17 Easy Steps To Prepare For A First Date

Step 1. Pick out an outfit.

Step 2. Shave your face.

Step 3. Treat yourself to a compulsive psychological episode. In the getting-ready process, most micro-breakdowns manifest when you’re taking a shower. So strip down, put on some tunes, and brace yourself. Speaking of music selection, there’s a pre-made Spotify playlist called “Night At The Strip Club,” and it’s an excellent choice for background music when preparing for a romantic night on the town. So press play and body-roll your way through the entire Ying Yang Twins catalog. Then experience the sudden, overwhelming dick-punch of reality when you think to yourself, Oh God! I’m about to go on a date with someone for the first time! What am I doing?!

Step 4. Towel off and blow-dry your hair. Pro Tip: Your hair should be 60-to-65 percent dry before blow-drying with a brush.

Step 5. Direct a series of questions at yourself. Some should be practical, like “Do I have money in my checking account?” And some can be more existential, like “How did I fuck up my life so dramatically?” But each one should be accompanied by a palpable rush of terror and self-deprecating anger.

Step 6. Amplify this episode by giving yourself insufficient time to get ready. Never get ready too early. This will help you avoid downtime to mull over new worries. This also backfires when you end up sprinting from room to room — trying to make your face and body pass for fuckable.

Step 7. Stand in front of a full-length vertical mirror. Here, you will study your reflection and question how you achieved this toneless, adolescent build. With the possibility of sex looming in the near future, take this opportunity to yell at yourself for all the drugs, alcohol, and Taco Bell you’ve consumed over the course of a lifetime. Pinch every flab. Blame your parents for shitty genetics. Curse God for letting you develop into someone who’s perpetually recovering from the night before. You look fat and skinny. You look too young and too old. You are a physical paradox. And somehow you have a date tonight.

Step 8. FUCK! YOU HAVE A DATE TONIGHT! Get your shit together! No time for crying. Crying can wait ‘til later when you’re drunk and alone.

Step 9. Have a drink. Right now. Slip on your underwear and yank up your socks, then hustle to the kitchen and shotgun a Michelob Ultra. That’s better, you’ll think to yourself. You’re going to be fine.

Step 10. Spend the next few minutes ironing your outfit in hurried brush strokes. At this point, you won’t necessarily feel calm but you will feel like you’re going to make it.

Step 11. Return to the mirror, fully dressed.

Step 12. Look at yourself. Take it all in. Then, feel yourself come undone. There’s discoloration on your sleeves and a stain on your collar. You generally hate the outfit. Grit your teeth and cover your face with your hands so you don’t have to see what’s in front of you.

Nothing fits.

Nothing’s new.

You wish you had nicer things.

You wish you made more money.

You wish this wasn't you.

Step 13. Go ahead, treat yourself to a nice, long cry.

Step 14. Snap out of it! Run cold water and dab your eyes and cheeks. Then find the clothes you wore to work yesterday and toss them into the dryer with a Bounce Sheet and an ice cube. Open Spotify and change “Night At The Strip Club” to “Angry Workout Jamz.” Turn the music all the way up as you latch your knock-off Rolex and mist a Birchbox cologne sample across your neck. Then tell yourself, Fuck. This. I did not spend two days trying to convince some boy on Grindr — who works in retail no less — to be interested in me, just to break down in overtime. This is happening. Right. Fucking Now.

Step 15. Moisturize.

Step 16. Somehow muster the confidence to leave the house and go to dinner with someone you barely know.

And finally…

Step 17. Later, when you’re sitting across the table from a perfect stranger, experience an entirely new dimension of horror as you agree with ideas you don’t believe and pretend to be someone you’re not.

BRAND NEW PERSON

-I-

When you texted me that it was over, I was having dinner at Juan’s Flying Burrito with Brian and Anna.

I read what you wrote and then I looked at my phone like it was trying to hurt me.

Anna asked if everything was okay.

I turned to her and said simply, “No.”

Behind me, someone laughed and I imagined smashing one of those large glass margarita goblets against his head.

The food arrived. I ate, but with every bite I grew more anxious to throw up when I returned home.

Brian and Anna assured me that I was misinterpreting the message. “He says he just wants time to sort things out. He’s not ending the relationship.”

I knew better.

Because I know you.

And it’s exactly what you would say — so you didn’t have to tell me the truth.

-II-

I wish I could remember the last thing I said to you.

But after you told me, “I just need some time,” everything went black.

At some point in the night, I deleted the text thread and erased your number.

I’m sure I responded, because I always need to have the last word.

