Michelle buys drinks for everyone

After Jake left, Abbie and Michelle ordered a round of something fruity ("Tyler, make us something fruity!" was literally the way Michelle ordered), and got a little giggly and girly.

"So how long have you and Jake been together?" asked Michelle.

"Um," said Abbie, suddenly realizing that she ought to have a story ready for this topic. It's not like I can tell new friends, 'yeah, I gave him a blowjob at work once and now I kind of do whatever he asks me to,' she thought.

"What does that mean?" said Michelle, furrowing her brow. "Either you don't know or you're not together, right?"

"Well, this is our first weekend away together, if that puts a label on it."

Michelle nodded, accepting this as a reasonable measurement of relationship status. "First time away, huh. No wonder you guys are so cute. Where'd you meet him?"

"Work. I guess I knew him for a while, but we hit it off recently, and, well, now we're here."

"I met Chris at a party like six or a hundred years ago. He's usually pretty nice to me, treats me well, he's got a lot of money and a huge cock. It's not the most perfect recipe, but you know."

Abbie nodded. "You seem happy and comfortable with him. How long have you been married?"

"Three years." Michelle shrugged. "Being here for another wedding has me thinking about all that stuff again. Sometimes I think Chris and I have hit our limits with each other. Sex is great, but it's the same thing every time."

"Do you ever talk to each other about that?"

Michelle shook her head. "Not really. It's not in the way, I guess. I mean, we're still together. I know he fucks around a little, and he probably knows that I do, but I don't want it to become, you know, a thing."

"I don't mean to get in your business," said Abbie, "but maybe if you opened up to each other you'd find there's more than you thought there was."

"Is that what you and Jake do? You talk about it?"

"Yeah, kind of. I'm pretty open minded, so right now, things are really healthy with me and Jake." Abbie's mind went back to their serious conversation earlier. She was feeling incredibly confident about her relationship with Jake. "I think we really trust each other."

"So you're just ... monogamous, and talk about everything openly?" Michelle considered this. "Well, it's probably a lot more healthy than what I do."

"We're very honest with each other. But it's also pretty new."

Michelle sipped her wine. "You didn't agree to the 'monogamous' part."

Abbie giggled to herself. "I guess I didn't."

Michelle shook her head and smiled. "You two look so amazing together. The way you look at him, the way he looks at you. I'm envious." She finished her drink. "But you're not exclusive."

Abbie looked down at her plate, then back up to Michelle. "No, we're not."

Michelle nodded a little. "I'm not one to judge. I just told you that Chris and I both mess around on the side."

Abbie took a sip of her drink, and let the silence fill the air.

"I'm kind of inspired here, Abbie. I mean, what if I pushed Chris to do something different, like really pushed him?"

Abbie nodded. "It might spice things up."

Michelle looked hard at Abbie. "Yeah, it might." She nodded, and kept her eyes on Abbie. "It might."

Chris weaved his way through the crowd and found Abbie and Michelle at the bar having just ordered another round.

"Sorry about that. Timing is the worst, but there's thing stupid thing going on with work."

Michelle put her finger on his lips. "Let's skip the part where I pretend to have any interest in your work drama -- and definitely skip the part where Abbie has to pretend to be polite -- and just get you another beer." She signaled to Tyler and ordered a beer for Chris. "I want to get a little wild tonight, honey. Come on."

Chris sighed. "I'd love to. Really, I would. I don't even know what you have in mind, but drunk Michelle is always fun Michelle."

Michelle rolled her eyes. "But."

"But." Chris nodded. "But this fucking moron in the office had to pick tonight to --"

"Stop," said Michelle. "Just go do it. Whatever it is. Is it even work? I don't know. I don't care."

"Honest, Chelle -- it's work. I just --" he stopped trying to sell it. "I'm going up to the room. I have to call the office, I have to call a guy in Cairo. I don't know what time it is in Cairo."

Michelle pounded her fist on him. "Just go!" She was obviously getting quite upset. Abbie was a bit uncomfortable. At first, she tried to appear sympathetic, but after Michelle was almost in tears, she just looked away.

"Chelle. Please. Come up to the room with me. I'll take care of the calls, and we'll have a night."

"Fuck, no." Michelle lifted her head up again. She was on the verge of tears, but fought it off. "I'm going to party tonight. I want to live. I want to be more like Abbie, here. She's young and free!"

