I’ve been coming to the Taverne for about ten years, and I met Jason here when he moved to town about two years ago. Last Friday, I walked in and aimed for my favorite barstool (fourth one from the left by the cable TV) to watch a baseball game. When I came in, there was Jeremy sitting at the bar, so I sat down next to him. I hadn’t seen Jeremy for a couple of weeks, so when Lou the bartender brought my first libation, I had him refill Jeremy’s beer mug. I’d met Jeremy here also, about eight months ago, and I know that he is a computer programmer, software developer, and website designer, who works out of his apartment at the end of the block. He’s in his late 20’s, long, black wavy hair that contrasts sharply with his very pale skin, trim but not strongly built particularly, good-looking almost to the point of being pretty, and with a dreamy expression in his bright green eyes, framed by their long, dark, full lashes, that would make most people look simply dull but on him works great. I ask him where he’s been lately, and he tells me that he’s had a huge project that he just finished the first version of, and he had to get out of his place and look at something besides a computer for a while.

We sit conversing, and I get into the game, which has just started. About 15 minutes later, Jason walks in. I flag him down and he sits next to me. Although I know both Jeremy and Jason, they do not know each other, so I make the introductions. Jeremy looks good, in a polo-style knit top and dockers, but Jason is devastating, in a white t-shirt with a black leather open vest, tight jeans, and motorcycle boots.

We all order food, and I am watching the game, and talking to and with both of them, but they immediately - and increasingly – only have eyes for each other. Sitting between the two of them, I am almost electrocuted by the sparks flying. Eventually, after we’ve finished the meal (well, I finished mine – they were both feasting with their eyes), I give up and move to a table just behind them and watch the ballgame – and watch the fun at the bar. Jason is looking at Jeremy with those hypnotically intense dark eyes, as if Jeremy is the only person on the planet, and using that honeydrippin’ accent to full effect, while Jeremy is looking dreamily back at Jason and taking it all in, as if his world is centered on Jason as the Sun.

I suppose that now would be a good time to, like Lucy to Ricky, “…’splain a few thin’s”. I am somewhat older than both Jason and Jeremy, and single, and for whatever reason I’m the kind of person that people open up to (as if I know anything…) ‘A Friend to All, but Attached to None’ – put that on my tombstone. Both Jason and Jeremy felt safe in confiding some highly personal things to me, and from talking with them and seeing them in action, I know a few things. First, I know that Jeremy is gay because he told me, and I have