How the Coronavirus Jump-Started my Sex Life - 44. Chapter 44

First Date

Jordan stood as I crossed Kelly’s patio towards him. My heart skipped a beat as I took in his simple black button-down collared shirt topped with a tan corduroy sport jacket. Below the jacket I could see tight black Wrangler jeans and ornate tan cowboy boots. To set off his look, his hair was clean and coiffed a bit and he wore a mask made from red bandana fabric.

Jordan extended his hand toward me and I took it when I reached him. He gripped my hand tightly and held it more than shook it. I tried to match his grip and we both said “good evening” at about the same time. He indicated the seat across from him and we both sat down.

“Do you mind if I remove my mask?” he asked politely.

I shook my head. “No, not at all. But, just so you know, I think it is one of the coolest I’ve seen, except for the waitress’s glittery one.”

Jordan laughed and replied, “I noticed hers. I’m not sure anything that flashy would go with the cool cowboy vibe I was aiming for.

I laughed at that. “Actually, I’d call your vibe ‘urban cowboy cool.’ ”

He popped the ear-loop off his right ear and said, “Whatever my fashion label, I feel more comfortable without hiding behind a mask.”

“Don’t we all!”

“Please, Cal, if you’re comfortable, feel free to remove yours, too. I’d rather see your face than that mask.” I swear there was a twinkle in his eye.

I slipped my mask off and lay it on the table to my left. I looked up at him watching me with a huge grin on his face. I’d never seen him look so handsome.

“Thank you so much for inviting me to join you for dinner. It’s really exciting to be in a restaurant, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Definitely.”

We talked for a few minutes about how great it was to get to eat out at a place we’d both been and already liked. He mentioned that his sister is jealous and I shared that Alan seemed to be jealous, too.

“Ordinarily,” he confided, “I prefer eating inside because it so often gets noisy out here on the patio and sometimes the gasoline fumes from the cars on Central Avenue are not conducive to a tasty meal.”

I chuckled and nodded.

“But, tonight, there’s no traffic so it’s serene and the air is fresh and clean.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “It’s really pleasant out here tonight. Even the wind is cooperating.”

“You picked a great night for our first, uhm, dinner together,” he grinned.

“I spared no expense with the weather bureau,” I laughed.

The waiter, a cute guy a little older than me and wearing his black hair in a small pony tail, approached the table to welcome us and take our drink orders (two iced teas). As he went to get our drinks, I noticed he was wearing a standard-issue black Kelly’s tee-shirt and tailored black shorts.

“When I give the weather report to my sister, she’ll probably club me!”

“Speaking of your sister,” I said, “what’s she like?”

“Well, let’s see,” he paused as he thought about his answer. “Very brief bio.”

“Sure, that’s enough for now.”

“Her name is Amanda and she turns 20 next week. She’s finishing her sophomore year at UNM and she’s majoring in social work. She volunteers at St. Martin’s. That’s the place downtown that provides services to the homeless. You know, they can get a meal and a bath, clean clothes, and they can receive mail and stuff like that. She was helping them develop resumes and learn interviewing skills, things like that. But now that part is all shut down. All they are getting are meals and baths, I think. She hasn’t been there for a couple of months now.”

“She sounds like a good person.”

He nodded and smiled. “She is. I’m proud to be her big brother. She was supposed to begin a job on the Sandia Reservation in a couple of weeks, but they have put the offer on hold pending the end of the pandemic lockdown.”

“So, what’s she going to do after the semester ends?”

“She’s not sure. Actually, she seems a little depressed about it. She’s done a little painting, mostly water colors, and she’s talking about spending some time painting until she can get a job or school starts again in the fall.”

“That seems like a good way to spend the time in quarantine.”

“I agree. Amanda hasn’t done a lot of painting but some of her flowers and outdoor scenes look pretty good to me.”

“Any other siblings?”

