She looked different from how I remembered. No more two-thousands garb. Instead, she wore a small, hot pink tube top that only covered her chest and thick black sweatpants tied with an oversized drawstring. Her hair was down, and now dark brown, with white eyeliner, brown-red lips, and crystals on the sides of her eyes.
Kris laughed and shook my hand. “Good to see you again, man.” He looked almost exactly how I remembered him. Except in a Nirvana tee that showed off his arms.
Rickie told the bartender, “Tequila soda, with a splash of grapefruit juice, and a Tajín rim, if you have it. Thanks!”
Kris leaned in and said, “She’s been obsessed with tequila and Tajín all summer.”
She looked at Kris, then back to the bartender. “And he’ll have a beer. Please and thank you.”
The bartender nodded and left to make her drink.
“Spicy days call for spicy drinks!” Rickie said, turning around to face us, elbows on the bar. “Seriously, I’m so happyyou reached out. I literally screamed when I saw your message pop up.”
“She’s not kidding. It was loud.” Kris chuckled.
I expected seeing them would be more awkward. We’d only met once, spent a few drunken hours together, and then never spoke again. I didn’t consider people I followed on social media to be friends unless I knew them in real life. But her infectious attitude, which was why I reached out in the first place, made me feel like, with no one else to talk to, I’d made the right call.
“We still talk about you all the time, right?” Rickie said, and Kris nodded. “I only wish you posted more! People don’t believe we met this totally random, hot gay doctor at LIV of all places.And it takesforeverto find your page to prove it.” She laughed. “Then theyreallydon’t believe me when I tell them you were there for your brother’s bachelor party and werethisclose to hooking up with the best man.” Rickie squinted one eye through the space between the index finger and thumb.
“Rick.” Kris scolded with wide eyes.
Rickie giggled. “What? He knows. Right?”
My neck got hotter than my face, but I chuckled through the awkward. “Uh, well… yeah. We ended up hooking up that night. Now he’s my boyfriend.”
Rickie screamed. Kris said, “Nice, man. He was definitely into you.”
“I knew it! I wanted to press your faces together like two Barbies,now kiss.” She laughed hard.
I laughed too. I had been right. No matter how awkward it still felt, these people were the right call. My mood was already lifting.
Rickie screamed again and launched her body off the bar like a torpedo. Her target was a drag queen emerging from the back room. The queen’s wig was at least twice as big asher face. She wore a dangerously short, very tight, green-and-gold sequined dress with a plunging neckline, and her thigh-length gold boots housed what looked like live goldfish in their impossibly high heels.
She stopped Rickie in her tracks. “Girl, it just took me a damn hour to put this face on, and another for the wig and tits. No touching.”
Remembering the etiquette, Rickie gave her air kisses on each cheek, then slapped her ass. The queen said, “That one’s free. Otherwise you gotta tip a bitch,” and pressed her realistic-looking bosom together.
Rickie dragged her over to Kris and me. “I want you to meet my friend! This is Ryder. He’s the hot gay doctor I met in Miami. Ryder, this is Caressa Mae, the best drag queen in Lower Manhattan.”
The other queens had begun setting up for their performance. One laughed and said, “You mean the drunkest.”
“Or the sluttiest,” the other said.
“Don’t listen to the filth, love. It’sobviouslyall three,” Caressa Mae said, donning an almost royal accent. Then offered me her bejeweled hand. “Pleased to meet you, hot gay doctor from Miami. I’m Caressa Mae, but you can just call me Mae, and I can Caressayou.”
I took her hand, laughing, and kissed it.
“And a gentleman, too. Mama like.” Mae took the stool next to me, crossing her legs and dangling her foot. The goldfish weren’t real after all.
I blushed, smiled, and said, “I’m not from Miami. We just met there.”
“Okay. How did you meet then, hot gay doctor not from Miami?”
Rickie said, “We met him at LIV, and invited him to the VIP,” pronounced like zip, “and then he hooked up withhis brother’s best man, and now they’re boyfriends. Isn’t that adorable?”
“Absolutely precious,” Mae said, scanning my face. “So what are you doing in the big city, love? You don’t look like a local?”
Coming up with a reason I was in New York hadn’t crossed my mind. Telling them the truth would be insane. I barely knew Rickie and Kris, and didn’t know Mae at all. I just wanted to hang out and blow off a little steam. Then head home and gather the courage to show my face at the wedding. If I were lucky, maybe even fix things with Finn when I saw him.
