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“What makes you so sure?”
“It’s a weird gift that I have,” I said.
“Well, I think your gift stinks. I decided as a young man that marriage just isn’t for me. It’s a thing that people do when they hate being alone. I love being alone.”
“How can a guy who spends as much time trying to get women into his bed as you do, love being alone?”
“I don’t. I usually go to their places. After we are done, I leave. Then I go home alone and I enjoy my privacy and my time. My life, my time belongs to me. No one else.”
I shook my head. “You are a piece of work, my friend.”
Charlie shrugged. “I’m just living my dream life, I guess.”
The bartender gave us our beers and I sipped on mine. It tasted great after a good workout. Charlie was a good guy, but I couldn’t help but feel he was rather misguided in his priorities. He would be alone one day as an old man with no one. That was going to be a sad ending for him. To his credit, at least he never pretended that he was looking for anything else from women and he never lied to them. Still, he seemed to have an unreasonable fear of marriage and commitment. I wasn’t sure what happened in his background to create this phobia, but it was my hope that one day a good mental health professional would help him get right.
A few minutes later, Max and Richie stopped by the bar. They greeted Charlie and we all moved to a table over by the pool tables. This was something we typically did at least once a week. It was a good time to hang out with the fellas.
“So, did Gary here tell you about the new hottie we got down at the station?” Max asked Charlie.
Charlie’s eyes perked up. “What? No, he did not. Please, fill me in.”
“Oh, this girl is smoking,” Richie added. “She is tall, curvy, beautiful long hair, and she seems tough with it, but not in an evil, stuck up way.”
“Wow, you’ve really analyzed Shelly, haven’t you?” I asked.
Richie laughed. “Like you haven’t? Please. You know that if there wasn’t a big company policy, then all of us would be doing whatever it took to go out with her.”
“What policy?” Charlie asked.
Max filled him in. “There is this big policy that says we aren’t allowed to fraternize with anyone in the unit. We could seriously be fired. I’ve actually seen it happen. They are not joking about that shit.”
Charlie laughed and shook his head. “Wow, that is a shame. So, what is really stopping you guys? I know my buddy Gary. He wouldn’t let such a thing stand in his way, would he?”
Charlie bumped my shoulder with his cold beer bottle. I tried to play it off as a silly joke. Charlie loved to tease me about my Midwest upbringing and my core, old fashioned values. I was never going to be a man-slut like he was. I wanted to find the right woman and settle down. I wanted a family one day; although I was not in such a rush to do it that I pretended love existed where it didn’t. I would find the right woman, eventually.
“I am not going to risk my career just to pursue a romance with a woman that probably won’t work out anyway.”
“What makes you so negative?” Charlie asked. He was getting into this. “How do you know it won’t work out?”
“Because most relationships don’t. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”
“I guess you got a point, but you have to wonder if this is the one. What if she turns out to be the one and you let her slip by because of some stupid company policy?”
“Yeah, but I will never know that because I’m not going to rock that boat.”
Max laughed. “You know what I think? I think that our boy Gary is actually afraid to make this happen. I think he has the extreme hots for Shelly. And I think he is a total chicken for not even trying.”
“What?” I asked. “You guys are all afraid to do the same thing for the same reason. I don’t see any of you stepping up to risk your careers here, but you want me to do this just for your entertainment. What in the hell?”
Max nodded. “That’s right. You are the senior guy. If they are going to give anyone a slap on the wrist about this thing, it would be you.”
“I don’t have as much seniority with the company as you think,” I said.
“That’s bullshit,” Richie blurted out. “The Chief loves you. Don’t you guys play golf together? I’m pretty sure he hopes his daughter will divorce that dud she married and marry you instead. Didn’t he try to set you up that time a while back with her?”
“He did,” I said. “I decided that was a bad idea. You never date the boss’s daughter, for the same reason you don’t date your neighbors. If it goes bad, which it probably will at some point, then you are still in their world. Most people who break up never really have to see each other again. Unless they date friends of friends. Then that becomes an ordeal for the entire friend group to deal with from then on. That’s also a bad idea.”
Max and Richie looked at me as if I had eggs busted all over my face. Richie shook his head and spoke. “Dude, you have way too many rules with this dating stuff. That’s why you are thirty and still single. That right there.”
