by Ryan Green
“Blaine, that is how most organic friendships occur. Not everyone can meet on the computer or through a message board. Most people just run into each other somewhere they both frequent at an opportune time. Don’t think too much into it, what’s more strange is how often I go there and I never see you” you said to me.
“I’m usually at work at this time of the morning.”
“Ahh and you weren’t today?” your inquiry continued.
“No, today I finished a big project I had been working on to kind of celebrate, well, not so much to celebrate but to commemorate the fact I decided to treat myself.”
“See, what I mean? It is more strange from my perspective that you would be there today. I am there every Sunday at this time. You are never there, I’m the one who should be taken back by our meeting. You just broke your routine for one day and ruined a lady's new wardrobe.”
This conversation played as the soundtrack for the quick few block walk back to your apartment because before either of us really could grasp the magnitude of this seemingly chance encounter we were at the doorstep of your apartment.
“The choice is yours Blaine. Do you want to stay out here while I go up and change my clothes or do you want to come up there and risk seeing the inside of my apartment and becoming even more dazed and inarticulate?” you honestly asked of me.
Megan interjects herself into the story.
“I really wanted you to come up. For numerous reasons, the most obvious one being that I wanted to see you pass out when I ‘accidentally’ let you see me in my underwear” Megan put finger air quotes up for the word accidentally.
“Very funny,” Blaine says to Megan.
“Soooo you want to come up then?” you asked me.
“Sure” I responded back to you resorting to my nervous fight or flight predetermined set of responses.
“You promised you would say more than sure.”
You smiled at me and grabbed my hand again and led me inside. You lived on the ground floor about five doors in.
“Wow that’s awfully close to the street, that must be great when you have to bring in groceries, do you pay extra for that?” I asked you.
“I usually have my groceries delivered to me and no it’s actually cheaper. Instead of one upstairs neighbor dancing and having sex in their kitchen at 3 a.m. every night I have twenty more floors of neighbors above me doing it. All of that concentrated sound just builds up and by the time it gets to me it’s like a huge sonic boom of moans and groans and grunts and thumps” you explained to me.
“I’m sorry I asked.”
You opened the door to your apartment and welcomed me in with a shoeing gesture.
“See for yourself.”
I walked in and I looked around trying to analyze as much about you as humanly possible within a 5 second span. I didn’t want to come across as too interested where I was just nervously looking at every little thing in your apartment.
I walked over to your couch and I sat down.
“Is this a good place for me to sit?” I asked.
“That’s a weird question, I don’t think anyone has ever asked me before while they were sitting on my couch.”
You walked down a hallway and into a room at the end of the hallway.
The spot I chose to sit had a perfect line of sight into your bedroom, this was not at all intentional.
I see you reappear in the doorway and you are just in your bra and panties. You shut the door to your bedroom. You shouted out from behind the door “Did you pick that spot because you knew you would be able to see into my bedroom, pervert?”
I bolted up from the couch and walked to the end of the hallway and nervously began trying to explain myself to you.
“No, no I swear that I had no idea. I promise, I wouldn’t try to do that. I just picked a seat honestly, I asked you if it was okay” I tried explaining myself to you honestly.
You re-emerged from behind that closed door. You were wearing a loose gray cardigan over top of a long sleeve red shirt and black leggings.
“Calm down, I was just kidding. How could you possibly know where my bedroom was going to be? Besides, what makes you think that by not warning you I didn’t want you to see that?” she flirtatiously said to me in a way I can only assume was meant to completely break me down into a nervous wreck.
“Well, did you?” I asked you.
“Did I what?” You asked as you smiled at me. “Did you think about where you wanted to eat yet?”
“Well we’ve already had coffee and I’m not really in the mood for breakfast food, what do you suggest around here?” I asked you.
“I know of a little deli that has awesome bagels. You can get them with like fifty different kinds of cream cheeses or whatever you want on them”
“Sounds great to me”
We walked a few blocks east of your apartment and we both used the time to try and find out as much about the other as possible, or as much as we were willing to tell the other.
“Where did you grow up Blaine?” you asked me.
I had never really had an in depth conversation about my past with someone I just met. I didn’t know what I could and couldn’t tell you or what I should and should not confess. I decided to play it as carefully as possible, after all they just met.
“I am from the Midwest, and you?”
“I am from here. My family has been in this area for generations, they moved out here during the gold rush as far as I know and they made themselves comfortable.”
