Shall we duel?

Twenty years ago, I worked at Taco Bell, mostly night shifts. I was dating a manager of Taco Bell, but in a different town though. His name was Geoff.

Technically, I was not supposed to date a manager even though he worked in a different location. But everyone at my Taco Bell knew and kept mum simply because they knew Geoff since he used to be an employee at my Taco Bell just before I joined.

We saw each other quite sporadically due to different schedules, not to mention he worked at least 75 hours a week. I did not have a TTY that time and the relay system was not even set up in my state until about two years later. So, sometimes I would ask a friend to call him or he would stop by my Taco Bell to plan something.

Eventually, I did not see him at all for about one and half months. In the meantime, there was this guy who worked with me named Wade. We chatted and joked for several weeks.

One night, Wade asked me if I was still with Geoff. I, assuming Geoff probably moved on since I had not heard from him, replied no. He asked me out and I agreed. We planned to discuss more after our night shift.

As soon as we closed Taco Bell and went out, Wade and I were about to talk when I noticed a car pulling up to the parking lot.

To my surprise, it was Geoff. Geoff said hi but Wade curtly nodded. I felt Wade's eyes boring at my back. I sensed what Wade was thinking. It felt awkward when they both realized what was happening.

Both guys stood, facing each other, with arms crossed, apparently waiting for one another to leave first. I was in the middle, fidgeting, not sure what to do next.

After a seemingly long ten minutes of silence, finally Wade decided to leave. He walked off quite abruptly.

Since then, Wade never talked to me again, although I insisted I had no idea Geoff was going to stop by.

My lesson? NEVER assume anything!