Crossing Borders and Drawing Lines

 The roundabout at Windsor University is always a merry-go-round of cars picking students up and dropping them off. It’s early in the evening and Steve is waiting for Rick to pick him up for their date. After meeting online, Rick’s agreed to get Steve and drive back over the border to Ann Arbor, Michigan for dinner and a hookup.

“I’ll be driving a silver, two-door, 2010 Pontiac G8 GXP.”
“Oh sweet,” Steve says even though he didn’t have a clue what that meant.

Steve watches cars drive up and he has to guess as to whether or not it’s Rick. A silver car pulls up and Steve assumes it’s him. He opens the passenger door and sticks his head in. A young girl lets out a yelp and Steve pulls back, says sorry and shuts the door.

The next car is Rick. They engage in small talk during the drive back over the Ambassador Bridge.

At the border a Border Services Officer asks Rick questions. He asks for the names of the people in the car. Rick states his name and then pauses. Steve can see that Rick’s totally blanking on Steve’s name. After a few moments, Steve leans over and says his name to the officer.

“I wasn’t asking you,” the officer says.

“Stephen. This is Stephen also known as Steve,” Rick says.

“What is your business here?”

“We’re going out to dinner…”

 “And how do you know each other?”

“Um … we just met tonight,” Rick said giving Steve a glance.

“You just met tonight?” the officer questioned.

This situation is awkward and they don’t really know how to answer without being outed.

Finally Rick just blurts out, “Yes, we met on a gay sex…”

“… dating site,” Steve quickly injects.

They get pulled over.

Steve gets taken into the building for questioning and Rick is kept outside while his car is searched. Inside, a female officer begins questioning Steve. After hearing his story, she begins cautioning Steve about the dangers of meeting up with a stranger, especially traveling to unfamiliar places with one.

“Thanks for the concern but I’m not some teen girl crossing the border to get drunk and fall prey to some guy.”

“It can be dangerous for anyone,” the officer says.

Steve doesn’t respond but disagrees with her. The fact that Rick might have been a psycho killer didn’t even cross his mind.

Just then another border officer comes in says something to the female officer and rushes out.

“I have to go,” she says, “they just found a bloody axe in your date’s trunk.”

Steve sat in shock for about an hour before the officer came back and released him.

In the end it was a misunderstanding. Rick explained that he goes camping and hunting and must have left the axe in the trunk by accident. Also, on further inspection the axe didn’t have blood on it, it was just rust.

Rick asked if Steve still wanted to go on the date, but Steve declined. After all the drama Steve was exhausted.

“I’d rather just go home,” Steve said.

Since this defunct date, Steve is sticking to a new motto: go local.