I first saw him as we boarded the plane. He was about my height, about my age. There was that eye contact that men make. Yeah, I see you, I don't think you are a threat, I'm not being antagonistic, I know who I am. They were the things men do with their eyes. He was one row ahead of me and in the aisle seat on the other side.
During the flight, I had to piss a couple of times. The first time, I was coming out of the john when he was going in. We were face to face and I noticed him looking at my eyes more than he needed to, like he knew me from somewhere. The second time, he was coming out and again he looked right into my eyes. I think I nodded a little in recognition then.
When the plane landed, I stood up and he did too, and we were right next to each other in the aisle. We made eye contact and I said "How you doing?" He said that he was okay, but wanted to get to the hotel. I agreed.
I went down to catch the hotel shuttle and he was on it. There was more eye contact, a little small talk, more 'get to know you' that men do. I didn't think anything about it. I was thinking about the trade show the next day.
I ate in the bar of the hotel that night and he came in. I nodded to him. The place was nearly empty and there was an NBA game on. I'm not a fan, but I like a good game. This one wasn't a good game. He asked if he could join me. I said sure. He ordered a chef's salad and a beer and we exchanged names and particulars. He was Todd, from Dayton. I was Mark from Grand Rapids. He was divorced, I was divorced. We had kids, him three, me two.
We watched the game and chatted, had another beer. He asked me what I was doing that night and I said not much. He asked me if I wanted to get out and see some of Las Vegas. I said sure. I'm not really a Las Vegas person, but the cable TV at the hotel was not that hot. That's the way it is in Vegas, get you out of the room and into the casino. I'm not a casino type person.
We went to the ESPN bar and had a beer but it was kind of loud. I asked him if he had any other recommendations. He said that he had been to a couple of places around town before and he would try to remember where they were. He asked me how long I wanted to stay out. I said not that long.
We grabbed a cab and Todd gave the driver the name of the club. I didn't really hear him and if I did, I wouldn't have recognized it. We pulled up in front of the club a few minutes later and went in. There was no cover charge, I liked that, and I looked around to take it in. Todd motioned me up to the bar and we ordered a beer.
I had just taken my first sip of beer when I noticed something. At the end of the bar, there were two young men in white t-shirts, kissing. I took a quick look around and knew that this was a gay bar. I looked at Todd and he didn't look gay. I wondered what was up. I took another sip of beer.
Todd looked at me and made long eye contact. "Do you like this place?" he asked? I told him that I didn't know that it was a gay bar when we went in. He said that if I was uncomfortable, we could leave. I looked around and I thought, "What the hell? Why not?" so I told him we could stay.
There was a short pause and he said that he wasn't trying to pick me up, but that he liked going to gay bars when he was in Las Vegas, but that he didn't like to go alone. There weren't that many gay bars in Dayton and he wasn't gay, but he liked being around men. I said that there weren't that many gay bars in Grand Rapids, and that I wasn't gay either, and I didn't mind the company of men, but that I was straight.
We looked at each other, a long look into the eyes and started to laugh. Todd said that he was afraid that he had blown it with me. He said that I was a good guy and that he just wanted some company that night. He told me some things about himself, how he was divorced and liked women, but that it gave him a chance to have sex with men again. He had sex with men in college and it wasn't a big deal, that he was very careful about who he had sex with and that trying to figure out who he was that was hard. I think he wanted me to jump in and say the same sorts of things about myself, but I didn't. There was this eye thing going on, like how much do I tell and how much did he tell. Some things were said straight into the eyes, others with the eyes looking over the shoulder.
I didn't tell him about the times I sucked off my best friend in high school, how I had some jack off sessions in college and how I just about let a guy fuck me once and how I always wondered what would have happened if I did. I did tell him that I understood what he meant about trying to figure out who I was. I said that if he wanted to find some company with someone at the bar, I would be his wing man.