But it doesn’t matter.

I lost anyway.

-III-

I feel embarrassed wasting my words on you.

But I can’t stop myself.

The worst part is that, I can’t stop giving to you — handing over huge chunks of my time and my most vulnerable emotions.

Watch me stumble away.

A disfigured corpse of someone who used to look just like me.

Just Me

I would’ve been content just lying with Jaime in naked, wordless company all night, but then he says, "I want to know everything about you."

It is 4:37AM on a Monday and Jamie Saracino's plane leaves for Mexico City in exactly three hours and twenty-three minutes. I pull him away from my neck by shifting my shoulder around so we face each other. But we are so close that I can only see the crest of his cheek. My periphery fills in the rest of his sleepless, wild face.

Outside, the full moon over Playa del Carmen becomes a dull glow behind the breaking dawn. Last night, it brought Jaime and I (two perfect strangers) together. Now, it’s retreating and I feel weird asking the moon to stick around a bit longer. But in this light, I can see everything I need to see.

First, he asks about my family and then he asks about my biggest regret, which I find to be an unusual follow-up, but I answer honestly, anyway. Then it's my turn.

"What scares you the most?" I ask, feeling the platitudinous nature of the question while still aching to know his answer. "I'm afraid of being alone," he says, eyes trained on mine. 

"Everyone's afraid of being alone," I say. "Yeah," he whispers. "But I'm really afraid of being alone. Like not just dying alone; I'm afraid of being alone right now. I can't stand the solitude. I have this trainer, you know? He's this giant, blond monster and he's ripped and he's gorgeous as fuck. But he's the stupidest person on the planet. And my other friends don't understand why we spend so much time together outside of the gym, and I can't just come out and confess why. It's because he's always available. We have nothing in common and he couldn't hold a conversation at gunpoint, but whenever I'm hungry, he's always down to meet me."

After a beat of silence, he leans in and kisses me. Mouths dry from hours of this same repetitive gesture, I know this kiss should feel like two mannequins pressing their plastic lips together, but I deeply savor him anyway. "Go on," I tell him. Jaime exhales and whispers, "I've never eaten alone in public. I can't stand the idea of it. So when my real friends are tied up, I text my stupid trainer or my vapid hairdresser or whoever will have dinner with me. It's better to be with someone I'm indifferent about than to be alone with myself. It's too painful."

Outside the window, a rustle of palm fronds underscores this highly vulnerable moment, so I pull him in tightly. His head fits perfectly in the valley of my collarbone and shoulder. Here, I tell him I understand his fear because I rarely publicly eat alone. "I like going to the movies by myself, but restaurants are a whole different thing. After waiting tables for seven years, I have a sensitivity for people who dine alone. But it's not pity. Maybe it's my own insecurity that I can't do the same. They've got something I don't."

We sit here in this moment until it lapses into other moments; separate moments and the same moment with scattering, reaching edges like a growing heatwave.

And then, it's time for Jaime to leave.

“You don’t have to walk me downstairs,” he whispers into my ear before softly kissing my neck. “I can get to the cabs alright on my own.” We stare into each other’s faces, gathering and hoarding every line and shadow and shape. This might be the last time we have this luxury, so we study each other with intense concentration. Then the edges of his eyes relax and I study this entirely new expression. “I’ll walk you to the gate,” I say. Then I press my body solidly into his and roll him on top of me one last time.

You never anticipate the end of the night or the morning after — when you say goodbye then kiss one more time because that one final, bonus kiss has the power to inspire an entirely new future. When you walk him partway to wherever he’s going and turn to walk back to wherever you came from. When you go your separate ways down different ends of the same street.

In this moment, you are heavy. This moment dredges forward with the cargo of frivolity and fear and insecurity and something about, “easy come, easy go.” This moment is riddled with the lead of a dozen bullets — freshly fired right through your mediocre reality and lodged stubbornly into your heart and your dick and your fingers and every place in your body that knows he exists.

I walk him to the cabs (a half-mile up the road), and then head back. When I arrive at the condo, I turn away from the security guard so he won’t see that I’ve been crying. He’s noticed Jaime and I coming and going and I don’t want him to know things are over. It’s just not fair for one more person to be mopey about this mess.

