Season Finale - #5

I couldn’t get back to my world as easily as I’d thought I’d be able to.  Men still approached me and talked.  I looked like a battered wife or at least near homeless.  And I was rude since I felt like I was “off-duty”.  A few guys got my number but one, I never answered when he called because I’d forgotten I’d given him my number and didn’t recognize it.  Another, I’m pretty sure I gave him a card with the wrong number on it.  It went like that for weeks.  My girls and Adam asked what the stalling was all about.  “I’m tired.” Was my reply.  And I was.

If I could find a guy I already knew, someone that didn’t require too much introductory work and that knew how to explore without being too pessimistic, I’d be happy.

Little did I know, I was going to get my wish.

My car broke. My sweet little pony up and died (several times) and no one knew how to fix her.  The Midas shop I’d taken her to as a last resort had told me there was nothing wrong with her but the next morning, she didn’t start as I’d feared.  I needed a specialist, a genius, a hero.  I only knew one and as long as I'd known him, having dealings with him was like going into the badlands with no money and a bikini on and hoping for the best.

I felt adequately desperate and begged my brother to ask his crazy, man-whore, bad-boy of a former best friend (the genius mechanic) to come look at my car.  He did and after a few days, diagnosed the problem and went completely out of his way to come over and finish up fixing it.  My brother couldn’t make it the second time so we had to spend that repair time alone together.  I talked him up like I did all the men I’d come across during the past 3 months even though I’d known him over 4 years.  He was never the shy one and could talk a deaf man to death.  Besides his constant cussing, he was actually funny and kept up his bad boy image with constant references to my breasts.  After he finished my car (my brother had told me not to pay him – he owed him more than my repair covered), I told him I’d like to treat him to dinner, which as I explained meant that he got to take me to dinner but had to pay for everything and be a gentleman.  I was fishing and he took the bait.

Over dinner, I explained my plan for the winter and that I had one month to go and was looking for a little variety in my repertoire.  He was white, had a renowned reputation but we obviously had the same interests and could help each other out.  He had recently had his girlfriend leave him and was well on the rebound and lonely and I was trying to finish out my plan with finesse.  He wanted to learn graphic design and I needed a personal doctor for my Miata.  And we were both excitement junkies and ADD when it came to relationships.  He loved the plan and we agreed to the terms.  No sex, cool places and dates for the weekend and we’d learn from each other.  He was fully on board and asked if he could sign up for the summer too. 

The next weekend, we went out on the town and did Fernbank, Front Page News, and Cabbagetown.  He introduced me as his fiancé, hugged me often and talked a mile a minute.  We laughed continuously and it was like we’d been friends all the time but just now admitted it. 

The next day, he made dinner at his house, made me a foot bath and gave me foot massage, and we rented a movie to watch on his 100 inch tv screen in his media room.  We ended the night with him playing video games on the computer while I gave him a back rub.

We found we literally had the same interests.  I collected toys and had a serious thing for Batman.  He also collected toys and had a Batmobile he’d had since he was a child.  We tested each other on music from our favorite sci-fi movies, which he knew my favorite.  He was brilliant with computers, with mechanics, with anything that he could put his hands on.  He had no follow through which he seemed to find fascinating in me.  He flirted openly and in the same conversation where we discussed the strongest Marvel character, we discussed sexual preferences and positions, last boyfriends/girlfriends, what we couldn’t wait to discover about each other and how our being actual friends was the strangest thing.  It was refreshing.