Depressed- homeless- pavement- sitter...

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Ben came to the restaurant later that night. Needless to say, there was a commotion. The commotion was made worse by the fact it was a themed evening....drag queen night. You can only imagine.

"Right of admission reserved, bitch," were the words JJ (Dressed as Miss

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"Right of admission reserved, bitch," were the words JJ (Dressed as Miss. Behave) used when stopping Ben at the door.

Waiters turned and looked. Patrons put their knives and forks down. One of the kitchen staff even stuck his head through the door and gawked. Bruce jumped up and pulled JJ away, who by this stage looked like he was going to bitch slap Ben to hell and back.

"Just stay away from Sera now," Bruce said in a much more diplomatic tone. "There's no need for a scene."

"Oh yes there is," JJ said, stepping forward and doing some finger snapping.

"Just let me explain, Sera. Please!" Ben screamed his plea across the restaurant.

"No!" I shouted back.

It was turning into a soap opera. Luckily the clientele at Beef Cakes were used to such histrionics—and were always interested. Heads turned from him to me, and everyone looked giddy with excitement, like they had a front row ticket to the season finale of The Bachelor.

"Give me ten minutes," Ben persisted, "and then after that, if you don't want to talk to me again, it's fine." Heads swung around and looked at Ben, then back to me. They were hanging on every word.

"No!" I shouted back again. Some of the patrons and staff looked disappointed by my reply. Clearly they wanted more drama to play out.

"Okay, let me explain it to Bruce then and let him tell you what he thinks."

I looked to Bruce and he shrugged.

"You can explain it to me." JJ said, stepping up again, claws out. Our audience grew extra excited.

Ben looked momentarily panicked, but collected himself, turned to JJ and managed a confident, "Okay."

JJ pranced out the door indignantly and the two of them took up positions on the pavement outside. Everyone in the restaurant looked out the window. Some even got up for a closer look. Bruce came up behind me and slipped his arm around my shoulder. We both watched Ben as he desperately tried to explain his side of the story. JJ didn't look impressed. He tutted and scoffed and switched his hand from hip to hip a few times...but then something changed. His face started to relax, so did his posture. He started looking at Ben with a strange look and by the end of it,JJ was hugging Ben and wiping tears from his eyes. Ben too looked like he had a tear—WTF?

Bruce and I exchanged looks.

JJ walked away from Ben and came back inside looking like he'd just watched Steel Magnolias. "It's good. It's really, really good," he said wiping a tear.

"What is?"

"His reason. It's a really good one."

I looked out the window; Ben was sitting on the cold, hard pavement holding his head in his hands. It was freezing outside and he looked like a sad, sorry, pathetic mess. I wasn't sure if he was trying to illicit sympathy by pulling the depressed-pavement-sitter act on me.

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