Friendly Beer

Being single is exhausting. And when you are in your mid 30s it’s even more tiring because you lack that famous 20 something energy for life’s special kick in the kister moments. 

I was feeling the same damn kick this Sunday morning at 3AM. So, as any 20-something would do, I decided to drive to nowhere. Though I am not 20 something, I wanted to feel like 20-something again, so I balanced out. I decided to drive, not to nowhere, but to LA. Yes, that was a good plan. At least it felt like a nice plan at that time.

A couple of hours later, I found myself in my car, half way through to LA. It had been a good morning drive so far, but now I was feeling a little hungry. I haven’t had anything so far, except for a coffee at a gas stop, where I found out that driving in the wee hours, with no sleep at all the night before, is not fun. 

I saw the sign for Lost Hills’ exit in 5 miles and decided to grab a sandwich or taco or anything with lots of carbs. 

“Fuck intermittent fasting and Keto diet. I don’t want to wait for 3 months to feel good. A good sandwich will have the exact amount of carbs and fat to heal the burns of kicks I have been feeling since morning.” I started making plans about what kind of bread, cheese, meat and toppings I was going to get on my sandwich. 

Lost Hills was still a few miles away, 94.5 had been playing Bryan Adams’ songs all morning. I wondered why? 

“Is it his birthday? Or Is he dead?” 

“This can’t be a coincidence”. I was praying for them to not play “Summer of 69”.

I started drifting to a couple of nights before. I was sitting at The Hub, a neighborhood bar, in downtown San Jose. A beautiful woman at the bar was checking me out. She had a very colorful dress on. Maybe in her 40s, little old for me, but she was cute. I decided to go and talk to her but I was still not sure what was I going to say. I had been coming up with terrible first lines for the past few days.  

Alanis was singing “Hand in my pocket” on the TV above where that girl was sitting. She must be a teenager in the 90s and girls were crazy back then for Alanis. I could work something out on Alanis, she was one of my favorites too. So, I walked up to her with my famous smile and made up but adorable forehead lines. 

“Hi! I am A. J. May I join you?” She smiled back and signaled me to empty bar stool next to her. 

“What are you drinking?”

“OLD FASHIONED!!” She screamed and clapped as Alanis stopped singing and Bryan Adams started his “Summer of 69”

“Oh! Are you from the summer of 69?” I shut my eyes in disappointment and self-pity. 

Bryan Adams stopped singing “The best of me” and started “Summer of 69” on 94.5 as I took exit for Lost hills. My reaction was exactly the same as that night at The Hub. 

I was sitting on a bench outside Subway and eating my meatball Sub, still disappointed, still wallowing in self-pity about what had happened and with my choice of food that morning. 

It’s then that I saw her with her dog. She passed by me and whispered to her dog to go ahead first because there was not much space between me and the table next to me. I thought she gave me a casual glance. Or it could have been my imagination. I had lost all my instincts and confidence. 

I was with her for some time, but then I got my back to my meatball Sub and my self-pity.

She came back but I saw her dog first. He was wagging his tail. He came to me and started licking my face, I called him up on my lap. He liked the taste of meatball sub on my heavily stubbled face.  

She apologized for her dog's behavior. I said "That's okay" ignorantly. I was still playing with the dog. But then I realized how beautiful she was in one glance but there was no way I was going to look back at her right away. I pretended to guess the name of the dog. 

"It's Lee...." She couldn't complete the name.

"NO !!" I said, still not looking at her, signaling my hand towards to stop and pretended to guess the name still.

I looked at the dog, he was still wagging his tail and licking me all over. Then I looked at her as if I am trying to read her face. She was really beautiful, maybe in her early 30s and I then looked back at the dog.

 "You must be Leebo" the dog nodded with a smile from east to west, still wagging his tail.

She was shocked.

"How do you know his name?" She was still trying to wrap her head around it. 

"I can guess the name of beautiful people's pets. That's my superpower." I was very proud of myself. All the self-pity and self-doubts were gone. I was not disappointed any more. My instincts and confidence, everything was back in an instant. 

"What's yours?" I added.

"I don’t know, I can carry a large rock on my wedding finger." She was smiling. There was a giant solitaire shining on her ring finger. 

“Damn it!! That's a waste of inspiration.” I thought, I was mad at myself for not looking at her hand first. 

"I am sorry", is all I could say. It felt harder than the kicks I had been feeling all morning. She was still smiling. But Leebo had stopped licking me, even his tail was not moving. 

I felt so sorry for myself for pissing off a dog, the most forgiving creature on this planet. 

"That's okay, it feels good to be noticed." She said, still smiling.

I smiled back as she walked towards her car.

I was still ashamed of the whole situation and pretended to look at my phone. It's then that I heard her shouting something at me.

"Wanna grab a beer?" She had crossed the restaurant's sitting area and the road between the gas station parking and where I was sitting.

I yelled back - "I thought you were married."

"Or engaged? What's the difference between a wedding ring and an engagement ring? Yeah right, now is the time to think about that. Moron!!!" I thought to myself. 

People were looking at us and I thought for a second that I was being judged by the whole gas station. She also felt a little embarrassed at first but then laughed at me.

"Yes, married people also have beer." She said, still trying to control her sheepish laughter.

"Friendly beer." I whispered as I started my walk towards her.