The thing about broken hearts, they never fully heal. Just like anything else, it can repair itself, make it look exactly like new, but there will always be a scar. Always something that can make you twinge a little. My grandpa told me a story about how broke his leg once. He said it happened when he was a boy. I told him I was sorry it happened. He smiled and told me not to worry about these types of things. That he didn't even remember about it unless it rained. I smiled and thought that this was a good way to think of old injuries. I never really thought about treating a broken heart that way. Perhaps in the back of my mind, I never thought it possible of me getting my heart broken. I chuckle at my naivety but as a kid, if you believe the fairy tales, why would you?
So being out in Las Vegas, having my own thrilling version of Sex in the City, I began to carve my own path. Charity was becoming quickly one of my favorite people. Even though she was younger and was a little more daring than I, we seemed to fit into each others lives perfectly. She made things more interesting. However, it was nice having someone like Dylan around to keep me grounded and my perspective in check. He was so smart and very funny. He was such a goof and didn't care to be silly wherever we were at. Dylan was also a blackjack dealer at a casino. I can't remember specifically which one he was at but I feel like it was one of the bigger ones. He actually tried to encourage me becoming a cocktail waitress. (Being super insecure about my body, I didn't think I could handle it. I mean, don't get me wrong, some of the cocktail waitresses were older ladies and I give them mad props for being able to do that every day. I guess I just had never reached that point in my life where I was comfortable enough with myself that even if I did look terrible, I could say screw what any one else thinks.) I laughed. He didn't. He told me I was a hot young girl and could clean up with all the old men playing the slots. When he still wasn't laughing and waiting for me to respond, I was stunned. I had never thought about being a server or waitress. I wouldn't even know how to go about it. He smiled and told me that he could get me an interview if I felt so inclined. Dylan said we would rule the game floor with an iron fist! This time when I laughed, so did he.
I told him I didn't know if I would be able to pull off that uniform. He was confident that we could get my insecurities resolved.
With my gay bestie Dylan and my party girl bestie Charity, I was fully equipped to take on the big bad city. I always wanted my life to be like this. I know the rule is "whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" and for the most part I will try to stick to the code. Some of these stories are just too good to pass up telling. We had an uncanny knack of finding ourselves in the best situations. Charity met the starting lineup for a famous male stripping troupe. Not Chippendale's but Thunder from Down Under. We got free tickets and saw a fun show. After words, we met up at the local Denny's and had a personal one on one with a handsome man from Australia. He had long black hair from 1985 (the worst thing about him), a killer smile and fantastic body. He only ordered coffee, seeing as he had just got done with an hour and a half live show, I guess he wasn't ready to eat but not ready to go to sleep either. His accent was adorable and I could've listened to him talk all night. Per usual, he was there for Charity and not me so I got to just look at the goods. I wasn't complaining though, the view was spectacular. While listening to the both of them, I found myself missing Dylan. He would be so jealous that he missed this up close and personal face time. The thought of it made me chuckle so I sent him a quick text. The reply was almost instant. He was on break but would be off in an hour. He wanted to hear all about it. I smiled to myself. I knew it. Charity could see me grin and nudged my foot. Her quizzical look was combined with confusion and curiosity. I told her who it was. She asked if we needed to leave. I told her no, we were fine. Giant Aussie excused himself and went to the men's room. Once he was out of earshot Charity asked me about what Dylan said. I told her the truth, that he was dying to know all the details and was calling me as soon as we got off. She raised an eyebrow and took a drink of water. I wanted to know what the look was for. Charity shrugged and said it was probably nothing. Around that time the Thunder returned and all the Dylan talk was sidelined.
After we left, Mr. Down Under was trying to convince us to come to an ultra exclusive after party. (AKA he was wanting to get in Charity's pants and I would be passed along to a friend). Charity being the residential party girl did something very out of character, she declined his offer. He did that whole 'you're breaking my heart' gesture. I was kind of glad she said no. I always felt he was kind of smarmy. To this day, I can't remember if they ever hooked up. (Probably because what stemmed afterwards was a pivotal point in my love life.) As we got closer to the car, the energy bouncing off Charity was nearly electric. Magic Mike opened her car door and kissed her on the cheek. He then came around and kissed my hand and said it was a pleasure to meet me. He also reassured me that he had many single friends who would be more than interested to become better acquainted with a lovely lady like myself. Let's try to ignore the 3 shades of red I turned while getting such a compliment. I stammered for a bit and then followed up with an extremely lame laugh and goofy half grin. Yeah I know what I said earlier, the whole smarmy vibe, but I am merely a human and when a hot Australian guy calls you lovely, no matter how smarmy, you immediately revert to a less articulate version of yourself.
