Getting to know Aaron

I've blogged about Aaron before. He is 20 and we've hung out at The Guy's house. We have wanted to hang out with each other though, The Guy in fact has encouraged it. I have been texting him and talking to him quite a bit on the phone lately. We talked on Tuesday night and decided that today would be a good day to hang out.

I texted him at 4:55, he got off work at 5, so I wanted to make sure we were still hanging out. I got a call at 5:30. I couldn't hear him on the phone, so I ran outside and called him and we decided we would meet over where he lives. His hours were cut back by 50% at the DMV because there still is no state budget. I knew that, so I was more than willing to drive over to this city he lives in near where he works to save him money and gas. I knew there were the major chain restaurants and he was game for anything, but I told him to pick because maybe he would suggest somewhere I hadn't been and I didn't know what exactly was around the DMV. He chose Red Robin. I told him I would meet him in 40 minutes. I texted him a couple times on the way over telling him I was on my way.

I get to the restaurant at about 6:25 and he is getting out of his car and I am too. He looks at my new car and tells me he likes it. We go into the restaurant, find our seats, look at the menu, and both decide on burgers. He gets the bacon burger and I get the barbecue. They come within minutes- 10 at most. We chat about what is going on in our lives in the meantime. I mainly tell him about how I've been busy this summer handling family stuff.

The conversation deepens. We talk about work, school, and things like that. I encourage him to go back to college. He took a couple courses, but got busy with work and never went back. He wants to teach history. I encouraged him to do weekend classes like Saturday or Sunday and we talked about with how many units he has done he could maybe do it in a year and a half. We talked about how he was effected by the state budget cuts. We talk about how he wants the DMV to offer him a full time position. We also talked about The Guy. Aaron talked about possibly getting to go to Hawaii with a friend of his. As he said that he sort of folded his hands on the table, relented, and said boyfriend. His boyfriend has a timeshare in Hawaii. They've been going out since February. I asked how things were with him, how they met, and things like that because he has been brought up when THe Guy, Aaron, and I hang out. They met online. They had a lot in common at first he thought, they've had a couple hard times, but they have worked through them. His boyfriend doesn't talk as much as he'd like at times, but that's just an annoying habit. I had to laugh because Aaron is so quiet and introverted. His myspace advertises that and so I ve to wonder how quiet his boyfriend is. We talked about the gay issue- how I'm not out to my male friends. We talked about how we both mainly have good "girl" friends. We have drifted apart with many of our male friends. We try to cherish the female friends we have. We talked about how sexuality is a nonissue, which we talked about my best friend. Aaron really just warmed up as time went on. We got our bill put on the table and Aaron took the bill paying for it. We argued about it. I gave my ATM card, my $20, but he insisted on paying. He told me to take care of the tip. I said I'll pay my half. He said no, Mike, I don't want your money. I didn't think this was going to happen that way. Oh well... I thanked him and everything.

Then we decided to walk over to Starbucks since we both wanted something sweet. Aaron slipped into the bathroom when we got there, so I told the barista that I was paying for the guy's whom I was with, so only take my ATM card. She laughed and said ok. Aaron came out and we sampled some orange mango smoothie they were offering. Then we ordered. He ordered some caramel drink with ice and I ordered a frappucino.

We go outside and sat down. We talked about my housing situation. He asked if I liked to read. I said yes and told him about how I am reading my cousin's books right now. I told him about them. Then he told me about a book he read. We talked about how we both should read more. He asked what I've done this summer and I told him some of the things. Went to a tanning bed and the bad experience. My ass burned. Yes. There. I said it. The Guy encouraged me to go. I talked about Gonzo and how we're great friends. Told him about going to the casino and how at Morongo you only have to be 18. He has never been. We talked about concerts and he has also never been. Vegas then came up. He wants to go with his boyfriend when he turns 21. He also wants to go with his good girl friends. I told him how Gonzo and I want to, but it'll never work because her parents are so strict. We talked about cell phones and iPods. I showed him my iPhone and he laughed how Amy Grant was the first artist on my list. He likes her too. I joked about how embarrassed I was at what he was seeing. We finished our Starbucks drinks and went into the Verizon store. He wanted to buy phone scratch protectors for his screen on his phone. We hung around in there and he told me about his sister who is 17 and his older brother. It took about 10 minutes for him to be helped.

Then we walked back to our cars. I ended up telling him about the incident last week where I was sexually assaulted. He knew something was up when we talked on the phone earlier this week. I told him how it has just helped me reaffirm I don't want a one night stand deal and how I was strong enough to set the boundary of only jacking off. Walking to the car he asked how I got to the hotel because I guess he missed that detail when I was telling him or was curious. Either way I told him how we walked from the bar to the hotel since it was just down the street. The guy had his arms all around me. Aaron asked how and he put his arm around me and I did the same showing him. The guy from last week was rubbing all up and down my side and so I showed him. We walked to the car- about 100 feet with our arms arond each other. People did see. It was 8:15 and nearly dark, though. I felt a little awkward because I've never really done that, but also not knowing Aaron well enough. I'm glad we did it though. Nothing sexual there guys- he has a boyfriend. Aaron pulled down his tailgate and we talked. We talked more about how the incident has made me stronger and how I'm just going to be more careful. We talked about the weather, the cool breeze, and just how glad we were to get to do this. I thanked him for dinner, he thanked me for Starbucks, and he joked that I need to stay away from the department store this guy from last week works at. We wrapped up about 8:40.

Good deal- I'm going to definitely get to know Aaron better just to have another cool guy to chat and hang out with.