Once upon a time, I dated a man who seemed perfectly normal to me… until he wasn't. Everything seemed fine until he showed me a photo of an ex-fiancée that he occasionally brought up in conversation. It got me thinking: “He still loves his ex, right?” She looked almost identical to me, and that scared me. Shortly after he saw the picture, he started comparing me to her. It was uncomfortable—really uncomfortable. Pretty soon I started to get the vibe that I was a replacement for his ex. This hunch stopped being a floating theory when he called her name in bed, and that was the exact moment I dumped him. Looking back, I realize that what he wanted was his ex and that he was a serious Carbon Dater. What is Carbon Dater? He is a person who tends to date people who look like carbon copies of their exes. They are looking to date someone who is like their ex as a way to live in the past and try to make the future they wanted with their ex.  (Ossiana Tepfenhart)