Subtlety

Tonight I had dinner with a guy I've been friends with for about 7 years or so. Let's call him Tom. Tom has always been a bit socially awkward. He's also not the greatest at picking up subtleties. So, I decided to make use of that to push the envelope a little bit with my secret. I almost just want to come out to him, it's been getting tiring dodging the topic whenever he wants to talk about girls (and he talks about girls a lot). Problem is he's probably my most religious friend. I've spoken to him in the past about homosexuality though, and despite some pretty ignorant views (I got into a debate with him one time after he referred to a feminine gay guy at work as a "he/she") it seems like he has the potential for open-mindedness. We'll see.

Anyways, at one point in the conversation, Tom mentioned that he was proud of me for facing the issues I've been going through (meaning my career decisions and the stress that went along with that). As is clear from this blog, career issues are definitely not the only thing that have dominated my thoughts. I decided to allude to that fact.

"You only know half the story," I said. "And maybe some day I'll tell you the rest of it."

He respected that I didn't want to talk about it right then, but he asked, "It doesn't have to do with a girl, does it?"

I could barely keep from laughing. "No, I can safely say that it doesn't have to do with a girl."

"That's good," he responded. "You don't need that kind of stress in your life right now."

I feel like several of my other friends would have picked up on that anvil.