Our mutual friend Matthew had a friend named Eric. Having just broken up with my
boyfriend, I was looking to rebound, and
Eric seemed to be
just the ticket. He was a vegetarian chef, liked Star Wars, had his
tongue pierced twice, and was generally sort of
aloof, which made him attractive. In reality, he was sort of dumpy, but that was not apparent at the time.
Whenever Eric was around, I made
moony eyes at him, and fell all over myself like a boneless chicken. I was utterly enchanted, and desperate. It was
terribly obvious. Matthew remarked to me, trying to give advice, "
Desperation is the garlic of romance." I don't know whether the quote was his, but the words rang
true. Eric wanted
nothing to do with me, but I was
smitten.
After a month or so of
fruitless chasing, and lamenting my inability to wrangle this man to Lee, I began to
calm down about the whole thing. During this
calming period, Lee invited me out for a
walk. We put on our
sweats, and walked about
three miles through
Southgate, chatting idly about the
spring weather and our jobs, and other such crap. We got back to my apartment, and she said she had
something to tell me, and she didn't want me to be
upset.
"Before you hear it from someone else," she began, "I was going to sleep with
Eric, but I want you to know that I didn't, and he's not worth it."
I am floored, for the second time. She explained that she had been
hanging out with Eric and Matthew, and later that week while drunk, she called Eric. The conversation got to sex, and she
invited him over. They were naked and in bed, and about to do it, when Lee began to change her mind. She told me she changed her mind a few times, leading him toward and away from her sex, but in the end, had not done it. This was not really a
consolation to me. Not really caring anymore (and not wanting to
deal with this), I blurted out some trite version of "
bros before hoes" and told her that I didn't care, that her friendship was worth more than his
fat ass.
In reality, I cared
a lot, and it hurt terribly to know that she had betrayed me, and that it was
so easy for her. I was looking for more, but she could have had the
minimum with no effort.
Lee Stories