Puppy Smell

It started with a YM message a day before my restday that asked me if I would be up for a night of gimik with him alone. I am always slow on the uptake and I'd rather not assume so I plainly said yes. I asked him if he wanted to go to the movies, or videoke, or just have diner and then afterward go to whatever watering holes there was available-- we'd surely come across common friends so the night'll never go awkward. I never got an answer which meant he probably logged off. I was busy at work by then and didn't feel the need to ask for more details.

Then a day passed by. At night, I found myself at Rizal Promenade with a close friend of mine from way back and a couple of workmates from another department. I remembered him and I supposed I wanted to test the waters. I sent him an SMS and asked him if he wanted to join.

Despite the heavy downpour that have been Davao's on most of these January nights, he came. We danced a bit at Beeracay amidst the gyrating bodies of Davao's gayest. He smiled, like we were sharing a secret, and warned me about people seeing us but I couldn't exactly care. It was not as if anybody's whipping out something for all of Davao to gawk at. I guess it's safe to say already that I wasn't just assuming.

I stared at his face and knows he's a good guy. He's also fairly smart as far as I can tell. However as he was talking, I caught a whiff of his breath and it told me I wouldn't want to kiss him. It's something Minmin had told me. She called it the puppy smell and described it as like the smell of puppies who normally have bad breath but doesn't bother you at all. It's probably an acquired taste but I completely understood what she meant. The smell is there but you accept it without problem; like it just is. And that's how one allows puppies to lick them to death because although its not the most astringent and cleanest smell, it's just something you get over with fast enough to accept the fact that puppies are limitlessly cute.

So I smelled and couldn't stand it at all. The dance was followed by more interactions that included leaning closer to whisper senseless things in my ear. I'm not even saying it's bad breath (I smoke so I probably smell worse more often than not) but as it is, I wasn't able to find that puppy smell. I thought about it and decided if something as fairly basic like this is not met, then I'd just be fooling myself if I allow something to progress from all this. I sure was stoked someone showed me this kind of interest, even in secret, but at the end of the day, I knew it wouldn't be right to be a cocktease.

Sorry, but I have to pass.

puppy photo from here