On my last night in Playa del Carmen, I walk the streets alone, listening to Warm Brew's "Ghetto Beach Boys," which turns out to be the perfect soundtrack for aimless summer night wanderings around the Mayan Riviera. Jaime is long gone, but he isn't far from my thoughts. In my backpack, I carry around a postcard; ready to send to his apartment in Manhattan as soon as I find a stamp, and a mailbox, and the right words. On 5th Avenue, I pass a sushi place with a crowded patio and a completely vacant bar. I haven't eaten anything all day, and Mexican-inspired sushi seems unmissable. "Just me," I tell the hostess, who leads me across the floor and over to the bar. I order two rolls, a bottle of sake, and a Michelob Ultra. The food arrives and I take my time, pacing out each bite and consciously profiling the flavors.

Here I am.

Eating alone at a restaurant.

And then I think of Jaime.

And I completely understand what he meant.

It's too painful.

It's all too painful.

Dear Brother

Dear Brother,

We’ve never met and we never will, because last night you were murdered.

You were out at a gay bar called Pulse in Orlando, Florida when someone walked in and ended your life, along with the lives of 49 [or more] others. In his eyes, you were less than human and you deserved a gruesome, organized massacre. And while he was putting you down with bullets, I was more than 600 miles away — waking up from a sound sleep to use the bathroom. It was just after three in the morning when I came back to bed, where my boyfriend Andy was also awake. His eyes were closed, but his breathing was quick and uneven. “I just saw on Facebook there was a shooting at a gay bar in Orlando,” I whispered into the darkness. “Oh no, that’s terrible,” he said without opening his eyes. “Yeah it’s fucking terrible,” I said absently. We laid there silently until we drifted back to sleep.

I feel guilty for not being more invested in your story, sooner. But I wouldn’t know how bad the scene of the crime was until I woke again at a reasonable hour. The body count was 20, at first. Then it quickly jumped to 50, with 53 injured. It was labeled the worst mass shooting in American history. And you were there. You were somewhere safe; in a sanctuary you might’ve loved and valued.

My boyfriend doesn’t really like going out, but I do. I seek out gay bars when I visit new cities and keep my go-to locals right here in New Orleans. No matter where I am in the world, I can find comfort in the neighborhood gay bar. It’s a safe haven for people like me, from proud Glee Era millennials to veteran activists who remember the Stonewall Riots in vivid memory.

Did you go to Pulse often? Did you know the bartenders by name? Did you ever hit it off with someone you met on the dance floor? I bet the cover charge was always worth it, right?

I spent hours in bed this morning, scrolling through Facebook and watching every news clip I came across, from NBC to BBC. At Andy’s urging, I finally got up and decided we should have breakfast at The Country Club, a restaurant that caters to its Bywater neighborhood and the gay community of New Orleans. I pictured tables full of sullen, grieving gays and lesbians, dressed in black and commiserating among friends. So I put on a black T-shirt and black jeans and black sunglasses and headed out.

When we arrived, the restaurant looked and felt like a normal Sunday morning — buzzing with lively wait staff and warm, inviting scents from the kitchen. We were seated next to a table of four heterosexual couples who were clearly visiting from out of town. They laughed loudly and obnoxiously talked over one another. Typically, these people would annoy the fuck out of me, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel frustrated with them. Why shouldn't they carry on? I wondered. I'm happy for them. No one should feel the way I do. So go ahead, tell stories about last night. Make a case for sharing entrees. Order dessert. At one point, a gnat landed on the edge of my plate and couldn't even bring myself to swat it away.

When you were alive, did you ever visit New Orleans? It’s great here. The food’s delicious and the people are generally pleasant. Did you travel a lot? I bet you wish you would’ve traveled more. I feel like that’s a universal regret, but I wish you would’ve traveled more. I know that's a strange thing to wish for a stranger, but I think you'd understand.

I spent the rest of the day watching people debate the circumstances of your death on the internet. Was it in the name of God? An act of domestic terrorism? Another catalyst for the immovable gun control movement? I will not write the name of your killer here, because I don’t want him to live beyond where he ended. But sadly, he will be remembered as the face of your death and not your own. You don’t deserve that either. You deserve to be immortalized for being out on a Saturday night at an establishment that celebrates your uniqueness. And you deserve to live on in the actions of present and future gay Americans. You will be remembered when we, the living, show solidarity at our local gay bars tonight. You will be remembered when I kiss my boyfriend in public, as an act of love and an act of defiance.

Before I sat down to write this letter to you, I went for a run. I was two miles in when I started thinking about you and began to cry. I imagined what it was like for you, in the moments right before someone walked in and recklessly sprayed bullets into your body.

You might have been hammered — crying and bitching and talking incessantly the way drunk gays do after a long night of partying.

Maybe you were frustrated; on the precipice of going home alone. You had such high hopes for the night and then, in the early morning hours, your odds weren't looking too favorably.

