“You know,” Bob said solemnly, “it’s beginning to get tiresome.”
“Look,” Laura replied, after taking a long hit out of the wine bottle, “you just have to show some patience, some… don’t let it take you down.”
“Easy for you to say!” He accepted the bottle, and smirked. “You’ll never know how it feels being totally invisible!”
“You’re being too dramatic, Bob,” she scolded him. “You’re not invisible! You’re just…”
“Hopeless?” He drank long.
“Trying too hard, sometimes,” she corrected him. “And it shows.”
“What am I supposed to do, then? Sit in a corner, acting indifferent? Will then women start approaching me?”
“Don’t take it to the extremes! That’s always been your problem, actually. Never bothering with silver linings, never thinking of a middle point.”
“Live a day in my shoes, then come talk to me about silver linings.”
“Don’t get mad at me!” She protested.
“Sorry,” he was quick to retreat. “It’s just…”
“What happened this time?”
“I was out last night, with the guys,” he said, his expression immediately darkening. “To that new night club, downtown? Well, at first, it was alright; we drank some beer, made some jokes. Then, after a little while, there was more dancing, more people standing, it was…
“You know how it gets. Crowded, people mingling, all that.”
“Yeah, I know… so, what happened?”
“Nothing!” He erupted, then drained the remaining wine. Laura got up, staggered to the fridge and uncorked the third bottle of the day. “That’s the point!” Bob continued, after another snort of wine. “The guys got up, some started dancing with some girls on the floor, others were chatting up girls… and I sat at our booth, suddenly all alone.
“Looking about, smiling at some girls; and they didn’t even gave me a second glance! Hell, as soon as they noticed me looking at them, they turned the other way, clearly disgusted I was even there!”
“I’m sure you’re exaggerating!” Laura told him sternly. “It couldn’t have been that bad!”
“It was probably even worse,” Bob said. “The only times people do notice me, is when I’m with you; and that’s because they’re wondering how a vile sob like me landed a beauty queen like you.”
“Thanks,” she whispered with a giggle. “At any rate, I think it’s just your negativity talking right now. Or, maybe, you just concentrate on the negative, and miss out on the good things happening around you.”
“Bullshit,” he retorted angrily. “I do appreciate,” he hastily, and apologetically, added, “your efforts, don’t get me wrong. It’s just, as I’ve told you so many times, that you cannot possibly know how it feels like; when you walk in a night club, guys are willing to fight over a chance to talk to you.
“For me, well, some girls will probably fight as to who they’ll throw at me as an offer, so the rest can enjoy their night.”
Laura had a good, long hit from the bottle; the wine was beginning to get a hold of her, her head was lighter and her limbs were growing pleasantly numb.
When she got up to get another bottle, Bob could not restrain himself from watching her firm ass, barely hidden under the tight shorts she was wearing, wiggle under her faintly unsteady footsteps. He had to fix his jeans, when she bent over to reach the bottle.