“Nope. We had a brother who was three years younger than me and three years older than Amanda but he died when he was a few months old.”

That information was rather upsetting to me and I had to fight for a moment to keep my composure. “Oh, Jordan, I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks. It was a long time ago and I really cannot remember anything about him or losing him. I do vaguely remember my mother crying a lot and being sort of depressed before Amanda was born. It seemed like everything in our family was a lot better when she came along. I think I loved my little sister out of gratitude for sort of fixing our mother and making the family whole again.”

I nodded. “How are your parents now?”

“Uhm, I’d say they’re doing pretty well. Mom seems a little lonely since Amanda left home to come to the university, but she’s okay, I guess. She belongs to a book club and is active at the Episcopal Church and seems to have several lady friends at the church. Dad is a petroleum engineer, so money isn’t a big problem for them.”

The waiter brought our iced teas. “Are you ready to order?” he asked.

“I’m sorry,” Jordan answered. “We haven’t even looked at the menu.”

“I’ll give you a couple of minutes.”

“Thank you,” Jordan responded.

Two middle-aged couples came in together and were seated on the opposite side of the patio from us.

“What do you like to eat here?” I inquired.

Jordan chuckled. “I’m quite fond of their Albuquerque Turkey sandwich.”

“Oh, the hot turkey and cheese with guacamole?”

“That’s the one.”

“I like that one, too. They also do a great burger.” I decided on the sandwich for tonight. “But the Albuquerque Turkey sounds great right now.”

He smiled and nodded.

“So, where did you grow up?” I asked.

“Artesia.”

“That’s between Alamogordo and Hobbs, right?”

“Yeah, going west to east. And between Roswell and Carlsbad, going north to south.”

“I’ve been through there, I think, but don’t really remember it.”

“It’s not much. About 12,000 small town folks and some old oil wells.”

The waiter returned. “Have you decided?”

He looked at me, so I answered, “I’ll have the Albuquerque Turkey, please.”

“Fries okay with that?”

“Yes.”

“You, sir?” he looked at Jordan.

“I’ll have the same.”

“Fries?”

“Yes.”

“You got it.” He walked away and went into the building.

“Did you come to Albuquerque when you graduated from Artesia?”

“No. I went to culinary school in Phoenix and lived there for four years. I actually moved up here two years ago when Amanda came to the university. Mom and Dad helped me buy a little house where Amanda and I could live. I got hired by UNM and she started to college. It’s really been nice, that is, until COVID cost me my job.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Luckily I was able to get hired by the lawncare department.”

“Yes, me too!”

We chuckled.

“So, what about you?” he asked.

“Me?”

“Well. Your family and such.”

I gave Jordan the 5-minute condensed version of Dad, Mom, Carrie, and Cole.

Just as I concluded with Cole’s difficulties with his wayward willy, the waiter brought our sandwiches.

“Don’t these look and smell yummy?” he asked.

“I haven’t seen such a pretty meal in months!” I grinned. “I almost forgot, Mom’s mother lives with us, too, now.” After a moment of sharing about her innate ability to care for others almost instantly and her basic goodness, I added that I couldn’t go home because of her breathing problems.

“Being barred from your family is one of the tough parts of COVID,” he acknowledged.

I took a bite of my sandwich, savored the rich flavors, and nodded. Since I had a mouthful of food, Jordan continued.

“Forgive me if I’m a little bit glad you couldn’t go home. If you had, I doubt we would have ever gotten to know one another.”

I swallowed. “As it turns out, I’m not sorry to have had to stay here instead of going home.” I looked across the table into his bright and alert brown eyes. “It really is great to have the chance to be friends with you, Jordan.”

“I look forward to spending more time with you,” he said, “as the summer comes along.”

As we consumed our sandwiches and fries, we talked about school and a little bit about work. When we were finished eating, I asked him, “What were you like as a teenager?”

“You mean, in high school?”

“Sure.”

