Attention Queen

Well, well, well...

Saw Toll Booth Guy. He was so sad, if I could have painted a sad clown face on him, it would have accurately described him. Down-turned mouth, puppy dog brown eyes, the works. His aunt died. He's off to upstate NY for a few days. I gave him my warmest, heartfelt condolences. He apologized to me for spreading bad news on my Thursday morning. I told him, that's not an issue, that's the way life is. He mentioned the awkwardness of not seeing cousins etc for a long time til someone dies. I commiserated. I offered him my ear if he "needs to talk about anything, give me a call." He said he'd call. Again. I drove off, thinking, "Somehow I doubt it...."

And then, in the late afternoon, Mr Listener called me and after about 45 lovely non-work minutes of conversation in the middle of my day about banal-yet-fascinating topics to the both of us such as "what type of house structures have you lived in and how did it make you feel to live there," he invited me with these words "why don't you come hang out at the restaurant, tonight or whenever you want...and we can talk some more." Right into his work setting. My god, he's really different. I was.....stunned. And luckily because he has a crap cell phone and it is always a little scratchy, I had to ask him to repeat what he'd said. So then I quipped "Will there be a seat reserved in the VIP section?" and he said, "Yes, you can sit in my lap..." *blink* Wow. Where did that come from? Does my new friend really *hubba hubba* like me after all? I wonder.

So I went. And I sat. In a booth. And he treated me like a queen. And he sat with me and we tried to talk but it was so busy, he really couldn't spend as much time as he wanted. Which was good. I acted very casual and didn't demand his attention. I brought my laptop and worked on my novel which made him curious. Which was good.

And when I left, he gave me a big hug. And then he followed me out in the parking lot to tell me I'd paid too much for the bill and we had a little moment where I was really close to him, and I tilted my head and I asked him if the amount of money I left was really an important matter to him. And he said well, yes but...and I said....it wasn't as though we weren't going to see each other again, why can't it be a give and take situation. And he said OK that next time he was paying for everything. And I just smiled and agreed. I know the man has pride and I'm not going to step on it, but he'd just admitted earlier in the day he's taking in a roommate because he can't pay his bills alone anymore. If he's going to be that open to me about his situation, then he's going to have to handle me paying for some things. This may be a slippery slope to things being difficult between us but I hope not. I hope we're both mature enough to just continue to talk about things, including how we feel. Pretty good so far.

But damn, I wanted to kiss him. Of course I reminded myself I had grilled onions, so I kept my mouth shut. I consumed a delicious burger. Which was not good for my thighs, but that's OK.

I am smiling for the moment. At least until my next post about...reality photos.