I'm new to the area

I don’t understand the events that have recently occurred in my life. I could call it a sign or a warning, but at this point both of the words seemingly work.
On last Friday, I went to Wal-Mart to meet with a friend, who works at Wal-Mart, to talk. The reason for our meeting was he wanted to date again and I needed to tell him face to face that I do not want to date him. Also, I came with another intent which was to truly forgive J for his misdeed towards me. I told J I have forgiven him, yet I have not forgiven him because 1) he allows me to keep punishing him 2) I keep reliving the pain by not trusting his sincere attempt to correct the wrong he did. The reason for “re-forgiving” J was recently I learned to forgive in a new definition. The definition I acquired for forgiveness is that I need to let go and stop the unnecessary punishment of myself or the other person. After, understanding forgiveness in this manor I knew I needed to apply what I had learned on J.
Oddly, as I was walking into Wal-Mart, a seemingly nice guy smiles towards me and says hello. I respond back and keep walking into the store. While walking in the isle I “bump” into him again and he ask “Do, you know how to cook?” Ok, now I was going to respond in my usually sarcastic manor but the sincerity in his voice caused me to reply to him kindly. As I replied, “A little bit”, J walks directly in front of us. I look towards his face hoping he would say something, instead he walks off. I brushed it off because I knew he was at work and may not have the ability to stop and speak to me.
The guy who is talking to me is still yapping away about pots and food. I turn to him and say” Well, the pots and pan are in the opposite direction. Plus I am here to get a few toiletries. It was nice talking to you.” Once I said this his expression seemed like a deflated balloon but that was only for a moment until he said, “I’m new to the area, from Atlanta, and I’m tired of doing things alone. You look like a nice person and I’d like to get to know you. Why don’t you just finish your shopping, and I might run into you again at the checkout counter when you’re done.” I felt bad for being so tart towards him, but I knew I could not meet another person and end up the way I have been lately. However I was intrigued by his slight accent 1) because it’s not an Atlanta accent and 2) I like dialects( accents) .So I asked him, “ You’re not from the States originally?” He responds, “I’ve been here for over 9 years. How did you know I was not form the Sates?” I explained to him that most people from Georgia drag the middle and end of the letters in their words and his are very precise .As well, there is a bit of a British sound to his speech which concluded for me that he was not an American. He tells me, “I’m from South Africa.” I respond to him, “Well, I’m glad you didn’t loose your accent.” He laughs and I walk away.
I continue to shop and call j to see where he was so that I could talk to him. However he does not answer nor responds to my text messages. I finished my shopping and headed to self check out. Which I don’t understand how the self-checkout moves slower than the assisted check-out. I think they should get rid of those darn machines and add more cashiers and teach them to work the machines more efficiently. Okay off of that subject. while I am standing in line, unknown man sees me and we begin talking again. I think I kept talking to him because he really seems sincere and an actual down to earth person. Not the ones who say they are down to earth and they are far from easy going. As we kept talking his free spirited, charming, and friendly nature started to win me over. I think it was the fact the he used the "I’m new to the area" line caused me to become a little nicer to him which allowed me to “won” over. Some people I know what it’s like to be in new surrounding and not have any one there they know. I just could not try to become friendly to people in that situation. As, were talking he ask, “Would you like to join me for dinner somewhere?” Err… that type of question I thought only happened in movies, you know .guy just meets girl slight interest in each other. guy asks girl right at that moment to go to dinner. Anywho, I agreed to go with him (in my car and his obviously) Dinner was nice, even though they were closing in 15 min. I know this may sound cliché but we spoke as if we were old friends catching up. Now that I look back the whole time we spoke to each other it was that say cliché ‘we’ve know each other for ever’ feeling. Since then we have kept in touch often and it’s nice to have a guy that is not after one thing or his personal ambitions but I will keep a cautious eye on him.