“Is it okay if I
drop by for a little while?”
Allen did not
answer right away, so I explained, “Ruth and I dropped by Mother’s nursing
home, but Mother isn’t lucid right now. I was hoping that if we waited an hour
and went back, she might be a little better.”
When Mother had
entered the facility near my friend Allen’s house, he told me I could use his
house for just such an occasion. I wondered why he hesitated, though, when I
was asking to do exactly what he had offered. Finally he admitted, “I have a
few friends over for a brunch, but of course you can come by.”
“We’ve already
eaten, so food isn’t a problem,” I said.
I sensed more indecision,
but then Allen said, “At least you’ll get to meet Bruce. I’ve wanted you two to
meet, and he’s here with his partner.”
“Great! I’ll see
you in a few minutes.”
Allen’s front
door flew open only seconds after I rang the bell. An effusive greeter raised
his hands and declared, “You must be Bobbie. I’m Bruce, and Allen’s told me all
about you.”
“So glad to meet
you at last,” I told him. “This is my friend Ruth.”
We walked into
the house, and I noted that we had interrupted not just any brunch, but an
all-male, all-gay, all-couples brunch. In addition, everyone was much younger
than Ruth and me. She and I were in our fifties at the time. Allen was my
junior by more than ten years, too, but none of our dissimilarities had ever
affected our decades-long friendship.
Regardless of
our differences, Allen’s friends quickly absorbed Ruth and me into their
conversations while we all stood around sipping various drinks. Several of the
couples held hands or kept their arms around each other, without being
intimidated by Ruth’s and my presence, too. I felt quite welcome.
Allen had been
right about Bruce. He and I fell into an easy banter that did not stop. Ruth, a
little quieter than most of my friends, did not talk much, but I watched her
observing the men.
One man wore a
tight shirt that accentuated his unusually pointy nipples. After a long silence,
Ruth turned to Bruce and me and said, “I wish I had breasts that stood out as
well as his do.”
Without
hesitating, Bruce blurted, “Well, I’m sure Bobbie at least lets you feel her
breasts all the time.”
Ruth pulled
herself up to her full height and declared, “Wrong assumption!”
Several men
turned toward her to see what was going on.
My face must
have gone bright red for Ruth’s embarrassment, but soon I burst out laughing.
Through my laughter I stammered, “I’m not—I mean we’re not a couple. We’re not
gay.”
Everyone within
earshot erupted in laughter, and it was Ruth’s turn to blush.
Under the
circumstances, Bruce had made an automatic supposition. Ruth got over the incident quickly. Bruce and
I became close friends, and he continued to make me laugh until his sudden death
about a dozen years later. Allen and I are still friends to this day.
Although I’ve
lost both Ruth and Bruce to early deaths, I still giggle to myself whenever I
think of the phrase “Wrong assumption.”
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