Charity began to chuckle awkwardly. She was ready to go and wanted to talk. With one last wave, we got in the car. Charity grinned her mega watt smile and said she got a text from Brian. I looked at her with a perplexed look. I turned and faced the wheel. I let go and faced Charity again. I didn't want to admit that I couldn't remember tall and dreamy's name but I was 99.9% sure that it wasn't Brian. Charity then began to prattle on about Brian and then Dylan's name was brought up and I quickly realized who she was talking about but not as to why she was overly excited. Charity snapped her fingers in front of my face. I needed to get it together. Brian was having a bunch of people over and we apparently needed to make an appearance. I quickly sent Dylan another text letting him know the change in venue. I got a series of smiley faces. Charity smiled and poked my ribs. She wanted to know who I was making goo goo faces about. I gave her a sneer. I told her I text Dylan. Charity giggled and said she knew she was right. Right about what? I tried to change the subject. I mean, we had just made a pretty big connection that night. An all access pass to male strippers!! Hello! Isn't this what Vegas was all about?? Charity scoffed and said Thunder Down Under would be around for a minute and she wasn't concerned about it. At that comment, I'll admit, I got a little salty. Wasn't it only fair that she take a land mine for me? How many countless guys had I dealt with because she wanted to talk to their cute friend/roommate/brother? She owed me and I let her know it.
This next part gets a little weird for me. She makes this confused/frustrated face and asks why on earth I was pissed at her. I told her that I was trying to get with a hot AUSTRALIAN stripper! (Hugh Jackman he was not but it was as close as I was gonna get) Charity then proceeded to laugh. Not with me like 'oh what a hilarious misunderstanding' but more like 'oh your an idiot if you think a stripper is going to hook up with you.' I have never been a good liar and when I am pissed, I'm subtl like a truck. Charity looked at my face and immediately shut up. She apologized and decided to let me in on the joke. She felt like an idiot because here all along she thought that I was crushing on Dylan. I nearly rammed into a pole. Charity flipped and told me to pay attention to the road. I told her that I needed her to explain the previous statement. Why on earth would she think that I would be into my gay best friend. She started to laugh again. I pulled the car over and demanded to know what was going on. All this back and forth talk was making me queasy. I needed her to give it to me straight. Charity tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and began to dish. Apparently, they had been completely wrong about Dylan. He wasn't gay at all and to top it all off, he had a major jonesing for yours truly. I know my jaw dropped and hung there for a minute. Was she nuts? There's no way. Dylan was gay! He had listened to me complain about other boys and given me advice. Really good, usful advice. We talked about movies and music. How I was going to start a new trend in the fashion world called Californian Hobo chic. We teased each other and spoke nearly every day. He had wanted to meet the Thunder from Down Under guy. I told Charity that there was no way she was right. She had to have misunderstood. Plus, she was the original one who had told me he was gay!
