A Tale of Two Cheaters

*not an actual photo of Glenn and myself conducting surveillance, unfortunately

I think one of the strangest ways I ever met a new friend was as follows.

It must have been grade 11, although it might have been grade 12. I had had a crush on this guy Steve for months. He was very intellectual, had the dark looks that drove me crazy, and knew a lot about music that most people had never heard of. Heady stuff for my 17 year old mind. Anyway, he had finally noticed me, and thus began a passionate affair. He lived out in the country, coincidentally down the road from the stable where I took riding lessons. As a result, he would come to pick me up after my class. We would go back to his place where I would of course shower (at this point, showering together never crossed our minds, even though his parents were rarely home), always feeling vaguely naughty and risque at the idea of showering in a guy's house!

Anyway, we used to go down to this crawlspace he had turned into a sort of crazy teenage hideaway... replete with his highschool artwork, stereo and wall to wall pillows. I was smitten and engaged in all sorts of heavy petting (and eventually more). Let's cut to the chase. It seems that after a couple of months, this particular fellow developed an interest in the library. He seemed to be studying all the time, especially on weekends. Soon, he was no longer picking me up from my riding lessons. Eventually, I became suspicious.

I had noticed that he had been hanging around this one guy, Richard, quite a bit. I really never thought much about it. Well, one day I met Richard's boyfriend, Glenn. Seems Richard had also become a bit of a bibliophile.

To make a long and angsty story short, Steve was dumped, Richard was dumped (both would make the odd return appearance, but never to much fanfare) and Glenn and I became fast friends and are to this day.

My friend's who know my past like to say I turned a few men gay. I like to think that I was just fabulous enough to make them question their orientation for awhile. Oh and Steve? Turns out he wasn't gay, at least not in any official way. It was kind of cool in the 80's to be mysterious about your sexuality, and like most other things, was a bandwagon Steve promptly hopped onto.

I guess this story came to mind because Glenn is here for less than 2 more weeks and then will return to Korea to continue teaching. I always feel a bit sad when he comes back (he's been gone for years), because so much time passes between visits. I am planning a big blowout for him Saturday though, and it should be a great time.