The revenge of Zombie-A-Go-Go

Sunday night I returned to Piano's for the second edition of my friend Roman's party Zombie-A-Go-Go. Faithful readers of Easy-'N-Green-- both of you-- will remember that I reunited with my sorta-kinda ex Jesse at the last one, although only in the most ambiguous possible way. Since then, I hadn't seen him and all of my phone calls had gone unanswered (though he did manage the occasional Myspace message or text) and I had decided that I really just wanted to be friends, anyway. Clearly, he wasn't able to handle being boyfriends. He also wasn't willing to open up-- and that trend continued at the second party. I told him I'd heard he was considering leaving New York. He was upset when I revealed it was Roman who'd told me this, and said he "didn't want to talk about it." He did reveal something tremendously personal, but gave no further details. It seemed like I'd upset him, so I avoided any more personal questions. But this awkward conversation only strengthened my resolve to keep things platonic between us. While I'm still attracted to him, and he's always very kind to me, I simply need more-- not just from a boyfriend but from a friend. On the other hand, the evening gave me encouragement that my interest in Roman might be mutual. "Roman loves you," Jesse declared. "Well, I'm lovable," I joked, trying to hide my excitement. "No, really," Jesse said. "He told me, 'Thank you so much for introducing me to your friend Justin.'" I was psyched. I mentioned this to Traci, the blonde bombshell who works with Roman at Barney's, and while she agreed it was a good sign, she also seemed to caution me about her friend. "Roman's really into his own stuff," she said. "And he has issues to work out, but he doesn't really know it yet." Ironically, one of Jesse's friends had warned me about dating him in a similar fashion. This time, though, I'm not entirely convinced I should really fret that much. If Roman is open to dating, I want to explore that possibility, and find out for myself whatever hangups he might have. (It's not as if I don't have a truckload of my own!) Besides, this might be just the thing to help me finally move on from a certain curly haired someone.