Staci tells her friends who is who

[NOTE: This chapter happens in parallel with Jake's narrative.]

Staci patted Melanie on the shoulder. "I don't need to advise you, Mel. You are great at self care. But when you're sick of just fucking him and you know you need something more, he needs to either have stepped up or step out."

"Fact," said Emily.

Staci then looked back across the room. "Okay, there's five men over there. On the far side of the table is Rick. He went to college with Phil." She paused to consider the roster of men across the way. "Actually, they all went to college with Phil." She looked at Abbie. "Except Jake."

Abbie nodded.

"Rick is a dentist," Staci continued. "I don't think I've ever met a dentist younger than fifty, so Rick seems super young, but he's also super smart. Honestly, I don't know exactly why Danny is Phil's best man instead of Rick, but it wasn't my choice."

Melanie had been looking at Rick as Staci described him. "Christ, could he be more different from William? Look at him. The haircut. The glasses. The sweater."

"You think the sweater is hot?" said Emily, smirking.

"No, that's totally not what I said," said Melanie, blushing. "Except yeah, it is."

"I think so too!" said Emily.

"He's very cute," said Abbie. "Melanie, you should talk to him."

"Ladies, he's married," said Staci.

Melanie sighed and had a sip of her cocktail. "Of course. Of course he's fucking married!"

Now it was Emily's turn to console Melanie. "I don't even know you, Melanie, but I support you and your pursuit of a William upgrade! He's out there, for sure!"

Melanie fake-cried in a moment of dramatic self-mourning, all in jest. "Oh, woe is me, woe is my pathetic dating life."

Abbie took a sip of her drink. The she leaned past Staci, but as she did, she glanced toward Jake and caught his eye. She winked at him, and then spoke quietly to Melanie. "I don't know you either, but I'm good at nudging folks together, you know, socially. I'll look out for you."

Melanie smiled. "Thanks, friends. But let's not forget -- this is Staci's time, not mine."

"Right," said Staci with a joking sternness. "No one has fun except me. Got it?"

Emily giggled. "Who's the tall freckly guy?"

"That's Arthur," said Staci. "He works in marketing and promotion for a tequila brand. I don't know which one."

Abbie raised an eyebrow. "Mm, marketing folks can make some good money. If it's a successful tequila brand, he's probably doing very well for himself."

Staci continued, still focused on Arthur. "And that one, ladies, is not married." She looked back at Melanie.

"Don't look at me like that, Staci. Besides, he's kind of strawberry with freckles, I'm kind of strawberry with freckles, people would think we were siblings."

"Oh good lord, Mel," said Staci. "I'm not getting you a husband, just something to take your mind off William!"

"Whatever, you fools," said Emily. "Maybe I'll go chat with him. Marketing nerds always like cute Asian chicks like me." She wiggled in her seat and twirled her hair.

Abbie laughed. Staci looked over at Emily and gasped lightly. "Wait, you're into boys now?"

Emily nodded, then shook her head. Then she kind of wiggled her head around without committing to a specific answer. "Sure. And no. And whatever."

"Ooh," said Abbie. "I like this kind of girl. Into whatever! Always a good time."

Emily thought Abbie was teasing. "No, it's not that. I don't mean to sound like a slut or anything."

"Oh no!" said Abbie quickly. "I didn't mean that at all. I barely know you! I would never. All I mean is that I admire adventure in a woman. Being open minded to whatever the world hands you."

Emily, comforted that Abbie wasn't making fun, said, "Is that your motto of life?"

Abbie thought about it. "Sure, I guess. I'm easy." She had said it casually, and then she heard the words and said again, with a sly undertone, "I mean, I'm sometimes, you know, easy, also. But I just mean that I go with the flow."

"Up for adventure," offered Staci.

"Always!" said Abbie.

"What a way to live," said Melanie. "Okay, I'm hanging out with you this weekend. I want some adventure."

Abbie smiled. "Absolutely." She was smiling at Melanie, but thinking about Jake. Her adventures this morning and last night were, by anyone else's standards, insanely wild. The fact that despite being here with Jake and playing the role of the devoted girlfriend, she had also been with three other women already this morning and quite a wide array of partners the day before -- when she thought about it like that, it was just so unbelievable. Were all these people around her just sexually promiscuous in their own lives, or did she lure it out of them?

Everywhere she went, she seemed to find epic sexual adventures. She wondered if everyone she met was some kind of a locked box ... and if she was somehow the key.