Douglas

If you've come this far you know all of the obligatory crap that we say at the beginning."if your under 18." blah, blah, blah.

... "Nothin'. There's something that I need to tell you."

"What?" I'm dreading what I might hear; usually when a conversation starts out like that..

"I just wanted you to know that I appreciate your friendship, and that you're a really cool guy, and I'm glad that you're in my life."

I was stunned. I've never been told that, least of all by a guy who was a relatively new friend. "Do what?" I asked (which is Southern-speak for "what?"). I was expecting to hear him say that it was nice knowin' you Mark...

When he repeated himself my heart swelled. But, I could tell that..."You've been drinkin' haven't you."

"Yessir I have!"

I laughed and told him that the feeling was definitely mutual and that I had secretly hoped he wouldn't be moving soon, but it was best for the girls so what can you do. He repeated once or twice that he was glad I was in his life. Damn, talk about lifting my spirits!!! We talked for a few more minutes and I asked if he was getting a little stoned as well.

"Awww, hell yeah, dawg," he said, laughing. Well, now I know how he got the whiskey muscle to tell me what he did. No problem, though. Drunk people always tell you how they really feel. Later that night I called him back to "check in" on him. He was surely high by now. Douglass kept asking me to come on over, that there were a couple of his friends with him around the bonfire they had built on his property.

"I'd love to be around you in this condition," I told him.

"Bring it on, baby."

"Dude, you have no idea how much I'd like to be there right now."

"Come on down, baby" (by the way, "baby" is being said in a non-sexual way. I call people baby all the time) he said.

"Not tonight, hoss."

"Tomorrow night we're getting even more fucked up."

"Hell man, you doin' nose candy?"

"Damn straight, baby. Are you disappointed in me?"

"Dude, you know how I feel about that kind of stuff. If you want to do it, go for it."

"Well I sure with you were here."

"Me too. Later," I said and hung up.

Truth be known, I don't do any type of drugs, with the exception of alcohol. But like I said, if someone else wants to imbibe, so be it. Just don't hurt anyone in the process. I knew he wasn't leaving his house so I didn't have to worry about his driving.

The next day I called to check on him - see how he was feeling.

"How ya doin' baby!!!!" I hollered.

"Just fine. Whatta you up to?"

"I just got a business meetin' that I'm on my way to. You?"

"On my way to lunch."

"Where to."

"Don't know."

"Dude, you were so wacked out last night - it was funny."

"Yep, and it's gonna be even more wacked out tonight."

"Oh man. Well, we all have our demons." I said.

"Yeah, but some of us have a few more than others. Me and my friends have done even crazier shit than just nose candy. It gets crazy sometimes." Meanwhile, my imagination is running wild.

"You might be surprised; I'll bet you and I share a few demons. We'll see."

"We'll holler at you later."

"Bye."

That was on Wednesday. Thursday I debated on whether or not to even call him to say hi; you see, I was afraid that if I called him too much I'd get on his nerves and it would be "adios" to the friendship. I didn't have to continue the debate for long. My wife wanted to know an estimate on having the work done to the kitchen, so I called him.

When he answered I could tell he was outside and I asked him what was up. He had the girls with him for the remainder of the week and into the next for spring break. They were working in the garden planting some veggies and flowers. When Douglas is with his girls he's 100% daddy, which is really great. It was my daughter's first birthday and I told him that we were taking her to a kiddie pizza place. Her party would actually be on Saturday, but we wanted to do something as a family. He said that sounded like fun so I asked him if he wanted to come down and bring the girls, and we agreed on a time to meet. It turned out that we ended up eating at another place and then meeting him down for the kids to play at the pizza place. Boring details, I know, but this relationship had been building gradually and I think you should know what was going on.

We got there while they were just sitting down in a booth to wait for their pizza. I had a ton of tokens and my son and I started playing some of the games. Douglas' daughters were playing games as well and time and again I'd get back to the booth to chat with him for a bit. After they ate I took a break and sat down in the booth next to theirs. My back was to the wall and I stretched my legs out onto the seat. My wife was seated across from me and Douglas came over picked up my feet and turned them so now my feet weren't on the bench, and sat down next to me.

"How ya doin', baby!!!" he said. I thought I could smell beer on him. Ok, I did smell beer, and though he wasn't drunk, I'm sure he was a bit buzzed. He was in a goofy mood and pushed all the way against me, his back to me sort of pinning me to the wall, and said, "How come you always call me 'baby' when you call me?" He sounded goofy so I just rolled my eyes for my wife's benefit and didn't answer the question. We joked around for a while and got up to check on the kids. But damn it felt good to have his body pressed against mine. I felt like giving him some reach-around, but didn't think my wife would appreciate that.

At one point he and I were standing next to each other, talking about what games we wanted to play each other on, and he started scratching my left ass cheek with one finger. I never changed my demeanor but I was completely shocked. It only lasted for a few seconds and I kept talking through it. In a flash I decided not to react with either a joke about it or anything else. I figured if he was testing the waters I wouldn't complain. Tickle away, baby! He said he was trying to figure out a game that we could do man on man. Yes, "man on man" were his words. I just told him whatever he wanted to do was fine with me.

The time had come to leave and I went out to the van to get a cd of Uncle Kracker I had made for him. We had talked about his music before and I figured I'd make the cd for him. I'm just a giving person that way (he he he).

The next day was filled with thoughts of Douglas. I was starting to scare myself with how infatuated I was getting with the guy (or had gotten). I wanted to talk to him constantly, which is something generally guys don't do. Around 3:00 in the afternoon the phone rang, not my cell - the house phone, and I looked and recognized his number.

"Hello?"

"Hey man, what's goin' on?"

"Nothin'. What's up with you?"

"Nothin'. I'm just sittin' on the front porch with the girls. They're making some bead necklaces and bracelets."

"Cool. Did you finish working on the garden."

"Hell naw. Why don't you come on over here and finish it up for us."

"Shoot. I've got plenty of gardening work to do myself. Plus I have to pick up all the dog doody - my yard is starting to look like a pasture."

"I just wanted to let you know that we had fun last night. I appreciate you inviting us down."

"No problem hoss. I'm glad y'all could make it."

We started talking a little bit about the work that he was going to be doing in our kitchen and about other things as well. He said he was just calling up to say hello. We talked for a little bit more and I mentioned his call to me the other night when he said that he appreciated having me in his life.

"I totally meant it, man."

"Well, I was totally thrown for a loop because I'm not used to hearing that from my friends. But I'll tell you what, I was having a bad day and when you said that it totally picked me up."

"Cool, cool. We never ended up doing the nose candy that night."

"Oh yeah?"

"Nah. Just didn't do it. I don't do that often; usually about once or twice a year my friends and I will get a little crazy and do that. By the way, I'd like to keep that part of my life between us."

"That's cool."

"Well dude, like I said I was just calling to see how things were with you. Hope you have a nice day."

"You too man, we'll talk to you later."

We hung up and I was feeling great. If I haven't said it enough, there's some sort of light in Douglas' eyes that just draws you (me) to him. I think I'd do anything he asked, with the exception of murder or rape - LOL. But he's also the kind of guy that I really like to hang out with. Something just clicked between us; whether it's a sex thing I'm not sure, but we're like two kids when we get together. If it's not a sex thing, it's still cool.

That next week went by pretty quickly and I saw or talked Douglas several times. Friday rolled around again and I had to run out to drop off some plans in a town about 20 minutes away. On the way out there I made up some bullshit reason to call Douglas.

"I'm just sitting here with my girls, drinkin' a beer or two. They're making some necklaces and bracelets."

"Looks like we've come full circle." He laughed a little at that.

"What are you up to?"

"I'm running some plans out to a client on the other side of the lake."

"Well, why don't you stop by for a little bit?"

"I'll do it. See ya in about a half an hour."

"See ya then."

I was really on cloud nine. Just the chance to see him again put me in a good mood. I dropped off the plans and headed on over to Douglas' house. I pulled up and he was sitting on the back deck talking on the phone so I talked to his daughters for a minute. When he got off the phone I walked over to him and he offered to give me a tour of the house, so I obliged. The house is really cool with lots of nice wood, big rooms. He did quite a nice job on the renovation. We went back outside and he asked if I wanted to take a walk to the creek. The girls came with us and we just hung out at the creek for a while.

"Dude, you're gonna have to come over some time and partake with us."

"The most I partake is that," I said, pointing to his beer. Though I don't drink beer.you know.

"Really?"

"Never."

"Aww, man. You'll have to do it sometime." We left the creek and started walking back to the house.

"To tell you the truth, I've never partaken before." I said.

"Really?"

"Nope."

"Dude, I just like to have fun. All kinds of fun," he said.

"I'd like to have some of that fun too." I could tell that he was feelin' his beer and starting to make what I took as very thinly veiled passes at me. Or at least I was hoping he was.

"Douglas, I think you'd be surprised at some of my demons."

He laughed and made a comment about me polishing up his halo while he dirtied up my soul, which was a lyric from an Uncle Kracker's "Memphis Soul Song." We got back to the house and talked a little bit more. By now I had been there for over an hour. I could have stayed all day. We started talking about the job that I had referred him to and he said that if he got it he'd take care of me somehow, with a referral fee of some sort.

"No, I don't do that. I just wanted to refer this guy to you."

"Yeah you do."

"No, I really don't."

"Hell I'm just talking about lunch, or dinner or a movie. Or maybe I'll tell you I love you before I kiss you."

I laughed and looked down at him (he was sitting on the steps). He was looking dead into my eyes without even smiling or laughing. I made some dopey comment like "you are a kooky guy" as my heartrate increased tenfold. If his daughters weren't there I would have stayed longer. At this point I'm really wondering what he's thinking. Here's a guy who always points out beautiful women to me, but then tickles my ass? Damn it's confusing sometimes. But I'll tell you what, I can't stop thinking about the guy. Maybe he's bi and wants a fuck buddy. I'm not a great looking guy so I'm not sure what he'd see in me. I'm still thrown that after talking to him for only a month he'd call me for the sole purpose of letting me know that he appreciated having me in his life. But I love his friendship, short as it's been so far, and keep hoping things will grow.

So hang on to your shorts, guys, and wait for part 4..

Let me know what you think of the story. I'm Mark at mlogan@bay-watch.com.