Back in May, the New York Times revealed that Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne was desperate to hook up with with General Motors — so desperate that he sent his rival a completely unsolicited merger proposal.

Via email.

Which went directly to GM’s CEO Mary Barra.

Whom he’d never met.

Anyone else hearing the theme song from Psycho in the background?

To her credit, Barra took Marchionne’s offer serious enough to discuss it with key players at GM. Then she politely but firmly rebuffed him.

But Marchionne wouldn’t take no for an answer. For the past several months, he’s been talking about other ways of getting what he wants, possibly by means of a hostile takeover.

At long last, however, GM fans can breathe a sigh of relief, because Marchionne finally seems to have gotten the hint:

“This is not an indiscriminate dating game. I’m not willing to go with anybody to get it done,” he said.

“We have been publicly rebuffed, we have been rejected and you cannot force these things. I don’t want to,” he said. “At the moment, we have no intention to do anything hostile.”

He added that other, less obvious merger candidates existed that could offer similar benefits for the world’s seventh largest carmaker by sales.

Marchionne said FCA would first focus on a 48 billion euro ($52 billion), five-year investment plan centered on turning Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Maserati into global brands. Once implemented, the dynamics of the discussion with a potential partner “will completely change,” he added.