Extra! Extra!

The summer brings out either the best or the worst in people. From silly flings to engagement rings, everything seems to change.

However, some key things always manage to stay the same.

On a typical August night, I was already running late for dinner with Tina. I just go back in town for the weekend after spending several of many weeks working in small town nowhere Windsor, Ontario. As glamorous as it may sound, and even though the shopping in Detroit was amazing (Diesel tote bag and boots half off with killer exchange rate!), I was excited to be back home—for the weekend. I had been gone so long it felt as if I was disconnected from the city and from my friends.

As I walked out the front door, I was happy to see Tina had not changed.

“Hey!” I yelled as I got in, excited to see the new goodies Tina had picked up from her usual Saturday trips to Kensington.

She simply smiled. I knew something was up. Either she wasn’t feeling well, she had a bone to pick with me, or she had some really big (and juicy) news.

“Okay, so what did Marnie do?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“Did you bring your Tumbs?”
“Not that either.”
“His name?”
“I’ll tell you over dinner, I’m starving.”

This must have be some big news, I thought, as we drove down Bloor.

Over on the North end, Ryan was getting some new information from old news.

Nelson and Ryan had not seen each other since January when they fooled around in Nelson’s apartment drunk off wine while his boyfriend was out of town.

“Nelson, gosh, it’s been so long,” said Ryan as he stood up to greet Nelson at Under the Sun.

It turns out that Nelson had moved into the area and gave Ryan a call, one of those ‘my boyfriend’s out-of-town on business’ calls, to which Ryan certainly did not object to…if the meeting was in a public place, of course.

After a few Martini’s, Ryan was starting to forget his “in public” rule. And fifteen minutes later they were speeding up Yonge Street.

“Do you like the new house?” asked Nelson as they walked into the 1.5 million dollar Aurora home. With a classic brick exterior, 40-foot kitchen and 11-foot ceilings, marble flooring, and an all-oak staircase, Ryan didn’t really know how to respond without sounding impressed. After all, it was Nelson, the guy who lived in a room of a condo of an Asian family a short four years ago and left love to be with money. Lucky bastard, thought Ryan.

On that note, “How much of this did you actually buy?” he responded coyly.

“Enough to know that I have the right to make love to you in any given corner.”

Over at Spring Rolls on Dundas, I was gearing up to get what I knew was big news spinged on me. After a few minutes of minor chatting up, me talking about my new work in Windsor, she about her new search for a meaningful fashion job, I couldn’t take it any longer.

“So I told the receptionist she’s been such a big he—”

And then she said it.

“Bruno.”

“Excuse me? What Bruno? Firstly, she’s a she, and it’s the receptionist we’re talking about.”

“His name is Bruno.”

I quickly tried to think of who it could be and no one came to mind. Jean, Marco, Doug. Nope, no Bruno. He must have been hot off the presses if I didn’t hear about him.

“Marnie’s friend.”

“Marnie’s friend? But she’s like eighteen.”

“I know.”

Wait. Stop the presses.

It turns out Tina had been fooling around with Bruno for about a week. It happened one night when he came over to see Marnie, Tina’s younger sister, who is, for the record, six years her junior. Bruno had a crush on Tina since he was freshman doing his homework at their house. The only reason it started was because Bruno has become legal and had to make a move on Tina, especially since he caught her at a time when she was getting uncomfortably single.

According to Tina, the way he grabbed her and kissed her was so hot that one thing led to another, and before she knew it, they were sneaking around from house to house fooling around during the week.

“Tina, it’s hot when you’re the babysitter inviting your boyfriend over when the kids are asleep. It’s not hot when you’re the babysitter sleeping with the kids.”

“Shut up! He’s a perfectly grown man. He does construction!”

“You want construction workers, there are dozens of men up in Woodbridge who do construction that are a little closer to your age range,” I pulled out my cell phone. “Here, I have a couple of numbers.”

“Put down the little black book.”

“Don’t say, Tina Marie Carmichael.”

She just looked at me with those sad eyes. I was too late.

Over in Aurora, Ryan was looking into a pair of hungry eyes.

Sex with Nelson was always the best when Ryan had a buzz off wine, but this time it just felt dull. No matter what had happen between them, this was beyond Ryan. He wasn’t going to play sideline story to a headliner.

“So I’m meeting with Miguel on Monday for lunch,” I told Ryan while we were shopping the next day. I could tell he didn’t approve. “Now before you say anything, we have tried to meet up several times in the last few months, but our schedules never work out. Either I’m away or he’s not back in town. So it has to be done, I need to see him.”

“Gosh, how long has it been since you last saw each other?”

“Like two and a half years.”

Miguel and I dated about four years ago, when I was considerably younger, and he was considerably unaware of my age. I had been judging Tina this whole time when I had been in a situation similar only four short years ago. At that time in my life, Miguel was my love, my all; I would have done anything to stay with him. But with time, I realized that we weren’t ready to with one another at that point in our lives and I just had to let him go. We still, as far as I’m concerned, love each other, but right now it’s not what we need.

Since I last saw Miguel, I’ve talked to him a few times here and there. Not much has changed besides the fact that he started law school, moved to a new city hundreds of kilometers away, and was practically engaged. Despite Ryan’s worries that every time I see Miguel, I’m sent into an emotional reminiscent spiral, I was excited to see him, to catch up on young times.

As I told Tina’s story over dinner, Ryan went from shocked to excited to happy for her. “As long as she doesn’t fall for him, then it’s all good, let her have her fun it’s summer.”

“But that’s the thing, I think she wants him as more than just whatever they are.”

“Well, I, for one, am proud of her. She’s really inspired me give things a chance. Like, with Nelson, I just kept thinking of the negative, I could only do so much besides telling him that what we do is wrong. If he still wants to go for it, and it makes me feel good, then power to me.”

As I walked home that night, I realized that maybe I had judged Tina too quickly. So I got to thinking: If Miguel had given me a chance back then, why shouldn’t Tina give Bruno a chance right now? You’re never too old to try new things, right?

The next morning, I woke up to a much anticipated text message.

Pick you up at 1:30 read the words across my phone screen and I couldn’t be have been happier.

As the time drew nearer, Miguel was at my house at exactly 1:37pm and, like old news, I wasn’t in his car until 1:57pm.

“Miggggg, sorry I’m late.” I laughed as I saw him in his sleek Gucci shades.

He smiled and put his hand on my head. “Some things never change.”

The ride to the restaurant was awkward, and it felt like after the filler questions like “How have you been?” and “What have you been doing?” the conversation seemed to sag.

As the afternoon went on, it felt as if we had nothing left to talk about expect for old times and of what could have been and what had been. He told me about his blissful days with the rebound who is still around after four years, and I told him about Sunny, BiGuy and all the ones in between. But something was missing.

And as he paid the bill, like old times, and drove me home, like old times, there was no goodbye kiss at the end unlike old times.

I always said that Miguel and I would be together in ten years. My whole reasoning behind the break-up was that we needed time to grow up and stop being kids. But have we reached the point where we’re ready to have our own kids? It felt like in all the growing up we did, our lives became so settled. Miguel was still my first love, but no longer the kind of guy I saw myself with in ten years. It took me two years, but I realized we were better left as old friends with new news. I was truly ready to let go of the old days and embrace what was next.

Jokingly, we scheduled another lunch date for two years later, but something deep down told me it might actually work out that way at the rate of personal and professional schedules as he drove off…in the same old red car.