I looked at her, mouth hanging open like the idiot I was. “I didn’t even think of it.” All I would’ve had to do was ask, and I could’ve had Jake by my side all night, making everything better…or further complicating it. “It’s probably a good thing I didn’t invite him. If we start hanging out all the time, someone’s going to get clingy. I’m not even saying it won’t be me. Then there will be the ‘where are you right now’ phone calls, and ‘why didn’t you call me.’ I don’t want to get into all that.”

“But serial monogamy is what you say you want, right? Wasn’t that your decision?”

I bit my lip. “That’s the theory. It’s still in the testing phase.”

Steph took another right-hand turn. “You don’t want to miss that puppy-love phase, though. It’s one of the best parts of a relationship.”

“But how do you have that all-about-you period without getting attached?”

“You don’t.”

I threw my head back and groaned. “I’m starting to think my plan has a few flaws.”

“Girl, I’ve been telling you that for the past year.” Stephanie parallel parked in front of a bar called Hot Shots. “Wow, this place looks kind of ghetto. Anthony said it was supposed to be the new, hip nightclub.”

The run-down bar had a layer of dust on the windows, as well as neon flashing booze signs hanging half-lit around the place. There was no nightclub about it. Several people sat along the bar, drinking and watching the game. Pool tables lined the other side of the room. The people there didn’t look like they cared about name-brand clothes or drinking the fanciest wine in the place—one guy even had his butt-crack hanging out for the world to see. Anthony usually made a point of hitting the newest and hottest places in the city. So where were we?

Anthony, Karl, and Finn, Anthony’s other college friend and groomsman, walked up to Steph and me, and Anthony kissed Steph on the cheek. “I got the place wrong,” he said. “This place is Hot Shots. The place I meant to go is called Shots.” He wrinkled his nose as he surveyed the place. “It’s up north. You want to go?”

Even though he hadn’t asked for my opinion, I gave it anyway. “I say we stay. If we drive up there now, we’ll spend most of our night in the car.” And I’m not about to drive with Finn and Karl like you would surely suggest. “We can get some greasy food and shoot some pool. How bad could it be?”

Steph put her arms around Anthony. “I don’t really care where I am, as long as I’m with you.”

Sure, I was happy for Steph and her lovey-dovey phase, but I occasionally missed the girl who used to tell boys how it was while they cowered in fear.

Anthony gestured to a table in the corner. “Let’s have a seat, then.” As we walked, he looked at me. “You remember Finn, of course.”

I smiled. “Of course. Hey, Finn.”

He gave a tiny nod. “Darby.”

That was about all you’d get out of Finn. He didn’t say much. According to Anthony he used to be a party animal but had mellowed over the years. I wasn’t sure if Anthony was qualified to define a party animal.

Anthony pulled out a chair for Stephanie. “And you and Karl just met a week or so ago.”

Karl sat across from me. “We did. She told me that I only preach communication to keep getting paid. I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in marriage and family counseling. I teach workshops, yet she apparently knows more about it than I do.”

I gritted my teeth, trying to remain calm. “You’re twisting my words. I simply expressed my opinion on communication between men and women.”

“Yeah, that they shouldn’t even try to communicate,” Karl said.

Anthony waved his hand in the air, a nervous expression on his face. “Where is our waiter?”

Anthony’s obvious discomfort didn’t deter me. If Karl thought he could slam me and have the final word, he was mistaken. “What I said was everyone preaches communication like men and women have the capability of communicating the same way. My personal belief is that if we realize we’ll never understand each other, we wouldn’t all feel like failures. The part about counselors preaching it to get paid was thrown in for a joke. Obviously counselors don’t know anything about that, either.” I shot Karl a smile. “And I didn’t even need a degree to figure that out.”

“Let’s go play some pool,” Stephanie said. “I’m not that hungry.”

“But I’m hungry,” Anthony said.

I kept my eyes on Karl. “See right there? Stephanie was trying to subtly change the subject to keep you and 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 rather effective.”

“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 smack. Karl stumbled back, into the pool table. I quickly moved to steady him, a mix of disbelief and anger pumping through my veins.

“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 fiancée. 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.”