Chapter 4
“So… that was fun and it’s only six thirty,” Michael laughed softly as they grabbed their coats and made their way out of the venue.
“Yeah, it’s early,” Sydney sighed.
“You, um… you wanna grab some dinner?” he asked cautiously. “I mean… I don’t want to consume all your time or anything but…”
“No, dinner sounds great,” she smiled at him. “Where do you want to go?”
He shrugged, “You pick.”
“Um, how about we go to that place across the street? Then we don’t have to drive anywhere,” she suggested. He nodded and then they both made their way out into the chilly evening air.
“So, uh, do you have a boyfriend?” Michael asked while they walked.
“No,” she shook her head. “Why?”
“Oh, I was just concerned that some burley guy was going to show up at my doorstep and beat the felgercarb outta me for taking his girlfriend on a date,” Michael laughed.
“No,” Sydney laughed. “First, I’m not into burley guys… second I haven’t had a boyfriend since I broke up with Todd two – wait, no, three months ago.”
“Todd?” he asked cautiously.
Sydney nodded. “We’ve been on again, off again for about two and a half years but now we’re finally done for good.”
“What happened?” he asked.
“He cheated,” she told him bluntly.
“Jerk,” Michael commented more to himself, but it came out louder than he meant it to.
“Definitely. I mean, in the beginning he was great… then we fought over something stupid and broke up… but then we got back together… it came down to the fact that we were comfortable with each other, not exactly madly in love anymore, you know?”
“Absolutely,” he nodded. He was then about to go into a speech about how a similar thing happened with him and his college girlfriend, until he remembered he was supposed to be gay, which lead him to the realization that he needed to bring that up.
“I just...,” Sydney continued with a sigh. “I’m really sick of guys right now. Really, really sick of guys.”
“Really?” Michael gulped, breaking out into a cold sweat.
“Absolutely. I definitely need to be single for a while. Men suck – not you,” she corrected quickly with a smile, touching his arm lightly. “Just boyfriendy jerk men.”
“Uh huh,” he whimpered as he watched all his wonderful plans to make an ass out of himself with his ‘I’m not gay’ speech crash and burn.
“Well, you know the feeling, right? I mean, what happened with you and your ex?” she asked curiously.
“My-my-my ex?” he stammered.
“Oh god,” Sydney cringed immediately. “I’m so sorry I asked, I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s okay,” Michael said quickly, realizing that she sounded distraught when really, it was all his fault. “It, um, it wasn’t that big a thing really… I mean, we were only together a few weeks… he was just a jerk,” he said quickly, trying his best to think on his feet.
“Oh that’s awful; I’m sorry,” she said.
“Nah, it’s cool,” he smiled, thankful he had managed to breeze through that conversation.
Once at the restaurant, their conversation stopped for a few minutes while they took their seats and began skimming through their menus. After they ate, Sydney began picking at one of the bread sticks on their table while asking cautiously, “So, um, if this is way out of line you can totally tell me but, how long have you been, you know, gay?”
Michael choked on the water he had been sipping and began coughing violently. “Oh my god, are you okay?!” Sydney asked frantically.
“Swallowed wrong,” he croaked.
“Oh, I hate that,” she sighed with a sympathetic smile.
“Yeah, um, what’d you ask?” he croaked again, begging that he had heard her wrong.
“How long have you been gay?” she asked timidly in a hushed voice.
Michael nearly had a panic attack right there. Moments earlier, he had been ready to break the truth to her, now what was he going to do? If he told her the truth, she’d not only hate him, but not even consider dating him since she had recently sworn off men. At the same time, he desperately wanted to continue their relationship, or whatever it was that they had. “Well, um,” he stammered. “I don’t know that I can pinpoint a time…”
“Have you dated women?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said very quickly.
“Oh ok,” she nodded.
“I guess… it was college,” he said weakly. “Med school…”
“Oh so it hasn’t been that long then?” she asked curiously.
“No, no this is all very new,” he spoke with more truth than she could have ever understood at that moment.
She nodded. “I’m sorry, I never asked, how old are you?”
“I’ll be thirty next month,” he told her.
“Ah, okay, I’ll be twenty eight next April… but my sister will be thirty three this week. We’re throwing a party for her next weekend. You should come,” she said casually.
“Oh no, I don’t wanna barge in on your family thing,” he said with a wave of his hand.
“Oh, it’s not family. It’s huge. I mean, I don’t want to twist your arm into coming or anything, but if you wanna come…”
“Okay,” he smiled. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” she smiled back. “So, what do you do in your free time? Party hop from gay bar to gay bar?” she teased with a smile.
He laughed. “No, actually I’ve never been in a gay bar, nor do I want to be in one.”
“Oh, yeah,” she cringed slightly. “My sheltered mind doesn’t even want to know about that.”
“Nor does mine,” he muttered under his breath while shivering slightly. “Anyway… I don’t have much free time. I work a lot and volunteer some of my free time at the hospital’s children’s wing.”
“Wow,” Sydney sighed, sounding very impressed.
“Yeah… with the free time I do have… I just…,” he shrugged. “Hang out with some friends…”
“No flipping burgers at McDonalds?” she grinned.
He laughed loudly. “Nope; haven’t done that since high school and, actually, I manned the French fry machine.”
“Oooo, moving up the corporate ladder.”
“Oh yeah,” he laughed. “Course now I can’t even look at a fry without feeling the urge to gag but…,” he sighed with a shrug.
She cringed. “Not good.”
“Nope,” he sighed.
For the rest of their dinner, they carried on a light conversation about their lives and when it was over, Sydney gave Michael a tight hug goodbye. “I’ll call you later in the week with the party details, okay?”
“Okay,” he smiled. “Goodnight Sydney.”
“Goodnight to you,” she smiled back.
