Friday, June 20, 2014

Cal/Angie: Another round

What is it about a girl alone at a bar that makes her irresistible to guys?

Don't answer that, I know what I look like. Not gorgeous or anything, but attainable, and certainly (shudder) "doable" by the end of the night. I sit on the barstool with nobody around, no forcefield to put the guys off, because Trish is running late.

Maybe my time in Canada really did something to me because it made me too dang polite to tell these guys to fuck off. You really get the sense of how rude Americans naturally are to each other when you spend a year among people who apologize every time they breathe on each other. That's something I didn't mention much about Canada, I guess because it became so normal. All these things about sweet, hippie-infused Van City that just became part of my day-to-day life.

Makes me wonder why those girls flew all the way across the country for their vacation a year ago.

So, since I can't seem to shoo them away right off the bat, I let them in. I size them up. I don't like what I see.

The first guy tells me right off the bat what kind of car he drives. He can't tell from looking at me - rocking the flower-child skirt and braids that, in character as Angie, I'm not all that materialistic. It's funny how that's become true. I tell him I'm going to the bathroom and don't return for twenty minutes.

The second guy asks me about Canada. I tell him Vancouver's nicer than Boston, and he says but Boston's got the Pats, and I say I don't care about the Pats. He takes this as his cue to drone on and on because he loves educating women about sports. Barf.

Eventually he asks what I do and I tell him I used to work in a holistic supply store, and I start telling him everything I've learned about naturopathy - most of which I don't believe, myself, but Angie does. He makes like he's interested for a while, then finds someone else to bother.

Third guy doesn't even get a chance when Trish finally shows up. By now I'm drunk and I talk her into pretending she's my boyfriend. The key is, as Robbie she's very tall. Guys don't want to mess with her.

We grab a table, Derek and Roy join us. We drink a toast to our absent friends, and muse about how if we're lucky, this might be the last night any of us has to wear the wrong face out in public. We ask Roy how his last month of married life was, and he grunts "Hell on wheels, kids. Do you know what I had to go through to make sure Christine's deadbeat husband didn't join us on this trip?"

"Maybe you should have let him," I chuckle, "If he's as bad as you say, it might do him some good."

"Funny," he says, "But you can't go messing with peoples' lives. Christine wants to come back to him and I'm not gonna stand in their way, even if I don't understand. The sex was adequate, though. I think I blew his mind."

"Just his mind?" Trish said. I high fived her.

Being a guy has been good for her, I think. She seems oddly comfortable as "one of the guys" both biologically and socially. I look at her and I see a pal. And yeah, I've made it clear that at times I'd like more but I'm lucky to have her as a friend, and I hope going back doesn't change that.

I think out loud, "Wish I could have brought David... stuffed him in some weird body, like a grandma or a porn star and said hey, how do you like it?"

Trish pats my back and says I don't mean that, and I admit I don't, but... I just wish I could have gotten some measure of revenge. I hate the way I left things for Angie.

 We stumble home and I flop down in bed... in the morning, I'll probably feel it, since Angie's body doesn't seem to handle hangovers well. I'm going to be 19 soon. I'm going to miss being able to drink legally.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Maybe David will follow you there! Poetic justice...