me from communicating our bitter feelings toward each other. Since Anthony isn’t a woman, he didn’t pick up on that. He simply heard her saying she wasn’t hungry.”
Karl leaned forward. “I’m not that hungry, either. How about instead of passive aggressively jabbing at each other all night, we go play a game of pool. Loser buys dinner.”
“You’re on.” The legs of my chair scraped the floor as I stood. “Would now be a good time to communicate to you that I’m rather good at pool?”
“I personally prefer to show,” Karl said. “Sometimes nonverbal communication can be
“Hmm. Maybe you aren’t so bad at the jokes after all.”
…
Karl and I were pretty evenly matched and had each done our fair share of smack talking during our game of pool. As he aimed a nearly impossible shot at his last striped ball, I mentally chanted for him to scratch.
“Oh man!” a guy from the next table over yelled. “Eat that!”
The group of guys playing pool next to us had gotten louder and louder. They were now sloppy drunk, hollering and laughing at everything. I tried to ignore them, but one of them kept “accidently rubbing up against me” as he walked by, thinking he was funny and clever, I’m sure.
Karl’s ball bounced next to the pocket but didn’t go in.
Looking for my best shot, I leaned across the table. For the third time, the guy rubbed up against me, and this time, he’d gotten even more suggestive about it.
I whipped around and shoved him. “Look, buddy, that’s enough.”
The man stepped up to me, pointing a finger in my face. “Don’t you dare shove me, woman!”
I threw my hands up. “What are you going to do, hit me? Will that make you feel cool in front of your friends?”
Karl stepped between the guy and me. “I think you better back off, sir.”
“Oh, listen to you, mister hoity-toity. You better keep your woman in line before I have to put her in line for you.”
“How about you just go back to your game of pool,” Karl said, his voice calm, “and we’ll go back to ours?”
The guy’s friends had surrounded us, and they egged their friend on, shouting insults at Karl. “Kick his ass,” one of them said.
“We’re not going to fight,” Karl said. “We’re just going to settle this like—”
The guy swung. I tried to shout a warning, but it was too late—his fist hit Karl’s face with a loud
“What do you think about that, hoity-toity?” the guy said.
Karl had a dazed look on his face, as though he wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. “That was such a cheap shot,” I said. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be bragging about it.”
Stephanie, Anthony, and Finn showed up at the same time a large guy—the bouncer, I presumed—made an appearance. He stepped between us and the other group and told us to break it up.
“I think we better go,” Stephanie said, tugging on my arm.
“I think that would be a good idea,” the bouncer said, like we’d been the ones causing all the trouble.
Not wanting things to get any worse, I fought back the urge to yell at the bouncer and all the other idiots, and let Stephanie pull me away.
As our group headed outside, the other group continued hurling insults at us.
“Well, that was fun,” Karl said, flinching as he patted the red mark next to his eye.
I took his chin in my hand and tilted his head toward the streetlight so I could get a closer look. “You’re going to need to ice it. How bad will it be for you to show up at the office tomorrow with a black eye?”
“It’ll probably scare my clients. I suppose I could claim basketball injury or something. I hate lying, though. My office is supposed to be a place of honesty.”
“Then just claim you got it playing pool.” I stepped back, looking at the guy I couldn’t stand at the beginning of the night. Somehow, I’d ended up getting him into a fight—because he’d stuck up for me. “Thanks for…stepping in back there. I thought I’d just humiliate him and he’d back off. Sometimes my temper gets me into trouble.”
“No,” Karl said, like he was shocked. Then one corner of his mouth twisted up. “I probably shouldn’t say this, since I’m all about peacefully working things out, but I guess you’ve gotta get punched once in your life. It’s kind of a rite of passage for a guy.”
“I wouldn’t suggest making it a habit. Girls aren’t as crazy about it as you’d think.”
“Darby, do you mind riding home with Karl?” Anthony asked. “I’d like to go with my lovely fiancee. And Finn lives pretty close to us.”
Stephanie gave me that what-can-you-do look.
It’s not like I had a choice. “Sure.” I held my hand out to Karl. “Give me your keys. I think I better drive.”
…
By the time we got to my place, Karl’s eye was nice and puffy. “How far away do you live?”
“It’s about another forty minutes north.”
“I think you should come up and ice your eye. See if you can get the swelling down before driving home.” I pulled the keys out of the ignition. “Besides, I feel like I owe you. I still think I would’ve won our game of pool”—I flashed him a smile to let him know I was joking around—“but you didn’t get to eat, and I’m sure you’re hungry.”
I headed through the lobby of the building with Karl. I decided to stop at the vending machine and grab a couple of sodas. I needed some caffeine. “What do you want?”
“I’ll take a Pepsi,” Karl said.
I bought a Pepsi for him and a Mountain Dew for myself, then we got on the elevator. I held my cold can of Mountain Dew on Karl’s eye. “Here, this should help.” Metal and cold worked wonders on swelling.
The doors of the elevator opened back up and Jake stepped inside. Of course.
“Don’t worry,” I said as the elevator lifted. “I didn’t punch him that hard.”
Karl laughed. “After everything you put me through tonight, at least let me keep my dignity.”
“But if you don’t have any dignity, how can I let you keep it?”
“I thought we were at peace now.”
“Sorry. It might take me a few days to switch gears to being nice to you.” The elevator stopped, opening up on my floor. “This is me.”
Karl walked into the hall. I stuck my hand over the elevator door so it wouldn’t shut, then twisted back to Jake. “Long story. The short version is it’s not as bad as it looks.”
“You have my number,” Jake said. “And you know where I live.”
I smiled at him. “I
As soon as Karl and I got to my apartment, I pointed him to the couch. “Have a seat and I’ll get you some ice. The can probably isn’t cold enough anymore.” I headed to the fridge and dug out a bag of frozen peas, then walked over to the couch and handed it to him. “Peas do a good job because they conform.”
“You have lots of experience in this kind of thing?”
“Too much. Combination of breaking in a horse and having a boyfriend who liked to get into fights.”
Karl sat there, holding the bag of peas on his face. “Who could’ve seen this coming after our disastrous date? You’re actually pretty nice when you want to be.”
“Don’t tell anyone. I’ve got to keep up my reputation.”
Karl smiled, then winced. “I know it wouldn’t have solved anything, but I kind of wish I would’ve at least taken a swing at the guy.”
“Then you’d just have cut-up knuckles to go with your busted eye.” I leaned back on my couch. “I would’ve really liked to see that guy go down, though. Freakin’ jackhole.”
Twenty minutes later, the swelling had lessened, the ibuprofen had kicked in, and we’d filled up on grilled- cheese sandwiches. Karl decided he was good to drive home, so we said our good-byes and I sent him on his
