1 PAULA AND A FEW DRINKS
I came home from work and found Paula waiting for me at the door.
"Hi, babe." I said, kissing her on the lips. "What's the matter?"
She looked really sad and pissed.
"I got fired today." She said.
"Big deal. It was a shitty secretarial job and you hated it anyway." I said, trying to console her.
"Yeah, but it was money..." She added. She was right and it would hurt. Still, she was in a down mood and I wanted to cheer her up. She needed an ego boost or something.
"How about going out to dinner to celebrate your new freedom to pursue other opportunities?" I suggested and she smiled agreement.
We went to a place on Clark Street with good Chinese food and had a couple of drinks while waiting for our meal. Paula was starting to perk up a little as the food arrived. I held up a glass in a simulated toast.
"To the attractive twenty-four year old who is now available for any interesting position." I said.
She laughed and we enjoyed our dinner. We jokingly kidded about her career options and I realized that we were starting to get a little juiced.
We finished a good meal and walked back to the apartment. In the lobby, we met our neighbor, Jeff, the "lonely guy".
"Yo Jeff. How goes it, man?" I said.
"Hey, Paula, Jack... Not so great, I'm afraid." He said, looking down at the ground.
"What's going on?" Paula asked.
"My girlfriend just dumped me a few minutes ago." He said.
He looked depressed and we had always worried about this poor guy. He was usually quite shy around other people but seemed to be more open with Paula and me. We sort of adopted this little guy with the premature receding hairline and he spent a lot of time at our place.
"Come on up to our place. Have a nightcap." I asked him and he accepted.
We didn't say much coming up the elevator, he was watching Paula with her arm around my waist and I had my arm around her shoulders. I saw that this was not exactly helping him.
We got into the apartment and Jeff and I sat down while Paula went to the head. "You're a lucky guy, Jack." He said, nodding to the other room.
"I guess you're right, buddy. It's all luck. You'll get your shot one of these days yourself." I said.
Paula entered the room with a slight stagger and she giggled.