And the evening started out in such a normal way.

Until...

This is such a ridiculous story, and potentially long, but I'll try to keep it in check so that you don't fall asleep somewhere in the middle.

A few months ago...

the endless rotation of people in my building brought a new bunch to live in the apartment directly above me. This was REALLY welcome as the last couple included a guy who must've thought he was the next American Idol as I was woken up by him many, many times singing LOUDLY and HORRIBLY in the middle of the night.

I didn't have a clear handle on just who lived up there. There were several women who looked enough alike that I couldn't even figure out how many were there or who they were, a girl around Little A's age, and a guy. The guy, very quickly, started making eyes at me. N and I were still together though, so I largely ignored they guy and his eyes and pretended like he was just making neighbor eyes at me. Yuh know, those hot and heavy neighbor eyes.

About 6 weeks ago, N and I had a huge fight. And here's something you may not know, when I'm pissed, I smoke. Quite a lot. So, I was outside smoking, fuming about N, and Mr. Eyes and the dude who lives across the hall from him came out to smoke as well. I chit-chatted with them in a neighborly way and hung out there for a while. In the meantime, 2 things happened. Mr. Eyes told me I was beautiful (HA!) a couple of times and N's cousin came through. When N and I finally got through THAT fight, I told him I had spoken to those guys, but his cousin told him after that and made it out to be some crazy-cheateresk behavior (Don't even get me started on him...I'm sure there was just a BIT of projecting in that assessment...fucking cheater). So, then we had ANOTHER fight which basically revolved around me defending my right to stand on my own fucking stoop, no matter who else was there and N declaring that he didn't want me to ever talk to that guy again. Just to keep the peace around the holiday's, I generally avoided the guy, as best I could, but it was really pissing my off because, well, I'm just not that girl that you can say such crap to. Sooooo....

As you all know, about 2 weeks ago, N and I broke up again. Not over this. It's hard to say what it was over because it was really over everything. But he'd tell you that it was over a cat. I'd tell you that it was either because he doesn't understand the concept of sterilization or because he thought it was ok to borrow $1,000 from an ex-girlfriend who is still carrying a torch for him. So since then, I've run into Mr. Eyes several times, but very breifly. And since N's out of the picture, and because the guy sauntered into the laundry room without a shirt on, I gave myself the freedom to notice how incredibly cute he is. I'm telling you, drool-on-my-shoes beautiful. PUT YOUR FUCKING SHIRT ON!!! I decided that I would just appreciate him for the eye-candy that he is and that would be it.

It's hard to convey the weirdness of the next part of the story because the whole thing makes him sound like a scab, which he probably is, but because of this intensely boyish charm he has (that I honestly can't even describe to you), he pulled off this conversation without me slapping him. The info you need before this next part...Mr. Eyes is the father of the girl and one of the women who lives up there is his girlfriend and the girl's mother. For all intents and purposes, they are married, in my mind.

Last night, as I again smoked and fumed over N on my stoop, Mr. Eyes came home. He stopped on the stoop to smoke and talk. Along in the small talk, he mentioned that he had today off so I asked what he was going to with his day off.

Mr. Eyes: I don't know. I don't really know this city well, like where the clubs are...

V: Ha, well don't ask me. I'm not a party girl.

Mr. Eyes: Maybe a movie then.

V: Oh yeah, there's a movie theater...(chatter about the artsy fartsy-ness of the movie theater)

Mr. Eyes: So, you can go to the movies with me?

V: Uh, no. I don't think your girlfriend would really appreciate you going to the movies with another woman, do you?

Mr. Eyes: It could be a secret.

V: Oh no. No, no, no, no.

And from there, it just went on and on. As soon as I let on that I knew what he was proposing, he was pretty insistent. But I'm an aries, its a rare person that can break through MY stubborness insistence. I had many, many reasons, moral reasons, logistical reasons, personal reasons, jealousy reasons, you name it. And to be honest, he may not have known enough english to combat them all. I mean I had reasons flowing right out of my wazoo. And in the end, he looked mildly defeated, but not defeated enough to refrain from saying, "I hope tomorrow, you'll change your mind." To which I said, "Tomorrow? Hahaha!"

It was just so odd. So open. So honestly talking about something that only leads to a pile of lies and hurt. I mean, I've had my toes in these waters before, and its never been so open. Previously, its been more like "I'm going sexual-innuendo you into bed, so that when/if you refuse (or I get caught) I can pretend like I wasn't doing anything at all." Yuh know?

And despite myself and despite the fact that he's revealed himself to be a cheating pig, I like him. Not in the want-to-have-an-affair kind of way, but just in the flirtatious friendly neighbor/eye-candy way. And I don't foresee that stopping because while N and I were in our depths of nastiness and fighting, Mr. Eyes was always there to look at me with a kind, warm, open face. (And yes, oddly enough the face pointed toward my face, and not toward my breasts or ass.) That face was there when I needed to see a kind face more than anything and I'd be completely lying if I didn't say that I appreciated it.