Chris looked at Abbie. "It's not your burden, but help her get back to the room tonight, would you? It's easy to remember, it's 2222."

Abbie nodded. "It was nice to meet you, Chris."

And with that, he was gone again.

"What a fucker. What a royal fucking monkey fucker." Michelle was very tense and visibly angry. She finished her drink too quickly, and the glass toppled over as she put it back on the bar.

Abbie was silent. She had only just met Michelle, and she was torn between wanting to be a supportive new friend and wondering if she had gotten herself mixed up in something that was going to be too messy. She wished Jake was still there, he'd be helpful in this moment.

"I'm right, right?" said Michelle. "I'm right. This is supposed to be like a getaway weekend, celebrate young love of people like Staci and whoever the fuck she's marrying, people like you and whoever the fuck you're marrying -- and instead, it's people like me and whoever the fuck I married. Tyler!" She shouted down to the end of the bar to get the bartender's attention.

"Michelle," said Abbie, calmly. "Look, if you want to unload about Chris, I can be a great listener. And I can tell you about some horrible boyfriends I've had in the past." She almost said before Jake, but stopped, as a voice in her head reminded her that he wasn't actually her boyfriend.

"Tyler!" Michelle shouted again.

He looked up and waved. "Be right there!"

"Here's what we're going to do," said Michelle. "We're going to spend Chris's money, buy expensive drinks for everyone here, and then instead of going upstairs and having sex with Chris, I'll maybe have sex with Tyler! Oh look, he's right here."

Tyler had arrived just in time to hear the end of Michelle's little speech. "Sex with Tyler, huh?" he said. "Starting to wonder how many Tylers you know at the bar tonight."

Michelle laughed. "I'm in room 2222. Please charge everything to my room. Next round for everyone at the bar."

Tyler looked at her and smiled curiously. "Do you mean that? That could be $500, at least."

"Sounds good," said Michelle. "Just leave the tab open. Chris can close it tomorrow."

Abbie leaned toward Michelle. "Are you sure about that? Will Chris be mad?"

Michelle shook her head. "He's going to feel so guilty about tonight, he won't care." She looked back to Tyler. "Abbie and I will have a glass each of the most expensive red wine you have." She turned quickly to Abbie and added, "I should have asked, do you want red wine?"

"Sure!"

"Red wine it is, Tyler. And whatever everyone else is drinking. Cheers, to Chris Caulfield's credit card!"

Tyler disappeared into a back room for a bit, perhaps to fetch the "most expensive red wine" he could find.

Michelle watched him go, then turned back to Abbie. "He's so fucking hot!"

Abbie kind of half smiled, a smile that said, I'm glad you think so, but I couldn't disagree more.

"Wait, you don't think so?"

Abbie pictured Jake in her mind. "He's just not my type, you know?"

Michelle shook her head. "You should get out more. I mean, Jake's cute and all, but there's a lot of fish in the sea. And that one ... whew."

Tyler had re-emerged, a bottle of wine in his hand. He snagged two giant wine glasses, and brought it all back over to Michelle and Abbie.

"Here it is, as requested. This is a 2008 De Buris. The bottle is $490."

"Will you taste it with us, Tyler?" Michelle cooed.

Tyler got a small shot glass from the bar, and set it up next to the two wine glasses. He broke the seal, and removed the cork. He poured a splash of wine in each glass, and a little bit in the shot glass.

"Cheers!" said Michelle. They each drank their sip of wine.

"Not quite how wine tasting works, but --" Tyler started

Michelle cut him off. "Fill it up. We'll take it." Tyler poured the wine into Abbie and Michelle's glasses, leaving the bottle on the bar in front of them.

"Enjoy, ladies. I'll be back to check on you in a second." Tyler began working up and down the bar, taking orders from other patrons, and occasionally pointing back to Michelle as if to say, she's picking up a round for everyone.

Abbie savored the wine. "This is really delicious. I don't think I've ever had anything that was more than about $15 for a glass. Thank you for this treat, Michelle!"

"Thank Chris. Or maybe don't. Remember, we're here doing this because we're mad at him."

"Oh right," said Abbie. She scowled. "Here's to being mad at Chris." She raised her glass and took another sip.

As Michelle and Abbie made their way through the bottle of De Buris, Tyler delivered drinks to other patrons, cleaned up some stray glasses and bottles, wiped down the bar, and gradually drifted back toward the two women.