You'd Have to Ask - 22. Chapter 22

You’d have to ask

“Is this chair taken?” Cole asks with a smile.

“Go ahead and have a seat.” Greg says.

“You are almost done!” Cole says as he looks at the crossword the guy is working on. “I can never get those things!”

“It just takes some practice.” Greg says as he puts his pen down and looks up at Cole.

“Its nice to see you again.” Cole says, “I actually came here hoping you would be here.”

Greg’s tongue is tied. “This guy actually came here to see me.” He says to himself.

“That is ok isn’t it?” Cole says as he notices the look on the other guy’s face.

“Er yeah, yeah!”

“So this is your Saturday in the big city, crosswords and coffee.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Greg says, “Usually some friends of mine drop by and we bullshit for awhile.”

“Well I don’t have much planned for today, mind if we hang out?” Cole asks.

“Sure if you want to, but I must advise that it’s not too exciting. I usually drink coffee till I can’t take anymore and then head to the gym.”

“Sounds fine to me, if you want I could go to the gym with you.”

Greg feels like pinching himself, this has to be a dream. “OK” he says, “But I gotta know something.”

“I bet you want to know why I came all the way from Lacombe to hang out with you?”
Cole says.

Greg didn’t respond, he can think of nothing to say.

“Well to tell you the truth Greg, I am going to start hanging out in Edmonton a lot and I figured I may as well get to know some people up here.”

“Cool, I guess but there is one thing you should know before we go to much further.”

“What’s that, you gay or something?” Cole asks.

“As a matter of fact, yes.” he says hoping that the guy doesn’t get up and leave.

“So that’s why I wanted to see you again, I guess I picked up on that.”

“You telling me you’re gay too!” he asks.

“Affirmative.” Cole says and offers his hand.

Greg shakes Cole’s hand, “Well this is a pleasant surprise.”

“Thanks for being candid, I was talking to my friend Kat the other day and said I’d met someone in Edmonton.” Cole says, “She asked if you were and I told her I didn’t ask.”

“So what gave me away?” Greg asks, “It’s not that I try too hard to hide it but I don’t think I advertise either.”

“I don’t know, I just had a feeling of trust and that happens to be what I look for in friends.”

“So you want to hang out here for awhile, drink some more coffee, tell each other our life stories?”

“All 77 years?” Cole laughs. “We’ll be here for awhile!”

“77 years, you don’t look that old.”

Cole just laughs in response as it dawns on Greg that Cole has added their ages together.

“Let’s see you are 30?” he asks, “How did you know my age?”

“No comment!” Cole says.

“You checked me out! “ Greg looks around the café, “How did you do that?”

“Well it seems that a guy matching your description was seen by me driving around Lacombe a couple of weeks ago in a burgundy coloured Oldsmobile with a rainbow flag on the back.”

“Fuck!” Greg says as the air goes out of his rage. He was wondering if he’d accidentally bump into Cole when he drove through Lacombe on his way to Calgary.

“So I ran you on the computer.” Cole says, “You came up clean by the way.”

“Thanks, that’s good to know.” Greg smiles, “So you knew I was gay before I spoke up?”

“No, it was circumstantial, I guessed after I saw one of those flags at a bar. By the way you have two flags, what does the other one mean?”

“You haven’t been out that long, have you Cole?”

“Nope!” Cole laugh, “As of 14:00 it will be one day!”

“Really!”

“I came out to my Dad yesterday at that time.” Cole says soberly, “Before that I was trying to convince myself it was a phase.”

“To your Dad?” Greg asks, “It must have been something pretty serious for you to come out to him!”

“It was or is.” Cole replies.

“Ah so its unfolding as we speak, was that the deep conversation your were involved in?”

“Yeah, But that’s all I can say right now.”

“Anyone else know?”

“Just Kat and a guy named Lance, he is a fireman in Lacombe.”

“A fireman? Is he on the team too?”

“Yeah, he is and has been since he was a teenager. Got hired due to equality legislation. I admire him, it’s not easy to be out in that job.”

“I guess not!”

“I think he has some problems with a guy I used to go to school with. But he hasn’t come to me about it. So I guess he is handling it.”

“Has he told you this?”

“No, I just figured, the guy is a redneck asshole and always has been.” Cole says soberly.

We drink some coffee, Greg writes another word in a space in the crossword puzzle.

“Need help with that?” Cole asks.

“Nah, I find if I stare at it long enough I usually figure out the answer.”

“So how about you? You work for the Federal Government it must be safe to be out there?”

“Yeah, I guess it is safe, but I’m not out at work.”

“Any reason?”

“Well I am out to some people, the rest are just co-workers. I don’t think I need to come out to them.”

“I wish it was that easy for me.” Cole says, “As a cop you rely on your partner. I have heard that they are not that open to backing up a fag.”

“Me too.” Greg says, he has read stories where a cop was killed in the line of duty after his partner let him go into a situation alone.

Cole reads the other guy’s face think this from the frown he can sense the other guy’s concern.

“Hey I think I am just about coffeed out!” Greg says, “You wanna hit the gym?”

Cole is grateful that Greg has changed the subject as the conversation was going a place he is not ready to go yet.

“Yeah, the gym sounds good but I don’t have my stuff with me, it is back at the hotel.”

“Are you driving?”

“Nah, my friend dropped me off.”

“Let’s go then, my car is in the back.”

They both get up and head to the back of the café. Once they are outside Greg follows Cole.

“Hey! You remembered.” he says with a laugh.

“Yeah the flags!” Cole says, “What does the other one mean, the blue and black stripped one?”

“That’s the leather flag.”

“You mean there is a separate flag for leather guys?”

“Yeah, it’s not as well known as the other one.”

“Cool, I should get one.” Cole says.

“Why?”

“I don’t know, I guess it is because I just want to feel part of this.”

Greg smiles, the guy is coming out in a blaze of glory. Out loud he says, “Look out Lacombe!”

Cole laughs as Greg opens the doors to the car and they get in.

“Where are you staying again?” As they pull out of the stall.

“The hotel on 105th Street just south of Jasper.” Cole feels around for the key to look for the name.

“It’s OK, I know which one you mean, isn’t that the same one you stayed at before?”

“Yup, small town boy here!” Cole laughs, “Find a place and park it.”

It is a short drive there. Greg waits in the car as Cole goes up to his room to get his gym bag. He comes down and runs to the car. The exaggerated semi-run that jocks are renown for.

He opens the back door and throws his bag in and then gets in. They head off to the gym.