When Worlds Collide

When I pulled into Starbucks after work, I saw Bucky's car in the parking lot out front. Cool. It's been a while since I saw the Buckster. In Starbucks, I scanned for Bucky. I didn't see him, but I did see Eagle. Eagle is a man I whipped last winter. I had a great time. When we did the scene and afterwards, he said that he did, too. When I did check-ins in the following days, he said he did, too. A couple of weeks later, my phone call went unreturned. I emailed Eagle asking if everything was alright. After a couple of weeks, he emailed me back saying, "Yeah; fine." I invited him to come up to NYC and spend a day. I liked the guy a lot. I never heard from him. Subsequent emails weren't returned.

Well, I thought, maybe he has a boyfriend or something.

Not too long after I moved here, I ran into Eagle in Starbucks. I greeted him warmly and got a pained smile and a "Hi" in response. A brush off, in other words. Well, so be it.

So the tact I've taken is letting him say hello first. And once, he did. (I've run into him several times.)

I got my latte, and glanced again in Eagle's direction.

And saw that I was looking at his face to the left of the back of Bucky's head. Eagle and Bucky were talking.

Interesting.

Who entered the gravitational pull of whom? Did Eagle strike up a conversation with Bucky? Or did Bucky strike up a conversation with Eagle?

Very interesting.

Eagle didn't say hello this time. But Bucky did. When he was running the sweeper in the lounge, I used my 'make a physical appearance comment,' telling him how disappointed I was to see that he had again shaved his beard. "Because," I added, "I really like how you look with your beard."

Alas. It didn't hit home. Bucky said he had shaved his beard because he had a court date for running a red light.

When he got his break, I joined him outside on the porch. We talked. He relayed his red light drama, telling me that it was complicated by the fact that he failed to notice the cops following him and they called for backup. When they caught up to him, he went to jail for the night until he was bailed out.

(Bucky behind bars. I'm gonna be replaying the images that conjured in my head for a while.)

He further explained that this was interfering with his plans to join his girlfriend in Greenbay, Wisconsin.

Okay. Enough of this.

"Long distance relationships can be a mixed blessing," I said. "When I was dating a guy who lived in DC and I lived in New York City," (I never dated a guy in DC), "It was good to see him occasionally but also have my own space, but when I wanted him, he was never available."

Now, Bucky must have heard that, right?

We'll see.

Dang. I'd love to know what he and Eagle were talking about.

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