ 10 seconds (I know that it was not a good thing to do, but...). He was flirting, but this time I was not flirting back. by the end of the workshop, he asked me if I could send him some stuff by e-mail, and if i still have the same contact details. after two days, I sent him what he asked for, he e-mailed me three days ago asking me about something and sharing some of his family matters. I understand that he wants to revive what he started before. I have not replied yet.

to be honest, I like him a lot, and I cannot stop thinking of him. I want to be with him more than anything else. I don't know what to do this time.

P.S. I might meet him again next week.
P.S. I will be leaving the country in three months.
P.S. I am few years older than him.

Answer
it's like ANY relationship; you decide you like each other, you see each other, you see what develops, how you feel; keep in mind, this is a very FRAGILE arrangement, with distance, ages, what happened before, all working to make this a high risk deal; "want to be wih him more than anything else", is much to needy, and involved emotionally, for the reasons above, AND because you've hardly spent any time together; lower your expectations immediately, and proceed with caution, as the chances of this leading to some big thing are slim..