Watch Their Watering Holes

When stalking reluctant prey, one of the best approaches is to scope out the places they frequent. To that end (okay, there were other ends, not the least of which were beer and hanging with Spiky Dave), I found myself at the NY Eagle this evening.

And what a blustery evening it was! More than once Spiky Dave and I were brought up cold from our steady walking pace by a sudden gust of wind. I'm afraid I was squinting for most of the evening with grit in my eye, but I wasn't worried--a few facial ticks and some excessive squinting in dark rooms can only reinforce the target's fear that his stalker is, in fact, quite mad.

This might also explain why I was somewhat startled when, while squinting through a very PC leather community conversation with Duce Dave and Lolita, the bearded face of Joe appeared, swimming through the crowd. All grit, not to mention decorum, completely lost, my eye went to saucers and I grabbed ahold of Spiky to whisper "THERE'S JOE!" fiercely in his ear. It is truly a blessing to know such relaxed souls as Spiky Dave, who doesn't seem to mind that I often grab him at odd times, and rarely explain my inappropriate outbursts.

Later, during a salmonesque shove through that same room (on my way to have a cig with Amazingly Beautiful Tattooed Shoulder Man), I had an even closer encounter. I was clearly fighting upstream against a flood of men, including the target himself! A wiggle to the left was all that was required to put myself in a tangental shove past him. And much to my joy, at the "which one of us is going to give way?" moment of question which all men in crowded bars know so well, we made eye contact. I pushed, and quietly but clearly enunciated, "Hi Joe!" He said, "Hello," and we slid across each other.

Such rapture! My cig with ABTSM was nearly silent. Direct contact with the target, and one on one flirty time with a huge chunk of sexy man who only 15 minutes ago had deigned to allow a complete stranger (me!) to lick his thick tattooed shoulder. I even got a little taste of pit.

A good night, indeed.