“Exactly!  This is the last day we are going to be neighbors!  We need to go out for one last hurrah while we still live in the same building.  Please!!!”

            Lucy lived in the apartment two doors down and had been friends with Ashley and me from the start; she had said we were her idols.  She had never seen anyone share the love that we had.  She always told me how she would turn gay if she thought there was a chance Ashley would leave me.  I imagined she still kept in touch with Ashley, but she never mentioned her and I was always too afraid to ask.  When Ashley moved out about a year and a half ago, I put up a front and began working longer and longer hours just to get through it.  Lucy had seen this change in me and had been trying desperately for months to get me to go out.  Now she had a good excuse.

 I was hired by Channel 5 right out of college and I had been there for close to two years.  I had a good job and was making a good living.  I decided that it was time to move on and move out.  I had leased a gorgeous apartment uptown and I was leaving the next day. 

“Fine!”  I finally gave in.  “But nothing too wild and crazy, I know how you get.”

“Lil’ old me, wild and crazy? You must be mistaken!”

“Right!”

We finally agreed on the China Club with a group of mutual friends.  I realized how long it had been since I had been out in the world amongst other people.  I had been shutting people out for so long that I forgot how much fun I could have.  We drank and danced and drank some more.  There were six of us and you would not have believed the people we met. We fought guys off with sticks all night.

After about five drinks, I was feeling pretty good.  I was in a constant fit of laughter and while stumbling gracefully about the dance floor.  It was then that I was approached.

“Can I buy you a drink?”  He was cute.  He had short brown hair spiked up, and deep brown eyes.  He was about six inches taller than I, and built like he worked out at the gym twenty hours a week.