Charity shrugged her shoulders. What could she say, she had made an assumption from previous interactions and that was her bad but now she was trying to fix it. That is why she was wanting to ditch the Aussie. Brian was telling us to hurry up and get here because Dylan was wanting to come clean about his feelings. I still sat there numb. She kept blathering on about it. I gripped the steering wheel and told her she was wrong. That Brian didn't know what he was talking about. I had interactions with this guy every day for over 2 months. I would know if a guy like that was interested. Wouldn't I? As we pulled up to the house, my palms began to sweat. My heart beat accelerated. I was so flippin' nervous. Charity text Brian to let him know we had arrived. When she looked up, I was breathing pretty hard. She placed a hand on my shoulder and asked me what was wrong. I told her I wasn't positive but I think I was in the beginning stages of a panic attack. Once she calmed me down and I was no longer hyper ventilating, Charity wanted to get to the bottom of it. I told her that the thought of Dylan being straight and wanting to date me was more than I could handle. When she asked why, I couldn't help but laugh at her. This man knew all my secrets. I had shown him my 'warts' and 'scars'. He had seen me at my worst emotionally, my most idiotic (thanks to alcohol), my happiest times and he was a fixture of a lot of my favorite memories. For him to be straight and know this things about me and still be interested...this was love right? I started to panic again. What if it was a trap? What if he was trying to trick me into thinking he was in love with me and then at the last minute, after I have fallen madly in love and picked out our wedding theme, he'd pull back the proverbial football, so to speak, and watch me fall hard on my backside and laugh mercilessly at my pain. I hadn't been planning a future around this guy, he was my GAY friend!! She put both hands on my shoulders again and told me to relax and forget about it. I shook my shoulders and rolled my neck. Charity was right. I needed to shake this off. Just because Dylan was maybe bisexual (I was trying to keep calm at all costs) didn't mean that he was into me or that I was even really into him. As I walked into the house, an old 80's classic was blaring. I immediately felt myself being drawn in a direction. When I looked up, I locked eyes with Dylan. He smiled and waved at me. He started to cross the room to meet with me. My heart began to race. What was this feeling? I cursed Charity in my head. How dare she fuck this up for me?! I had something real here and now there could be feelings thrown in the mix. I wasn't sure I was ready for all that. Suddenly Dylan was very close to me. I could smell his aftershave. He had raced home to shower before coming here. Clearly he wanted to make an impression. I inhaled deeply. Man, he smelled good. I told him. Dylan smiled wide. He said he always smelled like this. I looked at him with mischief. The teasing was starting to commence. Our witty banter had always calmed me. After we were done and our sides were about to burst, a breeze came our way. I caught a whiff of him again and instinctively took a step closer. (nothing is more of a turn on than a bright smile and a good smelling individual) I smiled brightly. Dylan still kept his grin but you could tell he was confused. I asked if he was sure if he always smelt this way. I playfully hit his arm and said that if he didn't watch out, he wouldn't be able to shake me. Dylan reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. He smiled and said that he loved my hair. Dylan thought it was one of my many fantastic features. I swallowed hard. Was Charity right?? Did he have a crush on me? He distracted my thoughts by grabbing my hand and leading me to the bar area.
When we arrived he began making me a cocktail. Then he inquired about the male stripper. I chuckled nervously and asked what he wanted to know. He smiled kindly at me and said he wanted to know if "Mr. Stripper Man" kept his hands to himself or did Dylan need to go and teach him a thing or two. I threw my head back with laughter. The thought of Dylan beating anyone up was hysterical to me. He turned to face me, his eyes shining brightly. He shoved me slightly and wanted to know what was so funny. Was I not confident in his manly manliness? He flexed his muscles to demonstrate his prowess. I playfully grabbed his arm. In that moment, I could feel something shift. He placed his hand over mine and smiled at me in a way that I had never seen before. Dylan asked me if I wanted to come outside with him. He felt like he needed some air. Now that he mentioned it, the room did seem too small and I was feeling light headed. I nodded with a smile and we found our way to the backyard.
As we exited through the double doors, I gasped. The view from Brian's backyard was breath taking. He had managed to find a place with a picturesque view of the strip. To rub extra salt in the wound, the man had a strategic placement of a fabulous infinity pool and hot tub. I have always wanted a hot tub situation and am not ashamed that I have thought of doing devious things to get said hot tub. Needless to say, the green eyed monster had taken me over. As we made our way to a patio table, I felt extremely guilty for wanting Charity to be in a relationship with Brian, just so I could take advantage of the pool situation. As we sat down, I tried to figure out a way to solidify the situation. Dylan laughed. Clearly my intentions were written all over my face. I shrugged my shoulders as if to say, 'hey can you blame me?' He took a sip of his drink and assured me that as long as I clung to his coat tails, this pool was my oyster. I rolled my eyes with a grin. Dylan suddenly leaned forward and his demeanor changed. I felt all the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. There was something he wanted to tell me but he just couldn't figure out the words. I told him he was making me nervous. He sat back in his chair finally and ran his fingers through his hair. I sat staring at him in silence. My nervousness quickly turned to concern. Maybe there was something wrong with him or his family. I asked him straight up what the deal was. He finally looked me in the eyes and gave me a sad smile. He leaned forward and got very close to my ear. His breath tickled me. I let loose a nervous giggle. Dylan told me that I better behave and not do so many cute things, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to keep from kissing the life out of me. My eyes flew open wide and I held my breath. He said that he was so close to me because he wanted to make sure I really heard him. I nodded slowly, not wanting to break his spell. He spoke confidently into my ear. All he said was 'I am not gay.' Then he kissed my cheek and slowly sat back in his chair. Things were about to get really interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment