I called Denise one day and asked her to come with me to Floyds. You remember Denise? Floyds was the only country western bar in Long Beach and I wanted to learn to do the Tush Push. She said she would come so, as I threatened to do way back when I was in Colorado, I bought myself a hat and some boots and then my ex-girlfriend and I went to see about doing some line dancing.

When we got there I noticed right away that the dance floor was packed with dancers. I also noticed that it looked a lot like the skating rink I used to hang out at in highschool during 'all-skate'. Everyone was doing the two-step and that meant each couple was twirling around while they also were traveling around the floor in a large oval. My first thought was 'I wonder what would happen if I danced the opposite direction.' [A reference to a scene from Midnight Express - Bad machine!]

As we watched them go 'round, Denise and I looked for the best dancers. When Chris passed by we both noticed her. She had this sort of confidence about her and a swagger that said she was very secure in her surroundings. I liked that. By the time I made up my mind and turned to tell Denise, she was gone! She was already telling Chris that I wanted to learn to dance.

I imagine it's kind of a drag, when you know how to dance well, to have to dance with someone who sucks at it. I'd been watching the couples who dance well together. They have so much fun because they can! Chris was a pretty good sport about it though, and genuinely seemed to care whether I learned how or not. I don't recall her dancing with anyone else but me for the rest of that night! She taught me how to two-step and to shuffle and got me on the floor to learn a whole bunch of line dances including the Tush Push!

The next week I went back on my own. I think I was a little surprised at how glad I was to see Chris. I really liked dancing with her. It was nice to know I could do it without worrying about the fact that I didn't know what I was doing. But I had this feeling that she was attracted to me and she wasn't really my type. A bit too butch for me, I guess.

I like very feminine women. You know, high heels, fishnets, lingerie... high heels. That doesn't mean they have to be wearing them all the time but ... well... its not really the clothes (or under-clothes) that does it. It's something else. I can't pinpoint it exactly. Maybe its the personality of the person who chooses to wear those clothes that attracts me because, honestly, there's nothing I find sexier than a feminine woman wearing boys clothes. Cut-offs, pendeltons or tee shirts and hiking boots, her baseball cap on backwards and doing something in the garden with a streak of mud across her cheek... Yup, definitely! One glance up at me from there and I'm done for!

Anyway, I got sidetracked there for a moment, didn't I? Sorry.

As I was sayin'... Chris was a really nice person! But she is not what I've just described. I would actually venture a guess that she and I had very similar tastes in that regard! So, you see, we weren't exactly what I would call made for each other!

Still... I was really excited to have a new friend! It's actually kind of hard to make new friends in the lesbian community. It's like you can only be friends if you meet her while you both have girlfriends, like at a barbecue or something. Or... If you've already been together and that didn't work out! Then you can be friends! But I wasn't attracted to Chris.

I don't think I had considered any of that when I invited her to go with me to the concert. I was thinking that this girl would really enjoy seeing Bonnie Raitt. When she invited me to come over the following night to have a movie marathon, (we both love Shirley McClaine) I said yes, but then agonized the whole way there about how I was going to tell her that what she was thinking she wanted wasn't gonna happen. I didn't want to lose my new friend!

Well, things went differently than I thought they would. I can tell you, I never saw it coming!

Chris is really fun to be around. She is funny enough to have her own stand-up act. When she's on a roll, ya can't catch your breath for laughing so hard. She's not just funny though. She's genuine. She's sincere. And suddenly... she is very attractive!

So, there it is... I stayed the night. The next day she came with me to my house. That night we went back to Floyd's. When we got there, we went our own ways. I was starting to make friends there and while I was enjoying Chris's company, it was as if neither one of us were interested in making ourselves seem like a couple. At the end of the night, I took her home with me.

That began a pattern. I don't think she spent a night at home over the next few weeks. We were having a great time together. Yet every night, when we would go to the bar, we still went our separate ways at the door. We even talked about how odd it all was. Whatever it was between us, we agreed, we'd meet back at the car at the end of the night if we hadn't gotten a better offer. We never did.