He had apparently looked at his Caller ID when his phone rang, for I was greeted with a very enthusiastic, "Carl!" when Rick answered his phone.
"Hey, Rick," I greeted him in return. "I just finished my route and was wondering if you were up for anything."
"Yeah, sure," he answered. "When?"
"I'm about five minutes away," I told him.
"Okay. Let me jump in the shower. I'll leave the door unlocked for you."
I arrived and let myself in. As I sat on the couch and waited, I thought back to what had gotten us to this point.
I used to frequent a small tavern on the outskirts of town. I learned pretty quick when the most opportune time to go there was: Wednesday and Thursday were a bust because people were gearing up for the weekend, Friday and Saturday was wall-to-wall drunks who wanted nothing more than to start a fight, and Mondays were reserved for those blowing off back-to-work steam, so Tuesdays were just right because there were so very few people out that night.
On this particular night, I was sitting at a table by myself, as usual, enjoying a beer while my fiancΓ©e was out doing girlish things with her girlfriends. There was a couple in a booth directly behind me, and a man in his late seventies alone at the bar. I had seen him there before, and he was always polite when he spoke, but for the most part, kept to himself. I was in the mood for some conversation this night, so I invited him over.
We talked about small, insignificant things, but in the course of this I found out he was married and that his wife of forty-seven years was a nurse; he was retired. We both shared an affinity for 50s monster movies, chess, and swore that we could make better spaghetti than the other. I really liked him. His name was Rick, and we became friends.
Every Tuesday night at nine-thirty, rain or shine, Rick and I would meet at Jake's for a beer and some conversation. About one month into our friendship, we got on the topic of women in general, and sex more specific. After trading some stories back and forth, we had decided that when it came to women, we had done it all, which prompted me to ask, "Have you ever been with a man?"
"Never have," Rick answered, "although I have always wondered if a man could blow me just as good as a woman can."