It Started at the Drive Thru
Joe Lewin
I had an encounter a few days ago that I want to share with you.
It all started in the coffee shop drive thru. I stopped in for a late afternoon coffee. It was about 4 p.m. There was nobody in front of me and nobody behind me. I ordered a medium black coffee and pulled up to the window. As I came to a stop the window opened, and a young guy (probably late teens or early twenties) told me what I owed him. I paid him as he said, "Nice looking ride." I drive a metallic silver G Wagon and get this comment, or something like it, a lot, from people of all ages.
Without thinking and not even knowing to this minute where it came from I responded: "Not as nice looking as you."
He stopped, cocked his head and I could tell he was wondering if he had heard me correctly. He blushed a little and then smiled and said "thank you. You're not so bad yourself."
It's probably a good time to tell you a bit more about him. He had curly brown hair that looked like a bit of a mop on top of his head. He was cute with nice plush lips and a turned up nose. His most attractive feature were his eyes. They were blue-green and seemed to sparkle. Through the window he looked to be about 5'5" or 5'6". He probably weighed about 100 pounds soaking wet and fully clothed.
I, on the other hand, consider myself to be well groomed but not especially attractive or unattractive--I'm just a plain old middle aged white guy. My hair, also closely cropped, is still a little more black than grey, but I suspect that will change soon. I've kept myself in decent shape but I'm not a fitness or weight lifting freak. I'd say I'm an average guy.
"Well, thanks," I said, still waiting for my coffee. We both sat there staring at each other. There was no one waiting behind me. And it appeared that there were maybe two or three people working in the store, but they were further back by the counter and not paying attention to what was happening at the window.
After a few seconds I laughed and said, "so, how about that coffee." He also laughed and said, "sorry, I was trying to figure out whether I should try to push this conversation further."
"I'm listening," I said.
He was still smiling when he said, "I get off at 5. I was going to call my roommate to ask for a ride home but I'm wondering if you'd like to take me in that G Wagon."
What I wanted to say was "take you?" but what I did say was "I'd be happy to." And, noticing that one of his co-workers had suddenly become interested in how long the order was taking at the window, I said, "How about you grab me that coffee and I'll meet you in front of the T-Mobile store next door shortly after 5?" He smiled, said nothing and turned around to get my coffee.
Handing it to me he said, "See you in about 55 minutes."
I drove off and parked in front of the T-Mobile store. I sat and thought about what just happened. A lot of thoughts went through my mind--from "what the hell am I doing" to "this is going to be interesting" over and over again. I sat and sipped my coffee and watched the traffic cruise through the parking lot and the people going in and out of the stores. It was a long 55 minutes but eventually the clock turned to 5 and I headed over to the T-Mobile store.
The place was still open so I had backed into a slot that was not immediately in front of the windows. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 5:03. "I'll give him 10 minutes," I thought. A couple of minutes went by and I was beginning to think he must have been joking or changed his mind when I spotted him walking across the parking lot.
He came up to the passenger door, opened it and climbed in. "Thanks for doing this," he said. "I really appreciate it."
I asked him where he lived, and he gave me the address. I used the voice command to enter the address into the GPS. He looked around at the stitched leather upholstery, the gauges and screens and the "mood" lighting that is included in all Mercedes high-end cars. "Sweet," he said, as he leaned back and put his seat belt on.
I looked over at him. He was in a button down shirt and khaki pants. I liked what I saw.
I pulled out of the parking lot and we small talked about the weather and our jobs. The conversation was so bland I began to think that either I completely misread the situation or he had merely been capitalizing on my interest to snag a ride home. It was weird: I was feeling a little depressed in the moment, even though an hour earlier thinking of doing anything sexually with this young guy was about the furthest thing from my mind.
We continued to chat. About 10 minutes into the ride he asked me whether I was married. I told him "no" and asked about his status. He told me he was unattached, too. We drove along in silence for a few more minutes until I felt his hand rest on the top of my right thigh. It startled me a little, but I made no move to avoid his touch or push his hand away.
We kept driving like that for a minute that felt like an hour. The air in the car seemed thick and the anticipation was palpable. I could feel it. And I knew he could feel it.