Monday, July 14, 2003

Gay man seeks straight answer.

So, I was really bold this weekend, and it seemed to not work in my favor. I was shopping with some girl friends of mine, and they went into a chocolate store. While they did that, I retreated into an Eddie Bauer to avoid temptation ... and met a guy.

I thought he was the sales clerk. He wasn't -- he was the manager. Egged on by my friends, I actually, in a move that can be best described as uncharacteristically ballsy, asked him out on a date -- before knowing whether or not he was gay. (For those of you straight readers, this is never something done lightly.)

His reply to my question was, "Um, this has never happened to me before."

"At a clothing store?" I asked. "If you worked at Banana Republic, it would probably happen a lot."

"This is really awkward," he said.

At which point, I apologized profusely of course, though I was kinda hoping he'd laugh it off and eliminate potential weirdness between us.

So I felt like crap, so embarassed I wanted to crawl into a hole. So embarassed that I bought nice, tan, lightweight summer cargo pants.

And so we finally left the store, and my friends handed me the guy's phone number. Because he was a superior, he didn't want to appear to be picking me up, yet at the same time he felt so bad about the situation that he wanted to get an opportunity to explain everything to me later.

And he told me I was brave. And cute. And funny.

He also told me that he doesn't date because he isn't ready for that in his life, yet he's more than happy to be friends with me. And that he has friends that he sleeps with.

So he says "no" to my face and makes me feel bad, only to say "yes" in a covert way behind my back. He leads me to believe he's not gay when he is. And then he gives me his phone number, wants me to call him, tells me that he likes me but sees that there's no future in it. Then he tells me we can be friends and that he sleeps with his friends.

Oh, and he told me that I think too much.

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