But I hope you were happy. I hope you were dancing your ass off. I hope you didn’t know anything was wrong — complacent and maybe even a little bored. I hope you felt confident.

You might not have known it before you died, but you were among the only other people in the world who understand what it’s like to be gay.

When we talk about death, we wish to be surrounded by family in our final hours. And you were.

And now, you will never be the object of someone’s hate.

And you will never be labeled with a slur again.

You are someone.

You are all of us.

Dear Faggot

Dear Faggot,

We’ve never met and we never will, because last night you were murdered.

You were out at a gay bar called Pulse in Orlando, Florida when someone walked in and ended your life, along with the lives of 49 [or more] others. In his eyes, you were faggots and you deserved a gruesome, organized massacre. And while he was putting you down with bullets, I was more than 600 miles away — waking up from a sound sleep to use the bathroom. It was just after three in the morning when I came back to bed, where my boyfriend Andy was also awake. His eyes were closed, but his breathing was quick and uneven. “I just saw on Facebook there was a shooting at a gay bar in Orlando,” I whispered into the darkness. “Oh no, that’s terrible,” he said without opening his eyes. “Yeah it’s fucking terrible,” I said absently. We laid there silently until we drifted back to sleep.

I feel guilty for not being more invested in your story, sooner. But I wouldn’t know how bad the scene of the crime was until I woke again at a reasonable hour. The body count was 20, at first. Then it quickly jumped to 50, with 53 injured. It was labeled the worst mass shooting in American history. And you were there. You were somewhere safe; in a sanctuary you might’ve loved and valued.

My boyfriend doesn’t really like going out, but I do. I seek out gay bars when I visit new cities and keep my go-to locals right here in New Orleans. No matter where I am in the world, I can find comfort in the neighborhood gay bar. It’s a safe haven for people like me, from proud Glee Era millennials to veteran activists who remember the Stonewall Riots in vivid memory.

Did you go to Pulse often? Did you know the bartenders by name? Did you ever hit it off with someone you met on the dance floor? I bet the cover charge was always worth it, right?

I spent hours in bed this morning, scrolling through Facebook and watching every news clip I came across, from NBC to BBC. At Andy’s urging, I finally got up and decided we should have breakfast at The Country Club, a restaurant that caters to its Bywater neighborhood and the gay community of New Orleans. I pictured tables full of sullen, grieving gays and lesbians, dressed in black and commiserating among friends. So I put on a black T-shirt and black jeans and black sunglasses and headed out.

When we arrived, the restaurant looked and felt like a normal Sunday morning — buzzing with lively wait staff and warm, inviting scents from the kitchen. We were seated next to a table of four heterosexual couples who were clearly visiting from out of town. They laughed loudly and obnoxiously talked over one another. Typically, these people would annoy the fuck out of me, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel frustrated with them. Why shouldn't they carry on? I wondered. I'm happy for them. No one should feel the way I do. So go ahead, tell stories about last night. Make a case for sharing entrees. Order dessert. At one point, a gnat landed on the edge of my plate and couldn't even bring myself to swat it away.

When you were alive, did you ever visit New Orleans? It’s great here. The food’s delicious and the people are generally pleasant. Did you travel a lot? I bet you wish you would’ve traveled more. I feel like that’s a universal regret, but I wish you would’ve traveled more. I know that's a strange thing to wish for a stranger, but I think you'd understand.

I spent the rest of the day watching people debate the circumstances of your death on the internet. Was it in the name of God? An act of domestic terrorism? Another catalyst for the immovable gun control movement? I will not write the name of your killer here, because I don’t want him to live beyond where he ended. But sadly, he will be remembered as the face of your death and not your own. You don’t deserve that either. You deserve to be immortalized for being out on a Saturday night at an establishment that celebrates your uniqueness. And you deserve to live on in the actions of present and future gay Americans. You will be remembered when we, the living faggots, show solidarity at our local gay bars tonight. You will be remembered when I kiss my boyfriend in public, as an act of love and an act of defiance.

Before I sat down to write this letter to you, I went for a run. I was two miles in when I started thinking about you and began to cry. I imagined what it was like for you, in the moments right before someone walked in and recklessly sprayed bullets into your body.

You might have been hammered — crying and bitching and talking incessantly the way drunk gays do after a long night of partying.

Maybe you were frustrated; on the precipice of going home alone. You had such high hopes for the night and then, in the early morning hours, your odds weren't looking too favorably.

