Picture it…..
Philadelphia.
1995.
A very young (and unbeknownst to him, strikingly beautiful) NYCman is leaving Woody’s after a rare unsuccessful night of cruising. I stumbled upon a tall, dark, ripped, handsome, rugged man in torn jeans. He smelled of roofing tar and desperation. I was right on both accounts. I took him back to my apartment and we spent a wonderful evening together.
Although we hadn’t discussed it ahead of time, in the afterglow, it became obvious he expected to be paid. I had absolutely no money. I mean seriously, I had to save up for “Dollar Margarita Night”. And even then, I could only afford one margarita. So I gave him a pair of my jeans. When he realized I only had 2 pair of jeans to my name, and I was willing to give him one of them, he started crying.
At first, he refused to take them. When I pointed out, there wasn’t much left of his old jeans to even put on, he begrudgingly accepted them. I’ll never forget how happy he was when he put my jeans on. He also showed me the knife he had planned to use to rob me and told me to be more careful in the future.
Several times after that, I saw him on the street outside Woody’s after closing and he would come to crash at my place. The smell of roofing tar still makes me hard.
God, I’ve had a fun life!