I had a weird, insanely vivid dream. It was like a glimpse into an alternate reality. I was me but not exactly as I am now. Skinny, a smoker, single, but living in a dump of a duplex surrounded by a short, friendly-enough chain link fence. I lived with a roommate named Adam on a busy 4-lane avenue, the kind with those dim orange streetlights at night. Across the street was the back lot of a large and popular comedy nightclub.
It’s dusk. I was in the passenger seat of a grey ‘67 Chevy Corvette Stingray getting a ride home from a guy I met only three nights before. I called him Gabby but I think his actual name was Gabissimo. He was dark skinned, very short black hair, average build but you could tell he worked out regularly, Middle Eastern but I didn’t know exactly where from. He was wearing khaki slacks and a black, well-fitted, long-sleeved shirt from The Gap. On the very brief drive, we joked about how we’re old rejects and that we both know that I invited him over for one thing.
As we ready in the center lane to make a left turn off the avenue into my driveway, a large group of people are outside the venue’s parking lot and on the sidewalk smoking and loitering. A show must have just recently ended. A lanky blond white woman in a black leather jacket points right at Gabby through my window with this “Hey, I know you!” face. He parks the car, we both get out, and he waves familiarly at the lady across the street. A skinny mustachioed man standing next to her and about the same height waves back with the same friendly “I Know You” look. But Gabby swiftly ushers me around the side of his car, puts his hand at the small of my back, and presses his chest into my arm, obviously more of a signal for them than it is a chivalrous gesture for me. He says to me, “There are some old friends of mine over there. I see ‘em all the time so I’ll introduce you sometime.” He continues to escort me up to my porch as I feel the warmth of his hand slide slowly lower until he quickly gives me a light pat on the ass. I’m on his wavelength at this point and we aren’t going to get cockblocked by anyone.
Short erratic visions of foreplay and sex, and a genuinely synced pair of climaxes later… We flop next to each other on my white mattress that’s on the floor with no bed frame and we chat about some generic world views while winding down. It wasn’t even midnight yet and we laugh about how he’s still awake enough to not have to spend the night. I playfully ask him to suck my titty before he runs off and he smiles and snarly-growls as he complies.
We both get dressed, he way faster than I, and he starts looking through my bookshelf idly commenting on my taste in video games and literature, tapping on some old game boxes and tilting out a few of my spiritual books and fantasy fictions to get a peek at their covers. I’m finally dressed in a casual, grey and white, horizontally striped maxi dress that hugs my curves in all the right places. I didn’t bother putting on a bra nor panties but I grabbed an empire-cut jean jacket and slipped on my white Old Navy flip flops so I could walk Gabby out to his car and have a smoke.
As we make our way out, my roommate Adam is playing some random first person shooter on his PC in the living room. He’s kind of a mess from having just arrived home from work, his disheveled light brown hair pressed flat under his headphones was all I could see of him slouching in his leather chair that’s been worn thin exposing the upholstery foam underneath in some spots. At the door I tell him I’m going for a smoke and he notices that I have company. He straightens up his posture and brushes chip crumbs off of his blue tank top stained with soda. “Oh shit, if I knew you had comp.. eh… Ok.” He trailed off as I shrugged to let him know it’s not a “boyfriend situation.”
Gabby nods at Adam in a hello-goodbye and Adam’s face turns to me twisting into a huge smug grin as he starts nodding and making pelvic thrust gestures while his chair squeaks mocking in unison. Gabby starts cracking up as I feel my cheeks flush, and I attempt to shush Adam by getting between them and flailing my arms like he’s a pest I’m shooing out of a window in vain.
The crowd across the street was significantly thinned but not gone, and Gabby’s friends were still there chatting with a couple of people in the cool night of summer under the orange streetlights leaning up against the tall chain link security fence, the kind with barbed wire at the top. I awkwardly and loudly ask with my eyes still locked onto Adam the Embarraser, “Hey Gabby, wanna introduce me to your friends? Looks like they’re still here.” Adam peeks out the window and suddenly sits straight up and nearly throws his headphones at his desk. I’m shocked, but Gabby asks Adam, “Oh, are you a fan of Eva and Kostas? I can introduce you too.” Adam gets a helpless look on his face and shouts at me, “Oh my god, look at me! If I knew your friend was friends with E&K I woulda showered! Man… I’m a mess!”
“Well, it’s not the last time I’ll be over.. er.. at least I hope it’s not?” Gabby coyly glanced at me with a hint of worry for possibly imposing. Surprised at the evening’s potential for not ending as a one-night-stand, I smirk, “Nah, maybe next time you’ll stay all night.” I purse my lips and bite my bottom one to stifle a laugh.
We exit my dingy front doorway and Gabby explains that his friends, the couple, OWN the venue and even star in their own comedy show on another night of the week. He looks at me like I should know them as well as my roommate appears to but I completely draw a blank and he jokes, “Man, you don’t get out much do you?”
I roll my eyes, “I go out to get away. Besides, Adam has lived here a whole year before I moved in with him. And I’ve only been here for.. going on 5 months now? Yeah.”
Gabby leans against his Corvette and lights a cigarette. I join him and he lights mine too. We both wave to Eva and Kostas across the street. Kostas does a hand motion pointing at himself and circling the two of them and then points at us basically asking if it’s ok to come over, so I wave them welcome. They politely excuse themselves from a couple of straggling fans clearly relieved to have an excuse to finally get away from them. Kostas takes Eva’s hand, they look both ways, and safely jog over to us in my cracked concrete driveway.
Gabby hugs Eva and handshake bro-hugs Kostas as I hear Adam hastily leave the living room, his headphones falling off his desk onto the hardwood floor. I assume he’s going to take that shower anyway and I chuckle to myself. I shake hands with the couple as Gabby introduces me and they inevitably ask, “So how do you know this guy? What a coincidence to see him in this neck of the woods on an off-night!” Gabby and I look at each other and realize at the same time that we really DON’T know each other. But as politely as possible, I explain how we met at a bar three nights prior.
I feel at ease with E&K and conversation goes comfortably and well, but a small rift of strangeness becomes present between me and Gabby. He notices it too and wraps his arm around my waist as if to close the imaginary gap. I inhale my cig deeply and just relax into him.
Then I wake up.
