Huntington Beach happened instead.

Gabe and I must be soulmates or something like that. For the first time, I went down to Gabe's house where he and his sister still live with their parents.

It's a cute little house that's been expanded almost on two sides. Very clean and contemporary with wood floors. When you first walk in, a huge (~7ft by 5ft), beautiful painting greets you. A sorta surrealist painting full of various shades of black, mid-night blue, green, red, and yellow. There are hidden meanings and objects within the painting and several interesting, dreamlike, cartoony creatures. Wow. As you walk in, there's more paintings to your left, your right, down the hallway, and in every room and corridor. They're all absolutely amazing. I was quite impressed.

I've known Gabe for a few years now and have only seen some of his landscape paintings and his portrait drawings when we worked together, but nothing like these amazing surrealist paintings he's been hiding in his home.

The kitchen wall, the counters, and the floor are lined with white tiling with every few tile squares painted with a fruit on it. Gabe actually painted the fruits on the tiles. They're absolutely beautiful and refreshing.

Anyway, Gabe invites me in and shows me around. We get to his room where he and his dad had built a loft. We climbed up there to look out at the view of his neighbor across the street. It's pretty awesome. Me, being cat-like got scared up there and had trouble getting down. I felt like a cat up in a tree afraid to go back down. It took me a couple minutes before I started to climb down but only with Gabe's help.

There's a lap pool in the backyard and we go in for a few hours because the water is 90 degrees. We chat and then we get VERY hungry so we go for some fast food.

We take our fast food up to the Bluff where you overlook the wetlands and part of the ocean. It is very dark and there are some huge, beautiful houses still under construction behind us. We sit in the car and eat our food. We leaned our seats back to look out at the view and just lay there and chat. We are the only ones around. The only sounds are the birds and the little chirping of crickets calling out to their mates.

Gabe and I must be soulmates. We talked about life non-stop. We talked about music....Bob Marley and he sang one of his songs to me....I don't remember which one, but it was about little birds. He talked about how Bob Marley has completely inspired him through music and how BM had died at the age of 36 due to cancer. It's so sad. I now want to go out and buy some of Bob Marley's cds.

We talk about men, about him, about me. Gabe and I can REALLY talk and he's not afraid to open up his silliness, his vulnerabilities, his dreams. He's very honest with me and he makes me so comfortable around him. We have this attraction for each other and yet we both don't feel any sort of threat. He is not one to settle down and have a family and I do not mind because we are 'special' friends. It's so odd. I felt like I was back in high school, parked in a dark place, ready to make-out.

We talk about his surfing and how he's come in contact with the dolphins and the sea lions....how they scared him because they are so huge compared to him in the sea. We talk about his playing the drums and the guitar. We talk about his relationships with his dad and his sister. On and on we talked and it's all so relaxing.

We drive back to his place and he wants to go for a walk around the neighborhood and so we could go take a leak at his old elementary school. As we're walking, he stops every now and then to point out the night's beauty, the stars, and the sound of a nearby owl. He's so into nature and such a free-spirit. He shows me his old classrooms and the cubby hole he had in 2nd grade. He tells me stories he remembers about his childhood. We talk about his attraction to an older women in her 40s a few years ago. We talk about how most guys my age are idiots and that they don't respect women, about how they string women along and don't tell them the honest truth. It's all about male mucho-ism (did i spell that right?) I was wrong about Gabe being a player and just trying to get me to sleep with him. He's better than that. He's a great person who's not afraid to reveal his inner self to me. Gabe has all these wonderful qualities in a man I like, yet I know he is not for me.

You know when you kiss someone and you don't feel anything there, yet you still kiss and do all those things but there is no emotional tie because you are soulmates. There would be no jealously involved. It's a weird relationship because there really is no relationship. I wonder how many people out there have experienced this sort of friendship.