He stares at me for a second, then smiles. “Yeah, sure Jane. I’ll give you my number.”
And he does. He even takes a picture of himself and creates his own contact in my phone.
Huh. Interesting.
I hit up four more guys. One tells me he’s married but texting each other isn’t really cheating in his book. I smile and shove my phone at him.
I don’t know how far ahead Julia is with numbers but there’s a circle of guys around her and she seems to be telling them all a really great joke. Her shirt falls off her shoulder and all eyes stare longingly at her skin.
I have to up my game.
I grab the next guy. He’s a young hipster with a manbun. “Listen, I’ll get right to the point. I’ll give you this twenty-dollar bill if you put your number into my phone.”
He laughs at me, but his friend yanks the money out of my hand and says, “You pay for the shots and I’ll give you more than my number.”
“Hold your balls, all I need in your number right now. And one of those shots is mine.”
He barks out an attractive laugh and takes his picture with my phone and adds his number to my contact list.
“No money exchanges hands! No cheating!” Julia yells from wherever the hell she is.
“I just bought a round of shots for my new friends. That’s all,” I shout back, glancing over my shoulder in her direction.
She points at me accusingly.
Okay, fine. “You,” I point to a college aged guy. “Put your number in my phone with your picture and I’ll show you my boobs.”
“What?” he asks, eyes wide.
“Boobs? Do you like them?” I ask, pushing my phone into his chest.
“Well, yeah,” he says, bouncing from one foot to another.
“Okay, then. Put your number in my phone and boobs will be shown.”
He taps in his number and takes a selfie. His friend slides next to him and I lift my shirt. His friend smiles and says, “Uh…can I put my number in too.”
“Yeah sure.”
Julia and I meet back at our seats when our time is up, flush-faced and laughing. As I sit down, the bartender, the one with the lip ring that’s been shaking his head, chuckling at us all night, slides a small paper across the counter toward me.
Julia and I stare it while he waits.
I unfold the paper and it’s his name and number with a smiley face on the bottom. “But mine I really want you to use.” There’s a gold band on his ring finger and my stomach flips at the thought of someone waiting for him at home while he slips me his number in this silly game.
“I get off work at four,” he says.
“A.M.?”
“Yeah,” he says with a smirk.
“That’s way past my curfew, but thanks so much,” I say backing away from the bar and grabbing Julia by the hand. His wedding ring glints from the overhead lights. I pull her out of the bar and onto the sidewalk. “Did you see the wedding ring? What a dick!”
“Two of my numbers had wedding rings on as well. Texting other women can be easily justified by them. It’s not physical so it isn’t cheating, but the first thing they always do is ask for naked pictures.”
“I think I’m even more depressed now than when we got here. Who won this dumb game anyway? I got ten numbers.”
“We’re tied then. I got ten too.” She spins around, tilting her head up to the starless sky. “I think I might call the blond suit with the red tie. I can picture him being a fun time.”
