Not according to the witty and well educated gentleman who was the antagonist in my romantic dalliance. Let me explain…
A renowned motorcycle customizer and I—let's call him "Bruce"—are engaged in hearty intellectual discourse on a broad range of topics: soaring gas prices, US politics, the Nazi party pre-1940, brass as a fashion statement on circa '60's outlaw choppers, "flak-sid" vs. "flassid" as the preferred pronunciation of the word, the ethnic roots of Melungeons in Cajun country, bawdy rhetoric at family functions, Asian business practices, malignant carcinoma on sun-drenched proboscises… you know—the usual banter among friends to kill time.
At an appropriate ebb in our repartee, Bruce leans toward me to crack wise about a swap meet regular who passes our booth. That's when he makes his move. Brushing the biscuit crumbs from his unkempt beard, Bruce narrows the glint of his knowing eyes to a dreamy stare and gently parts my lips with his own. The shock I feel from his initiation is immediate, but time slows to a crawl before I can recoil from his advance. Our tongues never mingle. Instead, Bruce's breath, still heavy from the 20-ounce coffee he quaffed at 4:30 a.m., exhales gently against my own clean-shaved face, the touch not unlike the beating of butterfly wings against the powdery petals of a rose. I squirm uncomfortably at first, but Bruce forges on. Now his calloused hands are clutching my torso in an embrace more collegial than carnal. We pull away as effortlessly as we had entwined, but his hands are slow to move back to the pockets on his blue overalls. Eventually, we resume our conversation as if nothing had happened, but we understood the ramifications of our tryst. Word of our ribald display would surely swirl like a tornado among our friends and customers at the swap meet, and this would devastate our economic fortunes in the scene—nobody likes a faggot. To avoid suffering this cruel demise, Bruce and I make a silent pact with our eyes that says "never speak of this moment again."
Hey Sigmund—thanks for nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment