The Tuesday Grind

Tuesdays usually offer nothing other than a small crowd at the bar in Newport News. I had exchanged text messages with Rob the night before and had been invited to meet him and Lenny out for dinner. My classes ended at 6:45PM which gave me barely enough time to drive to Lenny's house and await Rob's arrival. I walked through Lenny's back door and not a minute later Rob walked through the front. Lenny rode with Rob and I followed. 

We went to a small local neighborhood Italian restaurant that Rob and Lenny frequent on an almost weekly basis. The owner smiled and greeted us, joking around with Rob and Lenny. A gay couple sat in the booth behind Rob (I sat beside Lenny). One man was gorgeous. I'd assume him to be in his forties, Latino with very dark hair (black with a little salt and pepper on the sides). He wore stylish glasses and dressed far nicer and more professional than his parter. The partner had a buzzed head with a lot of gray. He was really butch, both were to be exact, one just more in a metrosexual way than the other. They were an odd pair, but had been together for years according to Rob. The latin guy must have been related to Frida Kahlo judging by the single tremendous brow spanning across his forehead. He was still very distinct and attractive, and in some sort of strange way, he looked fine with the unibrow. 

Dinner was absolutely superb. I had the chicken souvlaki. It was very Greek. It came with a greek salad, pita bread, some sort of marinated chicken that had been grilled, and fries. I ate the slowest out of the three. Dinner conversation was casual if I can remember correctly, but to be honest, Lenny and Rob ate so quickly, it must have been me doing all the talking. Talks of shopping sprung up after dinner, so it was voted on and decided that we'd hit a couple shops. We went to T.J.Maxx and looked around for half an hour or so. I ended up grabbing an Abercrombie tee and an American Eagle polo (the only decent thing in XS). I was the only one who bought anything surprisingly. Lenny is the big shopper and since he's so particular about what he likes (he is a local fashion icon), I can't be but so surprised he left empty handed. 

We went out to the bar very early. I sat down and had a drink or two before Ryan called. I figured he wouldn't want to come out, so I told him, "I'm just here hanging out with Rob and Lenny. I was waiting for you to get off work, so whenever you're ready, let me know and I'll come over and we can start getting ready and go from there." He ended up calling me back only to tell me to stay there and that he'd meet me. Rob works early mornings, so it was no surprise when he decided to duck out around eleven. I agreed to drive Lenny back home at the end of the night and that all would be fine. 

Ryan showed up eventually. It really hadn't been too busy inside. A guy walked in that I had seen earlier on in the evening. He had been there before Ryan arrived, drinking quietly and devoting all of his attention to doing something on his LG Voyager cell phone. I kept waiting for him too look up so I could walk over and introduce myself but he never did. He left and was now back. I pointed him out to Ryan. "That's the guy that was here earlier." I didn't look to see where he went when he walked past me, but Ryan could see since he was facing in that direction.

"Well apparently he knows Jason." I turned around to see the two hugging and it clicked. My jaw dropped when I watched them hug and smile. I know why he looked familiar. I'd seen him on the Gay.com chat one night and we spoke briefly. He has a couple of small dogs and really struck me as the homebody type. He mentioned the fact that he worked in retail and it eventually came out that he is the man that Jason (my ex-boyfriend) answers to. I quickly told Jason who this mystery man was and told Frank I wanted to talk to him at the other end of the bar. Frank was in the middle of pouring a drink.

"Is this one from you?" he asked, holding up a glass and motioning over to the mystery man. 

"Yeah, go ahead and put it on my tab." I just wanted to be nice, but now it was starting to be more out of spite than anything. Frank dropped the drink and informed him that the gentleman at the other end of the bar had got the drink for him. I showed no emotion on my face, nor did I even look at him to see if he was looking at me. I'm sure Jason immediately made comments seeing as his ex-boyfriend, yours truly, had purchased his boss a cocktail. Frank came over to me and I spilled the beans. "THAT is why he looked so familiar. I bet you Jason is over there talking shit about me right now."

"Oh no baby, I really don't think he'd do that. He really just wants everyone to get along. He and I had a very long conversation the other day. He called me and we talked." Frank could have really had me going if I had let him, but not that night. Before the conversation could be continued, this man came up to me and put his hand on my back as I leaned over a bar table facing Frank.

"Did you buy me a drink?" he asked.

"Yes, I did." I don't think I hardly made eye contact with him.  He shook my hand and thanked me, claiming to be "very appreciative," and that hopefully he could sometime "return the favor." He walked off without ever saying his name or mentioning the fact that we'd spoke online before. It was the most terrible performance of gratitude I think I've ever been forced to witness. 

I walked across the bar to where Lenny was standing at the time and we lit up cigarettes and spoke briefly about nothing particularly important. When I turned back to the bar, I saw Ryan sitting and staring in the direction of Jason and his boss. Ryan didn't look happy. His eyes were sharp and somewhat squinted. His arms were folded. "What's wrong?" I asked. 

"They're talkin' shit." He looked at me then. "You wanna know how I know? Because when you walked over there to talk to Lenny, they were talking and both turned and looked at you the same time and started laughing."

My blood started boiling. My smile straightened out and the light in my eyes went out and was replaced by fire. "I'm going to say something. I'm fucking pissed!" I was about to go over to them when Ryan grabbed my wrist.

"No, don't say anything. Just calm down, it's not worth it." I'm so non-confrontational it's not even funny. That evening was entirely unlike all the other nights. This time, I felt like I couldn't take it any more. I wasn't going to sit around and have my good deeds turned around in my face. Jason had ruined my reputation to that man at least. 

Ryan followed me to the other end of the bar. Frank came up to us. I was staring at Jason and the other guy. "What's wrong fellas?" Frank did look genuinely concerned as he spoke to us. We tried to simplify the story. Frank went on and on about how "Jason wouldn't do that. He really wouldn't. He wants everyone to get along. I spoke with him." He went on and on about it until I just cut him off. 

"Frank, people will blindly betray your trust... He's smarter than that Frank. You know he knows better than to talk about us around you. He's smarter than to do that." Frank shut up. Ryan went on to tell him that we had a lot of history with Jason between the two of us. My drag queen CoraVette Colby was in the house in her guy form that night (Omar). He was more concerned about my well being than I was at that point.

"I don't like to see you sad like this boo."

"I'm not sad, I'm just really pissed off."

"Who pissed you off? I'll take care of it!" Cora means well but I wasn't about to have her making a fool out of herself just for my sake. It was sweet though. Omar/Cora even bought me a drink. After I finished that, I decided I was too angry and just needed to leave. 

I was two seconds away from walking out the door when Ryan stopped me. 

"Aren't you taking Lenny home tonight?"

"Oh SHIT! Yeah, I am. Thanks for reminding me. That would've been pretty bad."

He put his hand over his mouth and laughed and so did I. It was pretty bad. We looked over to see Lenny talking to this guy with a shaved head and a goatee. He was obviously interested but the guy had had it with Lenny's intoxicated state. When I told Lenny I was ready to go, he said he was too and mumbled something about the guy next to him hating him, so he was ready to leave anyways. After ten minutes, his drink was still at the same level and he was still working on this guy who he claimed hated him. He was overboard at that point. Lenny finally got away and we left. Ryan went home, and I took Lenny home before returning myself back to my bed.