“I guess I was a pretty good student and got A’s and B’s. I’ve always been interested in cooking so I took Home Ec as an elective. The other guys gave me a hard time about it, but I made friends with a lot of the girls so eventually the guys became envious of me.”

I laughed. “Serves ‘em right!”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “They didn’t cross over into bullying me, but there were a few times somebody made a slight dig on my masculinity because of it. But I didn’t really care. I knew I was getting out of Artesia as soon as possible after graduation and I didn’t really care if they didn’t like me.”

“You didn’t have any guy friends?”

“Oh, I did. I ran track and that got me some good respect. I won district in the 440-yard hurdles, believe it or not.”

“Wow. I’m impressed.”

“Don’t be,” he chuckled. “I’ve definitely outgrown hurdles.”

“Tell me about your best friend in high school,” I suggested.

“Okay. That would be Tommy McTavish,” he said with a sweet smile. “His parents and my parents were good friends before we were even born, so we grew up sharing a playpen or a sandbox or an ice cream. We were pretty much best friends since we were born, I guess. I don’t actually remember a time before Tommy.”

“That’s really cool. I think that’s very unusual.”

“I suppose. I do feel fortunate to have always had Tommy in my corner supporting me. I can’t really relate to people who feel like they are alone in the world. I’ve never felt that way at all.”

“Cool. Are you and Tommy still close?”

“Yes and no. He went into the Navy right after we graduated, so we’ve not seen each other often for 5 years now. But, we keep in touch through Facebook and we talk on the phone once every few weeks or so. He was home on leave last summer and we had a blast on a 4-day hike into the Gila Wilderness outside Silver City.”

“He sounds like a really great friend.”

“He is. Tommy has been a big, happy part of my life so far. I know we can’t spend as much time together as when we were boys, but I know I could count on him for anything I ever needed.”

“I’ll bet he would say the same about you.”

“I expect so.”

“One thing that draws me to you, Jordan, is that you have been kind to me and supportive of me from the moment we met, when we were still strangers. I could tell by how you treated us in the dining hall that you are a truly good person.”

“Thank you, Cal. My father told me when I was young that being kind and considerate of others without expecting anything in return is the quickest way to make friends.”

“I think he was right.”

“Me, too.” We smiled across the table at each other. “So, Cal, who was your best friend in high school?”

“Ah, Joe Escondido. After he stopped bullying me, we became best friends in sixth grade and still are.”

“Bullying you? I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t too bad and my dad and mom suggested I invite him and his friends over for a bar-be-que and to swim in our pool. Never had another issue with them. Soon we were best friends.”

“Clever solution. Instead of fighting, make them friends.” He smiled. “Go on.”

“You might not be surprised to know I played basketball.”

He nodded. “I can imagine you on a basketball court. You’re what, 6’ 4”?”

“6’ 3". Joe’s a bit shorter, but also played. We were on the middle school team and then high school varsity. I was a starter and could hit pretty well, but Joe was the school star in our junior and senior years.” I took a sip of my tea. “We also played a lot of tennis and just pretty much hung out together all the time. When either of us had a girl-friend, we’d double date sometimes. Mostly I would go with a friend of the girl he was seeing. I never dated the same girl for long.”

“As handsome and athletic as you are, I’m sure that was by your own choice since almost any girl would be thrilled to go out with you.”

“That’s very kind of you, Jordan.” I paused and decided to take a chance. “I guess it really was my choice not to date seriously in high school.”

“Yeah?” That seemed like a subtle way to ask why.

“Yes. I think they didn’t interest me that much.”

I looked across at Jordan’s expectant expression. I took a very deep breath. “The truth is I’ve known since about sixth grade that I prefer boys to girls.”
Oh, my God. It’s out there and can never be taken back. For a couple of seconds, Jordan stared at me blankly. Then, finally, a smile slowly formed on his mouth, eventually growing into a big grin.

“Gee, Cal, I was hoping that was the case.”