After scaring off the mysterious bartender from any more conversation, Bobby sidles up to the bar next to Travis. “What’s going on, asshole?” she asks—old joke. The first time Travis had met Bobby, he’d nearly got his lights knocked out on a stupid dare. It was just that Kristin and Daphne would not shut up about the shirt she was wearing—how horrid it was. To put an end to it, Nick offered to buy Travis two rounds if he would go inform Bobby of her fashion faux pax—of course, Nick had said something more like “vomit.”

“You have to say stupid,” Dizzy said.

“Remarkably stupid,” Kristin added.

“Remarkably stupid?” Travis asked.

“I think atrocious vomit would be more appropriate,” Nick added.

“No, no,” Kristin disagreed. “Atrocious is too mean. It’s just stupid.”

Dizzy agreed, “Yeah, if it was a bad evening gown, you could say atrocious. But that’s just a shirt.” Kristin, “A stupid shirt.”

“Okay, okay,” Travis relented, “Remarkably stupid.”

He stood up and made his way over to the table across the bar, tapped Bobby on the shoulder, and regretted it the moment that he did because when she turned around finally he could see she was adorable. He sighed, “I’m here to tell you that that’s a stupid shirt.”

Bobby looked stunned for a moment and then asked above the noise, “What?” because she was really sure she’d not heard Travis correctly.

“I’m sorry.” He snapped his fingers—remembering the ‘remarkably’ part again. “I mean, I’m supposed to tell you that it’s a remarkably stupid shirt.”

She stared hard at him, let him sweat, calmly observing his facial expression. There was something objective about it, as though what he had said was not to be taken personally. He could just as easily have said, “You are a girl,” or “You have brown hair.” But he’d definitely said that her shirt was remarkably stupid. And she couldn’t see the point. Travis turned slowly to look over to his table for help. Nick, Daphne and Kristin were all smiles. Nick mimed a drinking motion and gives Travis a thumbs up. When he turned back, expecting a face full of her hand, he was shocked to see Bobby smiling. She shrugged, “It’s my dumb boyfriend’s shirt.”

It was a month and a half later that Bobby leaned on the bar next to Travis and inquired with a challenge, “What’s your name?”

A picture of her gigantic boyfriend standing right behind them popped into his head. Oh well, here we go.

“Asshole. Asshole Fleeting.” He held out his hand with a smile.

“Nice to meet you, Asshole. I’m Bobby.”

“Travis.”

“OK.”

“And I am really sorry if I embarrassed you or something. It was just a stupid dare.”

“No. It’s fine. I mean, even for a dare it was kind of lame.” She lets that sink in. “But it was a stupid shirt.”

Travis shrugged. “I didn’t really think so.”

“Uh. That’s not exactly what you said.”

“Long story.”

Bobby nodded. “So I can wear it out again with approval?”

“Only if you want me to tell you how stupid it is again.”

It was another two weeks before Travis saw Bobby at a party and they had a normal conversation about things other than dares and stupid clothing. And now, today, “So are you picking on the bartender or picking her up?”

“As a matter of fact…” he looks to see that the girl is out of earshot. “I’ve been regaling her with stories from my childhood.”

“I bet they’d be really scary.” Bobby says, nodding. Turning to her friends behind her she says, “Travis, this is Josh and Aaron.”

Travis shakes their hands in turn from his stool. “Hey,” he says, wondering to himself which of the two is inevitably chasing after Bobby. After she left her boyfriend with the apparently terrible fashion sense, she could always be found with a harem of guys.

“You here by yourself?” asks Bobby.

“Me and my best friend, Beer.” The bartender, who had come over to get orders from Bobby’s crew, makes a disapproving face.

“We were just gonna’ play some pool.”

“You know, that sounds good, but I was planning on catching a band at the Theater.”

“Okay, Asshole, suit yourself. But come to a party at our apartment complex Saturday.”

Josh chimes, “It’s gonna’ be huuuge, dude.”

“Seems kinda’ dead in town for a party.”

“Trust me. We got three bands and twenty kegs comin’. All night Saturday and as long as we can go on Sunday. They even got noise permits for the bands.”

“All right, then. See ya’ there.”

Read the whole thread: Carousel Cowboy

Characters and Places: Asshole, Bobby, Daphne Dearborn, dares, Kristen Shelley, Nick Vaughn, Travis Fleeting