There was a homeless man standing outside of the deli asking for change and I was a little nervous about the guy but your body language told me that the man was harmless.
“HI MEGAN!” the man shouted as he walked towards you.
“MY EYE IS DOING MUCH BETTER!” he pointed to his eye as he yelled at you.
“That’s great to hear. My friend Blaine has never been here before, what would you suggest to him?”
The man walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “You have to get the salmon cream cheese on a jalapeno bagel, I eat two everyday to help keep me strong.”
“Well if that’s what you suggest, I guess I’ll take your word for it.”
You grabbed my hand and we walked into the deli.
“So what’s the deal with that guy?” I asked you.
“He’s harmless. He doesn’t really have anywhere to go so he spends most of his time out front there. Whenever I come through here I buy him something.”
“I’m really not a fan of salmon, do you think he would care if I didn’t order it? I mean, he seems kind of out there, he won’t like to try and kill me for not getting what he suggested will he?”
I nervously stared at you waiting for you to reassure me that I would be safe.
“Oh, you’re serious? No. No he will not kill you for ordering a different kind of cream cheese than what he likes. You are something else, Blaine.”
“Would you mind if we just went somewhere else? I really don’t feel comfortable here right now”
“Well, if I were you I would at least order a bagel to go and give it to him on your way out. If you’re not going to eat at his favorite deli you gotta sweeten him up somehow, otherwise he may actually kill you.”
I was unsure if you were joking with me and I nervously chuckled at your statement.
“Dear god Blaine, just order something. I promise you this place is very good and he will not hurt you. He is harmless.”
“Fine, I will give it a try”
I spent a few minutes looking at the menu board. You were not lying, they must have had fifty different kinds of spreads for the bagels and probably an equal amount of varieties of bagels themselves. There was a selection of sliced meats and cheeses you could add to the bagels as well.
“It might be a little early for corned beef or pastrami on a Sunday,” Blaine jokes to Megan.
“I was thinking the same thing, it does sound good though.
I nod in agreement.
> The young girl behind the counter is starting to get restless “Are you ready to order?” she asks.
“Oh I’m sorry” I explained. “There is just so much to think about.”
You stepped forward to the counter.
“I will have a cinnamon and raisin bagel with cranberry cream cheese spread. Also one jalapeno bagel with the salmon spread.”
The girl behind the counter looked at me “And for you?” she asked.
“Roasted red pepper and cucumber spread on an onion poppy seed bagel”
You looked at me and said, “I don’t think I have ever seen anyone order that combination.”
“I know I got nervous, that girl is intimidating.”
The girl grabbed the three bagels from behind the counter and put them in the toaster. “Would you like anything to drink with these?”
“Two red bulls,” you said.
“One of those sugar free” I chimed in.
The girl grabbed the drinks from the cooler and set them on the counter. The timer for the bagels went off and she grabbed them from the toaster. She put the spread on the three bagels and put them in their individual bags and set them on the counter.
She began ringing up the order on her cash register “$16.40.”
You reached into your purse and began digging around.
“No, let me get this, it’s the least I could do for ruining your shirt earlier.” Blaine reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. He removes a twenty dollar bill and hands it to the girl behind the counter.
The girl rings us in and hands me my change. I took the food from the lady and threw the leftover change into her tip jar.
“We can give these few dollars to your friend outside” I told you.
You smiled at me “Sounds like a plan.”
We head out of the deli and Blaine hands the bagel and the handful of singles to the man standing outside.
“Wow Blaine, thank you so much. No wonder Megan loves you so much, you are very nice.”
You started laughing “I love him now? Why do you say that?”
“Well you brought him to meet your best friend and to your favorite place to eat that’s what I do when I love someone”
You were laughing still and said “Good point. You have a great day John.”
John grabbed me and hugged me really tight, I was really uncomfortable but I didn't want you to see “Thanks John, I appreciate it.”
You begin walking and I break away from the hug and walk quickly to catch up with you.
“Where do we go from here?” I ask.
Blaine and Megan pull into the parking lot of the restaurant, Blaine pulls into a parking spot, unbuckles his seatbelt and turns the car off.
“Where are you going? You aren’t done with the story yet?” Megan asks him.
“We have a reservation Megan.” Blaine explains.
“It will be fine, you’re just now getting to the good parts.”
