LA, Night 2

Wednesday January 19. cont.

...
Temple Bar.

"Prepare the battle stations! Waylan is coming," I wail into the phone with growling menace, not thinking that she probably might not make that out.

I was blabbing about her, yet again, to yet another of my friends who probably doesn't need to hear more drama about some stupid girl. But luckily Stef wanted to hear something new about my life and my perspective.

We got to the front of the venue and who do I spy but the little Shirley pie? Lookin fly with a purple (?) lace lined top with a classy business jacket. A little loose, I agreed, but would look killer with a pair of black light pinstripe slacks and pointy heels. With her eyes, she'd look menacing.

"I didn't know there would be weirdness," she says as soon as I stop to say hello.
"Hmm. How are they?"
Verbatim is impossible at this point because its been scrutinized for too many different reasons. But I got the sense that
"Lydia says he isn't ready to meet you."
"Hmm." Well, I can at least have good company. "Do you want to go get a drink elsewhere?"
"?"
"I don't want to make them feel uncomfortable, so I'm just going to bounce." Wuss move if you ask me, but I haven't prepared enough for this gig and I'm not the greatest improv actor. Exit stage yellowbelly I go.
"Well, I owe her a drink because she paid my cover."
"Ok well, you go ahead and drink up. I'll chill out here." Again, what a bitch!
"Ok, see you in a bit."

I give my dad a call to let him know whats going on. I actually tell him the situation I'm in, a level of honesty that is still new between us. I get off the phone so I can have small talk with Jonathan as he walks towards Temple Bar. New job as a design engineer in two weeks. Good man.

Finally, the Bean returns and we bounce happily along down Wilshire. I feel absolutely relieved that I can turn the conversation to someone else. Perhaps intrigued that the conversation is about her doubts about her current relationship.

"I ordered a Grasshopper for Lydia, it takes like an Andies Mint, and all the girls went crazy and ordered like six of them. The bartender didn't even know how to make them; I had to tell him. He better hook me up next time shit!"

We eventually find a cafe bar to which I never learn the name, that is dimly lit, smoky and packed with drunken gabbing.

"How long has this place been here," I ask the burly sitting doorman.
"How old are you?"
"22."
"Longer'n you been here."

Towards the rear we find a cozy table by the bar. Soco & Lime for me, Stoli & cran for her. Somehow she knows Shannon, who calls in the middle of our conversation to get put on the guestlist for White Lotus on Thursday.

"I started promoting for them last week. Some high school friends of mine. Apparently I have some good connections and they needed me on their payroll." Go ahead girl work it!

I realize I need to talk to Aileen about Thursday night's arrangements and after I make the call, we move to a more comfortable booth with plush cushions and a single red lit candle on a red clothed table. Seems ok to sit side by side. We get more in depth [ahem] about her little brother asking her for SAT class money, her current school/work situation, bartending, White Lotus, and mostly about her oblivious gamer boyfriend.

"All he does is sit in front of the computer and play video games. Even when I'm there!"
I symphatize just a little. Maybe he needs an escape. I remember I was like that with Audiogalaxy, Sandboxautomatic, and blogging my second year.
"Here's an example: one time its late at night, I get home from work kind of tired, and he calls me and says 'hey come over, I really want to see you.' and I say 'mm I'm kind of tired...' and he says 'please? I just really want to see you.' and I'm like 'awwww!' So he picks me up, we go to his house and he's hurrying up the stairs! 'What's your hurry,' I ask, and he says 'I'm late, I'm late!' When we get to his room, he sits at his computer and says 'They were waiting for me!' "
I laugh on the inside because this is incredibly stupid. I wonder if he'll even realize when she leaves him.

I could have gone all night with her, but I get a call from the girls telling me to head back to Temple Bar so we can bounce. On the way back I hear about her aspirations regarding beauty school and designing hair and makeup, and my eyebrow raises once more. A hug and a kiss (cheek) good bye and thus ends another brief tease of a rendezvous. Girl has some issues to deal with that's for sure.

We drop Mish off at the Military base and so I can wish Tink a good night.

"Whooreshgonnatageyahum," she slurs, eyes half closed in dreamy comatose curiousity.
"Stef," I whisper lightly. Kiss on the head and she's knocked out again.

Stef and I leave, and this is probably our first real chance to talk in more than a year. I go more into depth about Lydia and our trials but really the past six months are the meat of our story. At this point I tire of the subject matter, but for some reason I strive to recall every detail so she can know exactly what I've been through, down to chronology, reactions, and personal contemplations.

I stared out the windshield of her pickup into the matte-navy backdrop of southbound 405 traffic.
"I wanted to give her something I wrote during the weekend of my cousin's wedding. I imagined it was for my fiance come wife and I had to fantasize women I knew for basis; some for their eyes, some for their bodies, some for the way they make me feel. A lot of it was here though. Something like..

'You are my woman;
you are the beginning of my reality.
where my every waking moment is spent in false eternity
where each waning life is for naught without true company
where my visions are as tangible as they are honest
and
where your glow melts the world into mist flushed with the
sparkles of moonlit diamonds.
your eyes are the beginnings of my dreams,
dreams that stretch just beyond the scope of surreality
your breath hints of whispers painted with ashes of jasmine tea leaves
burnt by an Indian Summer sun.
your skin shines like satin smooth as golden chocolate cream,
while handmade banana leaf
and orchid petal halos
circle your body's every movement, emanating perfumes of
paradise lost sweetened with the prospect of
hypnosis, sensuality, consciousness, and freedom.'

and you know, it would've eventually ended with

'you are my woman.'"

"oh wow," Stef remarked.
"yeah, but I was going to add at the end:
'at least, you were.'"
She laughed with total amusement and understanding. "Oh that's cold!"

"Yeah," I agreed, glancing at Stef and her half bemused smile.
"It is."
And as I turned away, shrugging with open admittance and a sigh of reminiscence, I heard myself speak with passing recognition.
"She was."
...

I adjourned for the night around 2am, briefly hanging with Dzuy until he passed out. It was a long day! And an early breakfast meeting with aforementioned Joann, makes me want to sleep fast and rest up.
...

What will tomorrow bring, asked the uplifted young man staring at the stars with his mouth besmirked. Perhaps your dreams will reveal, said a voice spiritually close yet physically far away. And so he slept with a mind full of thoughts and questions, a heart swirling with ambiguity, all but forgetting his troubles as he drifted into unconscious peace.

...
fin
...