Reintroduction to an Old Friend

So, I have this old friend. We were, once upon a time, very very good friends. I've never been the type of person to include many people on my list of "friends", and once you're there, you usually stay there. About a year ago, I made the difficult decision to stop being friends with this person. The reasons were complex, and it was a very very difficult decision for me. Ultimately, what I try to live by is this-there are only a certain about of days that you get to live, and finite hours in each day, so why associate with people who bring you down? There are lots of ways to bring someone down, and I had a major housecleaning last year, to surround myself with positive people. As a result, I stopped hanging out with a bunch of folks...but this one person I've missed.

I really like to try to help people, especially people I love. this often leads to me being taken advantage of. That's unfortunate, but true. You would think I'd learn , beecause I go through this over and over again. I will always help those true friends of mine when they need help. So what happens when one of those people always needs help? I drown in it. I go overboard, and inevitably get screwed.

So, Friday night this person walked into McGuires, and back into my life. It was really great talking to him...he and Jon had never met, so there was much catching up to do. But...I'm a little nervous. I can't imagine that we will be as close as we once were, but I'm simply not up for getting screwed over agin. How do you let a person know that while you want to be friends with them, you will not be taken advantage of? Is there a way to say that? I feel like a real friend wouldn't want to take advantage of me to begin with. We taked briefly about the demise of our previus liason. He apologized, and we spoke of how our friendship had reached a boiling point, and we needed to be away from each other. It seemed healthy.

So what now? Is it worth another shot? I'll never give him a single penny ever again. I think he knows he should never ask for it.

Allison, I'm very interested in your thougths on this, as you know him and have had similar experienes. We can talk about it in person, however. You know that old saying..."Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me"? That's what I'm scared of. I'll be a fool if I get taken for a ride again. Alternately, I have had many many very fun times with said person.

On a side note...my favorite Bush quote is him trying to quote what I just said. Instead, he said "Fool me once shame on you...fool me twice, can't can't fool me again." Classic, and he sounded very silly when he said it.

What do I do?