I helped my friend move into her new apartment many years ago, long before we ever thought we'd settle down in any one place long enough to unpack completely. She shared the space with two girls, and I hit it off with one of them immediately. She was a real character, and such a babe – feisty, flirty, funny, and oh-so fierce. She wore the shortest skirts and the teensiest tops, and to prove that she always dressed this way she opened up her closet for us to see. Not one thing, I swear, was more than 17 inches long. At first glance it looked like she had hung nothing but baby clothes because there was so much space between the rod and the floor.
As we sorted and unpacked, my friend whispered to me a secret. Her new roommate in the tight outfit was actually a he, or at least used to be. She didn't know for certain if she had undergone sex reassignment surgery, but the tattletale who in turn had told her this didn't think so. The only thing they knew for sure was that she took hormone medication regularly. There was nothing overtly masculine about her except her lithe boyish figure and perhaps a hint of an Adam’s apple (only if you were really looking). Otherwise, she truly was all-woman.
That evening the guy I was seeing came over to pick me up. When the doorbell rang, the roommate let him in because the rest of us were moving stuff around in the bedroom. At first we heard stunned silence and then loud expressions of delighted surprise. When I walked over to the living room the two were locked in a warm, friendly embrace.
And that was the day I met my guy’s ex.
If I didn't know what I had just discovered, I might have been a bit jealous; now I was only perplexed. Nothing made sense to me at first, then eventually some of it did. Although my man was a charmer with rock-hard abs and muscles in all the right places, I’d highly suspected that his tales of sexual conquests were nothing but mere boasts. Once he told me about an ex-girlfriend whom he discarded simply because none of his friends approved of the match. He didn’t tell me what exactly they didn’t like about her except they believed she wasn't right for him and certainly not good enough. He also said she had been devastated by his betrayal and that he felt sorry for what he had done. But perhaps sensing my alarm he explained that he was young and immature then and added that despite his feelings of regret he had no intentions of going back to her and that was that. Later he also revealed that she was his “first" and tossed in a few details I really didn't want to hear at the time, and certainly not since the day I met her.
So now as we all stood around I looked at my new acquaintance, the girl he had hurt once – the girly-girl who wasn’t always so – and closed my mind to the torrent of new questions and all the too-obvious, too-vivid visuals that begged for some kind of explanation. I never told him what I knew after we left the apartment, nor ever asked him to explain how certain things could have happened between them as he said they had -- not for his sake, but for hers. You see, not too long afterwards I found myself in the living room of that same apartment again, bonding with my new friend over stories of how our guy turned out to be such a jerk after all. And we talked like two girls conspiring and giggling, just like girls often do. Just like we were after all.
Oh, my! I was giggling all throughout this entry. I wouldn't have known how to handle that if I were in your place. Your composure amazes me! :)
Posted by: MadMuse | July 08, 2008 at 06:15 AM
I had a friend named Otto who took a six-week vacation. Returned as Janice and stopped showing up for Tuesday night poker.
Posted by: Rick | July 08, 2008 at 10:37 AM
MadMuse - I swear, I have no idea how I handled that episode either. Especially since my imagination tends to run away with me. Though I have a sinking suspicion that the reality was far more than I could ever imagine! I don't even want to start...
Rick - Now imagine you dated someone named Janice who used to date someone named Otto when he was still Denise underneath it all. OK wait -- for some reason it's just not the same eh? :)
Posted by: Gigi | July 13, 2008 at 12:43 AM
Wooow Gigi really to be able to keep your mouth shut... I wouldn't be able to keep quiet!
Posted by: Cathy | July 15, 2008 at 05:50 AM
Cathy - I have an overactive imagination, but after this episode I realized my sense of denial was stronger. I'm the fourth monkey: Think No Evil! :)
Posted by: Gigi | July 19, 2008 at 04:12 PM