BuddyEncounter was the hottest networking site of the moment, and all of Gaycrest was tuned in, following each other’s moves to the nano-second. From where the Gaggle was partying to what the Frat Boy was reading, the inhabitants of Gaycrest were caught up in a flurry of making their activities both known and read. In my small apartment, I was using BE to check if my BF would be home from his frat meeting soon – easy enough since his frat bro was updating all the meeting details. Across the Gayborhood, Logan was taking a picture of his half eaten taco and uploading it for the world to see that while he may not be making the best nutritional choices, they were damn tasty ones.

Beto for once was not logged in to BuddyEncounter because Beto was in love and on a date. Beto had (ironically) met Tim, his love interest online through a gay dating site. It had been love at first click and now here they were on their fifth date, three weeks and counting. The fact that Tim was ten years younger and only a few months out was of no importance to Beto. What Beto cared about was the fact that Tim had beautiful hair and equally nice abs. Also, Tim worked out, dressed well, had friends, (but not too many friends) and had been very receptive when Beto had brought up “the talk”.

“I want to be with you SOOOO much.” Tim gushed. “Like toates, you are the only person that I have, like sooo connected with since moving here!”
“Really?” Beto responded, flattered. “I really was hoping, that well, you would be ok if I, um, well what do you think about becoming exclusive?” Tim looked down shyly.
“Actually, I canceled my profile on SugarDaddies already, I’m toates sooo in like with you!”

And so Beto and Tim became exclusive, and Beto rushed home and clicked “Inactivate” on his SugarDaddies account. He also removed the site altogether from his bookmark tab and threw away the little green notebook where he wrote down the screen names of daddy-searching twinks with potential to be more.

“Wait, you did what?” Paolo exclaimed, wincing as he swallowed his too hot coffee.  “Sweetie, I’m in love.”
“Beto, you’re in love with his perky little ass. But you don’t know him yet.”
“So what are you suggesting? That I shouldn’t have deleted my account? That I shouldn’t have had the exclusive talk yet?”
“All I am saying is that its great you’re so into him. But you have to remember that he is much younger than you, just out, and you don’t really know if he is ready to be exclusive yet.”
“He said he is.”
“Yeah, and Roger said the same thing, remember?”
“Roger was a liar.”
“Ok. What about Lance?”
“Baggage.”
“Henry?”
“Psycho.”
Paolo sighed. “Look Beto, lets be honest. You have a history of somehow finding the guys who are, in your own words, baggage ridden psycho liars. How do you know Tim isn’t? I’m not saying you shouldn’t be trusting, but maybe let him prove himself before you go all the way. Have you even checked if he really closed his SugarDaddies account?”
“Jealous much?”
“Beto, I’m just looking out for you. If anything have you looked him up on BuddyEncounter?”
“Paolo, you are the most jealous, bitter and envious person I know. You want to be in a relationship but you are so bitter you can’t so you just end up raining on people’s happiness. My happiness. I’m done here. Good bye.”

Paolo was shocked, but not surprised. If anything, Beto had a reputation for quickly jumping on the defensive, and when things didn’t go well, running to hide.

Poor Beto, things people said had a way of affecting him much more than he would have liked, so it was no surprise when that night, (watching Gentlemen Prefer Blonds and eating frozen Dove bars in bed), he couldn’t relax. Finally with a sigh, he pushed the covers off and went to the computer, its screen illuminating the living room with an eerie glow.

BuddyEncounter. “Timothie Thobias Thalanuck” Search. Waiting….

“One person matches your request!” So, he did have a page on BuddyEncounter. Who didn’t? Yawning, Beto clicked on it. There was his profile picture, showing Tim feeding a giant turtle in the Archipelagos. And that was all it showed. His profile was on Fort Knox private, meaning that Beto would have to wait for his buddy request to be approved before he could know more. With a shrug, he went back to bed.

“Good morning sleepy-head!”
“Hi sexy! I’m glad you called. Guess what I did last night?”
“Um… do I want to know?”
“Ha. I found you on BuddyEnounter!”
Silence…
“Oh.”
“Is that ok? I sent you a buddy request.”
“Oh yeah, of course that’s ok silly!  It’s just that never, ever, EVER go on BuddyEncounter. I’m just sooo busy all the time. But yeah, next time I go on there I’ll accept you. Anyhow, gotta go, just wanted to say hi!”
“Ok. Hi, bye!”
“Bye!”
Click.

Two weeks passed, three dates went by and Beto was blissfully happy. Of course, the sample sale at Nordstrom’s had added to his good will, as had the mini-raise he had gotten at work. That night, he settled in front of his computer to check out some twink web-cams, when his email notification went off. “Timothie Thobias Thalanuck has accepted your buddy request!” Beto had forgotten all about the BuddyEncounter add but immediately went on the site and onto Tim’s page.

