"She was making breakfast one morning. Her Meyer lemon and ricotta pancakes. I had just stumbled out of bed, and she smiled at me from the counter, standing in front of the mixer. The light was pouring in through the kitchen window, and the way it illuminated her...." He stopped and gave pause, as the evoked image brought on a surge of emotion that he wrestled down. As any decent gentleman would.

"She looked ethereal. An angel. Her smile. The light catching her blonde hair made it glow like gold, and her pale skin shone. I can't explain it. It was almost a pregnant glow, as if to say to me that she was ready to be my wife. And I have to say. I loved her. Then and there. There was no question. I loved her. Absolutely loved her then with all my heart. And so I had to run out of my apartment. I just had to. I burst out running from the apartment. I was just so overwhelmed. I loved her so much at that moment it scared the shit out of me. I was actively afraid of how much I loved her. I didn't know what to do."

The gravity of what he admitted stunned Chad. "Fuck."

The two nursed their beers. The jukebox played something wildly inappropriate for the moment, but what can you do. Chad thought about saying something, but then thought better of it. He would leave the silence be.

The crowd at the bar milled about, ignoring the two men who sat, rather stunned, staring into their beers, hoping for some unknowable truth to be revealed through the Brownian motion of the carbonation.

Chad knitted his brows for a moment. "Wait. So that was the day of the awkward third wheel pancakes."

James thought for a second, then laughed sheepishly. "Yeah..... Sorry I dragged you into that."