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“Why would you think that before even going out with him?”
“Because he seemed nice, and you know the nice ones never last with me.”
“That’s because you’re crazy.”
Rather than be offended, Jules laughed. “I know. And once they get up close and personal with it, they run away like little babies.”
“You know … what you need is like a Jekyll and Hyde person. A hybrid of good and evil.”
“Oh, my God, you’re right. I need one of those. A guy who’s really nice, but then matches me in the crazy department.” Jules’s eyes wandered over to Evan for a second, and then came back to Paige. “So, have you heard anything from David?”
“Yes,” Paige replied as the band kicked into gear with another cover, this time “More Than A Feeling”. Raising her voice to be heard, she added, “Ashley’s going to give him custody.”
“No shit? That’s great news.”
“It is,” Paige agreed with a nod.
Jules swiveled so she was fully facing her friend. “So why do you look pissed off, then?”
It was almost too loud to have a real conversation, but Paige swiveled so she was facing Jules as well. “Because David thought our sweaty, needy, mind-blowing sex blinded him to the fact that his ex-girlfriend’s douchebag boyfriend was being abusive to his son, that’s why.”
The woman next to Paige looked over again, only this time it was Jules who saw her, and promptly leveled her with her patented Vlad Putin stare. “This is a private conversation,” Jules said, over Paige’s shoulder. “So please stop eavesdropping.”
Paige half-laughed, half-snorted, because … Jules.
After the woman turned away, Jules rolled her eyes at Paige. “I swear, the nerve of some people,” she said, loud enough to be heard by the woman, before returning to the original conversation. “So, David was thinking … what?”
“That our sweaty, needy, mind-blowing sex blinded him to the fact that his ex-girlfriends’s douchebag boyfriend was being abusive to his son,” Paige repeated. “And then he said he hasn’t known how to be with me for the past ten days, so he’s been pretending like nothing was wrong the entire time. He was basically avoiding me, but not wanting to push me away, so he was doing it in such a way that I wouldn’t realize he was avoiding me. And I didn’t. I didn’t even know what was happening. I’ve been thinking everything was fine, and …” She picked up her drink. “Jesus, I’m so pissed off.”
“So am I.” Jules caught Evan’s eye and motioned for him to come over, which he promptly did. Leaning on the bar, Jules asked, “What’s a good shot to drink when you’re extremely pissed off at a man, and you’d love to kick his dumb ass into next week?”
“Either a Chuck Norris, or a Kamikaze,” Evan replied without blinking.
“You know what? Why don’t you set me and my girl up with a pair of those? Each. I’m not in an ‘either/or’ mood right now.”
“You got it.” He started to turn away, but then snapped his fingers. “Oh, and there’s always the Adios Motherfucker.”
“We’ll each take one of those, too.”
“Coming right up.”
A few minutes later, Evan brought Paige and Jules their shots, then watched as they threw all three of them back in short order. When they were done and Evan had taken away the empty shot glasses, Paige closed her eyes and groaned. “I probably shouldn’t have done that.”
“It’s fine. We’re taking Ubers home.”
Paige waved a hand. “I meant because I’m going to be hung the hell over in the morning, and I have be at work by 10 a.m.”
“Your job sucks so much ass,” Jules muttered.
“Believe me, I’m aware.”
Remembering their hydration rule from their first visit, Evan got them both a glass of water, then reluctantly turned his attention to other patrons.
Once they were alone again, Jules demanded a replay of the conversation with David, so Paige obliged. When she was done, she gave Jules a long look. “Now, I can tell by your expression that you want to escalate this and go nuclear war on David’s ass, but you’re not going to do that, because I’m going to handle this, okay?”
“Okay. You’re going to handle it.”
“That’s right. I’m going to handle it, not you. You’re forbidden from doing anything about this other than listening to me bitch about it, all right?”
