Small World. Small Community.

Just when you thought that something you dealt with was seemingly over, it comes back and adds another layer to an already thick gossip cake. For me, one particular event was meant to be small and dealt with quickly - like ripping off a band-aid. Little was I to know that in reality, it ended up being bigger than Ben Hur.

I was lunching with a couple of friends in the bayside suburb of Williamstown on a recently hot summer day. Conversation was flowing and it inevitably reverted back to food and dining out. Someone made mention of the café where the delectable waiter aka my crush had once owned and worked at. The scene of my rejected phone number giving.

In an instant, my Latino friend mentioned that he and his boyfriend knew this fine specimen very well, almost to the point you could call him a friend. It turned out that they knew him both socially and intimately. SHOCK! HORROR! My female friend and I looked at each other and were not only shocked but highly amused as to how close the delectable waiter actually was to me and we hadn’t even known. The degrees of separation had become even closer.

As we proceeded to question him to reveal more interesting facts, it became clear that the waiter in question had a specific taste in partners and I essentially had a snowball’s chance in hell of even getting close to him in the way I would have liked. This was becoming highly entertaining; we couldn’t get over the fact that he was my friend’s friend.

In the end, my initial thoughts about him were correct – an extremely cute, and naturally polite and friendly guy. He wasn’t flirting at all. Again, a sign that I clearly don’t know how to read signs. Although, I admit that the whole phone number giving experience was a positive confidence building exercise.

After the hilarity of the situation, I asked my Latin friend not to mention the conversation to his boyfriend, who would not let me live down the fact that he had tasted the goods of my infatuated desire. This is not due to being jealous or upset but purely for the fact I know my friend’s partner will twist and use it in such a way that could effectively be so.

So it seems that despite the failed attempt to pick up the object of my desire and hoping to end that chapter, it seems that he just keeps popping up. I half expect to run into him in yet another awkward scenario or to find out that he is in fact my cousin from my Mum’s side. I wouldn’t be surprised…