A few days later, my phone rang. “Hi Betito!”
“Hey. What are you doing?”
“At home. Bored. Trying to break into the Frat Boy’s e-mail. He may, or may not, be cheating on me. One can never know. Hey, if you were the Frat Boy would you capitalize the word ‘spandex’?”
“Huh????”
“For his password. He has a thing for the retro-aerobics teacher who wears eighties style high-cut spandex and I’m sure his password has something to do with that…”
“Um, sure. Capitalize it. Hey I have news about Tim. He lied to me.”
“What???  What happened?”
“Well, after a few weeks he finally accepted my friend request on BuddyEncounter, and I go on there and I see he’s on there EVERY SINGLE DAY.”
“So?”
“So he told me he never ever goes on there.  But there is more. His history shows that up until last week, his ‘searching for’ was ‘dating, relationships and more’! And he only changed it when he accepted my request, because he knew I would be looking at that. Oh and he has a TON of pictures with guys –“
“Like pictures of his friends at the zoo… or crazy inappropriate shit?”
“Crazy inappropriate shit. Really, um cozy pics. And lots of comments about what he wants to do with who and what. And his ex posts all this flirty crap on there like, every single week.”
“Wow. Ok, deep breaths. What else? I have a feeling there’s more.”
“Yeah. So then I was freaking out and I went to SugarDaddies and his profile was still up and active. Anyhow, we had a HUGE blow out. I yelled, and he yelled, and he said that he was sorry, and he canceled his SugarDaddies account. But I am so hurt. Seriously.”
“Of course. You should be…but don’t forget that you haven’t been together that long, and he really doesn’t owe you anything yet.”
“No. He does. We had the talk. He CHEATED! Anyway, I don’t want to talk anymore and I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”
“Ok. Let me know what happens.”

What happened was that while Beto and Tim had decided to call a truce and start over, Beto just couldn’t let it go. So it was no surprise when my phone rang two weeks later, a slightly deranged sounding Beto on the other end.
“He’s lying.”
“How do you know?”
“He lied to me before! He can do it again!”
“Um… yeah that’s a good reason! But seriously, have you seen anything suspicious?”
“Not yet, but I’m looking.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I’m going fucking crazy. I spent my whole lunch hour yesterday, and the whole afternoon the day before, and at least thirty minutes every single day before that combing through all of his pictures online, his comments, comments left to him, his online friends, their online friends, everything. And right now…”
“Yes?”
“I spent the night here, at his place, and he left for work and I’m practically tearing out sofa cushions looking for anything incriminating. I just want to get over this but I cant! I want to have a good relationship with him!” Beto wailed.

I tried to console him, but to be honest, I didn’t really know what to say. The truth was that the story of Beto and Tim was long over. Beto had gone snooping for something, found it, and let his insecurities get the best of him. Ironically, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

By feeding into his suspicions, Beto was just setting down a foundation for the future, a future where he would continue to either attract men who were cheats,  or his actions would actually drive men to cheat.

Tim wasn’t without blame either. He knew that he was giving his boyfriend access to information which was incriminating. Perhaps Tim was playing a game of gay chicken with Beto, trying to get him to do the dirty work of breaking up with him first. But to be honest, I couldn’t give him advice because I was distracted. The Frat-Boy had gone out to run some “errands” and I was busy going through his BuddyEncounter friends… maybe an update by one of them would give me a clue as to where he was, what he was doing, and with whom.

It’s obvious that summer is being wrung out like the last drops in my martini glass were last night, and that means the Fruitfly’s summer hiatus is over! Somehow, this summer went by way too fast and so many things happened. I celebrated my birthday month with all the style and class of a bonafide fruitfly, and the Frat Boy and I moved into our new apartment which came with hardwood floors and a quaint (i.e. “small”) galley kitchen.  And while I still feel that there are oh so many more uses left  in my 70’s porn-star gold bikini, frankly I am excited about fall.

Why, you ask? Well for one thing, the military inspired clothing this fall is going to be  divine. And scarves. So flattering. So stylish. Finally, boots. Yum. But I digress. The Fruitfly is ready for fall-fun and what that means for you is, duh, obviously more juicy stories! And, if you haven’t already, get rid of your summer rash, ahem, I mean summer boyfriend (please, he is sooo last season) and put your dating briefs on because there will be plenty of events – from dating sessions, to networking , and who knows, maybe a fashion show or two thrown in, just for you.

Here’s my fall request. As always please leave your comments on the stories. But more than that, I need your stories!  Fill me in on what happened to you and your friends this summer. I want to know who lost their cherry. Who went to rehab. Who got run out of town like a slimy Hollywood producer with a suitcase full of dolls (blow-up and pill version). And yes anything you send me will be kept anonymous, because honey, one thing I am not is a free PR service!

Huggles!

The Fruitfly