are going to work out between us.”
“I’ll say.”
“I’m gonna go now, it’s been a treat.”
It sure was, I thought as I paid the tab and left.
I was disgusted when I burst through the courtyard gate. As
was becoming a habit, Hailey met me in the courtyard.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I was just thrown for a loop.”
“Were you mugged?” she asked with a horrified expression.
“No, metaphorically speaking. I just had an eye-opening
conversation with someone.”
“You want to have a coffee with me and talk about it?”
“No, no coffee!”
“Okay, calm down.” Hailey held her hands up and backed up
a step.
44
Pitifully Ugly
“I’m sorry. I guess it was all for the best. She was more than
likely going to be a pain in my ass.” I ran my fingers through my
hair and let out a long breath. “I’m sorry.”
“A prospective client, I presume?” Hailey asked.
I should’ve come out and said a prospective date, but I wasn’t
ready to reveal the fact that I was gay. I’d begun to enjoy Hailey’s
company, and I didn’t want any awkward tension between us.
“How about a walk? I’ll treat you to a cup of coffee if you’d
like,” I said as I began to calm down.
“A walk sounds great, and maybe we can have lunch. That’ll
be my treat.”
“Will Fuzzy be joining us?” I asked when I noticed the dog
wasn’t with her.
“No.” Hailey pushed open the gate and waited for me to walk
through. “She’s watching a movie.”
I noticed that she didn’t crack a smile when I walked past her.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, she likes Grease. She can be chasing a ball or ripping
up a stuffed toy, but when that movie comes on, she stretches out
in front of the TV and doesn’t move until it’s over. Don’t try to
sing along, either. That just pisses her off.”
“She’s good company, isn’t she?”
Hailey pulled a pair sunglasses off the top of her head, turning
her curls loose. She looked sexy with the dark glasses and her hair
all wild, but I missed seeing her vibrant green eyes. “She’s loaded
with unconditional love. She never argues or complains unless
I interrupt her movie. When I’m sad, she knows it and curls up
next to me.”
“Maybe that’s what I’m missing in my life. A pet, something
to take care of.” I shoved my hands into the pockets of my hoodie
as the cool January wind pushed in behind us.
“There’s no significant other in your life then?” Hailey
asked.
“No,” I said with a shiver. “Sometimes, I doubt there ever will
be. I’m not very good at playing the dating game.”
“Sometimes it’s just easier being alone,” Hailey said as she
dodged a sewer grate. “No hurt feelings, no obligations.”
4
Robin Alexander
We strolled up St. Ann to Bourbon Street. When we got to the
intersection, Hailey turned right. If she noticed all the rainbow
flags waving above us, she didn’t let on. She was new to the
neighborhood and probably unaware that she’d just led us into
the heart of the gay district. She was telling me about meeting
the couple who lived in the apartment behind hers. When we
passed two drag queens, she didn’t bat an eye. She smiled and
said hello to them unfazed. I took that as a good sign. Maybe
when I revealed I was gay, she wouldn’t be put off.
As promised, I bought her a cup of coffee, and we found an
open bench dappled in warm sunlight and took a seat. “So where
did you move here from?” I asked. Her lips twitched for a second
before she answered.
“I was on Tchoupitoulas Street for a while.”
“Oh, so you didn’t move far. You’re probably pretty well
acquainted with the neighborhood.” She’d taken her sunglasses
off in the coffee shop, but she put them back over her eyes before
answering.
“Not really,” she said after her lips twitched again. “I never
really ventured down this way much. You don’t really get to know
an area until you live there, I guess. How long have you lived here?”
“All my life, but I’ve only lived in our building for about
six years. It’s funny, I never experienced Mardi Gras until I
was eighteen. My parents would take us to Harahan to stay with
my grandparents every season. They’d drive us to school in
horrendous traffic, it took forever. I remember sleeping under a
blanket in the backseat for most of the ride.”
“You never got to see the parades?”
“The smaller ones in Harahan, but not in the city until I was an
adult. My parents weren’t prudes, but they didn’t want to expose
us to the crowds. My mother was terrified that we’d get separated.”
Hailey took a sip of her mocha latte and purred in delight. “I
guess my parents might’ve been the same way.”
“I take it they don’t live in the city?”
“No.” Hailey shook her head. “Washington, my dad is retired
military.”
“How’d you end up here then?”
4
Pitifully Ugly
“Work.” She gave my arm a squeeze. “Now that you’re calm,
do you want to tell me about why you were so upset earlier?”
I looked at her for second, wishing she would take off her
glasses. I wanted to see her eyes when I told her the truth. “I’m
a member of an online dating site. I met a girl there that seemed
really nice. We agreed to meet at Café Du Monde, and everything
was going well. I kind of got my hopes up that she’d be someone
I would be interested in dating.” I waited a second, watching her
face, waiting for her eyebrows to rise over the glasses, but they
didn’t. “Anyway, I was put off by her directness. I just didn’t
think where she was steering the conversation was appropriate
for having just met in person. And then I noticed that her left ring
finger had a definite dent in it.”
“Did you talk to her a while online before you met?” she
asked coolly.
“No, and that was a mistake because if I had, I wouldn’t have
wasted a morning going to meet her. I know it’s silly, but I felt
deceived. I thought she had potential until she got nasty.”
Hailey’s brows did rise then. “Nasty how? Mean?”
“No, not mean, just extremely forward.”
Hailey looked away from me and took another sip of her
coffee. “Deception is a bitch, isn’t it?”
It wasn’t what she said but how she said it with such disgust.
“I take it you’ve been deceived.” She didn’t answer for a minute,
and I was afraid I’d ventured into a topic that was taboo. She took
her glasses off and looked at me. Her eyes revealed pain.
“I was the deceiver. I cheated on my husband.”
I was thrown by her admission and a bit disappointed. I liked
her company and had been kind of hoping that she was gay, too,
even though I suspected otherwise.
“I’ve been cheated on before, but I have to say that being the
cheater is infinitely more painful.” Her voice took on a raspy tone.
“When you’re cheated on, it’s devastating, but friends and family
rally around until you get back on your feet. But when you cheat,