Chapter Three
I was aimlessly following you as you weaved in and out of alleyways and jaywalking through crosswalks until you finally stopped.
“Were here” you exclaimed.
I looked around at my surroundings “This park? We walked by at least five parks on our way here.”
“I know but those parks weren’t this park”
“What is so special about this park?”
“You’ll see, just be patient.”
“We walked by that one park with all of the green houses and the flower gardens. It had that little lake thing and a fountain thing.”
“That’s Wright park and if you really want to go back to it we can, but I promise you that you will love where I am taking you. Trust me Blaine there are like five parks around this area and none of them have a thing on this one.”
You stood behind Me and put your hands over my eyes “just keep walking.”
You guide me towards the water, I can feel the breeze coming off of the Puget Sound on my face “Now open your eyes” you tell me.
I opened my eyes and there was a giant globe in front of me with the backdrop of the ocean behind it.
“That’s really cool, I’m not sure if it’s as cool as the other park though, that one had a waterpark in it.”
“Look around you Blaine.”
The globe was sitting atop a stone paved compass with a crescent moon stained into the cement just beyond it.
“Look at the water Blaine.”
I looked at the water and there were several ships and boats that were docked and then off in the distance I saw something. I squinted for a few seconds to help me see and suddenly it became perfectly clear.
“That globe overlooking the mountain is the best thing in this entire city” You tell me.
“Mount Rainier” I chimed in.
“If you want to fit in around here Blaine just call it the mountain”
“If you can come to this spot and take in this view and not feel anything, you are not a human being capable of feeling anything. At any moment that volcanic mountain could erupt and all of this would just be gone. The earth, the moon, the stars, the water, all of it. It would all be covered in ash and fire yet here we stand. We doubt its power, we live at its feet out of ignorance and foolishness.” You explain to me.
“That was really dark Megan, if that’s what comes to mind when you come here I can't make sense of why you would like to come here. It just reminds you that at any point in time you could be dead”
“You are absolutely right, But am I dead? Whatever it is that chooses when we are born and when we die has decided to spare my life, to spare the lives of everyone in this city. You have to appreciate that. Whether it be god, or fate or just chance, you have to appreciate the overall magnitude and the irony of this globe and this moon in front of the sound. This area has been destroyed before and it will be destroyed again, but we are here today, living, breathing and talking about it.”
You turn to me and you grab my face and you kiss me on the lips.
“And now we are kissing here Blaine. Alright, now you tell me exactly what you have seen in this city and I want to fill in the gaps for you.”
“Honestly Megan, I really haven’t seen anything. When I moved here I made the choice to just hide away and work and stay under the radar. I left a lot of stuff back home and I just wanted a simple life here.”
“Well then we have a lot we need to see by the end of the day.”
“This next one is going to be your choice. I'm going to give you three options and I want you to pick one. Now remember we can always go back and look at the other two some other day. I just don’t want to overload your brain with new sights in such a short amount of time. Plus I’m not sure if I can top where your childhood love had prom.” You asked me.
“Got it.”
“Would you rather see the TAM, the Washington State History Museum or The Museum of Glass?”
“What the hell is a TAM?” I remember saying to you because you for whatever reason expected me to know what it was.
Well you lived in the city for like a year at the time Blaine.
“The Tacoma Art Museum.”
“Ohhhhh. Well damn that’s a hard choice. I’ve been to several art museums and history museums, which one do you think is better? I mean I really like both things a lot.”
“Well if it helps you make your choice a little easier, the Museum of Glass also has something called a Bridge of Glass leading up to it.”
“Museum of Glass! I picked the Museum of Glass.”
“Great, there’s also a really cute coffee shop right in front of the entrance to the bridge we can stop at. But before you get yourself too worked up, the bridge itself isn’t made of glass, it just has like a bunch of glass sculptures and exhibits on it too. Actually, what day is it Blaine!?!””
“June 18th why?”
“I don’t know how I forgot! The Taste of Tacoma festival is today, that’s why everything has been so empty! It’s going on right now we should
go. It’s right by the zoo as well if you want to see that too.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen a bunch of fliers for that everywhere that we’ve gone today but I didn’t know what it was. Taste of Tacoma? Is there like a ton of crowds and stuff?”
“Well yeah it’s like the biggest event the city has other than the fireworks on the 4th of July. But it will be fun I promise. There’s like 100 different food vendors and drinks and a carnival. There’s music and games and there is so much stuff to do.”