It was February, 1984 and once again he was in one of those lost stages in his life, he has had so many of them and he was only 24 years old. But, here he was walking through the Palmer Mall on his dinner hour with a co-worker who just happened to be his best friend as well former boyfriend; gay guys have these kinds of convoluted relationships. One of the things he learned from the former BF and other more recent short term relationships was that guys his own age sucked and not in the way he had hoped they would. He decided what he needed was an older more stable and settled man; someone with a little money who could take care of him and protect him from a world he often found difficult to deal with.
After the former boyfriend broke his heart he decided to go back to college in the fall maybe there he could find a path to happiness. He'd get his degree and flee this town, start over, become someone new and find that rich older guy he knew was out there waiting for him. You know the one who would take him on glamorous vacations, buy him polo shirts in every color of the pastel rainbow, teach him about opera, fine dining and some interesting sexual positions that only an experienced guy could teach him.
He never had a type he would often joke that as long as the most important parts work that’s all that mattered. Some of his friends only liked blonds, some only liked hairy guys or redheads or black guys or twinks. Before and after the ex BF he had dated (had sex with) a pretty diverse selection of young men none looked like the other, the only thing they had in common was they were all his age or younger and none were “white picket fence” material.
While walking through the mall he spotted this incredibly handsome and very buff black guy in leather pants working at a gift shop. He went into the shop and looked around mostly at the guys butt, c’mon a really hunky black guy’s butt in leather, what else would a skinny white boy with the libido of 12 men look at? He asked the guy for if they carried a very specific line of greeting cards. The store clerk knew of the line and said they did not carry it and he knew our boy was flirting with him and he did not seem to mind.
He had to get back to work so he thanked the clerk and left the store. His ex BF said “What the hell was that all about?” He just smiled and thought to himself “I’ll be going back to that store again.”
A few nights later he had made his usual mid week trip to the local gay bar hoping to dance a little, flirt a little and maybe get someone to hook up with.
After striking out with a few of the guys he looked across the dance floor and there he was, not in leather pants this time but chinos and a polo shirt but still just as fine. He was hanging out with a short, scrawny, rat faced guy who he was clearly fond of but the guy was busy flirting with every black guy in the place.
Our hero grabbed his gin and tonic took a big gulp walked over and said “So you come here often?” The black guy shook his head and laughed a little.
“Are you with that guy?”
“No, we are just friends.”
“Good cuz I want to dance and then you’re taking me home with you.”
They danced and talked and danced some more. They didn’t go home together that night but made a date for Saturday; dinner and a movie.
They had their date on February 11th, the movie was Vertigo, they went out dancing afterwards, they held hands, and the big hunk took the skinny kid home and the skinny kid never left.