But I hope you were happy. I hope you were dancing your ass off. I hope you didn’t know anything was wrong — complacent and maybe even a little bored. I hope you felt confident.

You might not have known it before you died, but you were among the only other people in the world who understand what it’s like to be gay.

When we talk about death, we wish to be surrounded by family in our final hours. And you were.

And now, you will never be the object of someone’s hate.

And you will never be labeled a faggot again.

You are someone.

You are all of us.

The Ending

We met on Grindr and dated for five months.

I’m allergic to dogs and cats, which made it impossible for me to sleep at your place. So without protest or compromise, you showed up at my door on a nightly basis — leaving your pets alone for the night.

I’m not particularly skilled in the kitchen, so you did most of the cooking. To make up for my culinary shortcomings, I gave you money for groceries and often took you out to dinner. You hated Thai and Indian, which could’ve been a deal-breaker, but wasn’t.

Do you remember that night at Slice on St. Charles? How we over-ordered and under-drank? Your cheeks were flushed when you talked about how much you loved your job. You asked a lot of questions and seemed genuinely interested in my answers, rambling or clipped. “So, copywriting,” you said, chewing on a gnarled piece of pizza crust. “Do you want to do this for the rest of your life?” I looked at you and felt my eyes soften. “I do,” I said. “For the rest of my life.”

I knew you were asking about my career, but I wanted you to read into my answer. Could he mean us?

Did I mean us? I don’t know. I might have. It felt like an option, right? I believe we had potential right from the start. Do you remember this? It was our first date.

From then on, I saw you nearly every day. We exploited every opportunity to see one another. To me, every responsibility was an obstacle between myself and being alone with you.

---

We moved fast.

I met your friends and you met mine. We traded Christmas gifts. We kissed on New Years Eve. And then on Valentine's Day, we went to dinner at a fancy sushi place in the Warehouse District. We ordered four rolls and you drank sake for the first time. At one point, I reached across the table and ran my fingers through your hair because it was Valentine's Day and I wanted you to know that I was here. I was with you, right in the middle of this humming, low-lit, bottomless mine of kisses, and opportunity, and lassitude, and eventually — solace.

After dinner, we went home and had sex. We fell asleep face-to-face, jammed into one another with the mutual understanding that comes from closely studied intimacy. In the morning, we had sex again, because I heard somewhere that sex starts in the morning. “I have to shower,” I whispered before putting my mouth on yours and swiftly leaving the room.

I was digging through the dryer for fresh underwear when you started screaming at me.

You’d gone through my phone while I was in the shower and found texts from a guy I met on Instagram. The moment I processed why you were yelling, I screamed, “Get the fuck out!” without looking at you. Then, without saying a word, you slammed the door.

I finished getting dressed.

I went to work.

I worked until 5PM.

I went home.

I didn’t hear from you.

For the next few days, I took the stalemate in 12-hour increments — feeling cocky about my resistance but checking my phone with fervent compulsion. I could be vigilant, but I WOULD NOT break down.

Then one day, I realized a whole week had passed.

---

As of today, it’s been three months and 22 days since I’ve heard from you.

I owe you an apology, don’t I?

But would it even matter at this point? Isn’t this the break-up scenario everyone wants? A clean break?

At least once a day, I feel guilty.

I never told you this, but you made the most unbelievable baked sweet potatoes I’d ever eaten. They were just sweet potatoes with cinnamon, sugar, and butter baked inside, but they were delicious because you made them.

Also, my friends really liked you. They saw you the way I did; beautiful, charming, and kind.

And one last thing.

You left your charcoal-colored cardigan at my place.

If you want it back, I'd be happy to meet you. 

It can be someplace public.

And I promise not to make it weird.

But if you don't want it back, I'd be happy to keep it.

It still smells like you.

And I love that smell.

Everything About Your Body

I can say without a spot of doubt that I know everything thing there is to know about your body.

Seriously, I’m an expert. The authority on all things Your Body.

I don’t earn anything for this, though.

Not a gold star sticker or an Associate’s Degree from one of those strip mall colleges that immigrants and former addicts go to.

Still, to me, this extensive and exhaustive knowledge has certain perks.

I’m privy to the fact that you HATE your hip tattoos.

I won an “I love you” when I blew a raspberry on your belly for the first time.

I get a low moan from your chest when I bite the tip of your left ear.

I know that I can slap your back-fat and you’ll swing at me — like fully bar-fight swing at me — whether we’re at my cousin’s birthday party or not.

But I’m proud to know what I know.

And best of all, I’m the only person in the world right now that has full access to the source material.