Page 121 of The Love Haters

“I think you need to take a break from that,” Cole said.

Hutch looked away.

“You’re not an alcoholic,” Cole went on. “It’s not that youcan’tdrink. You just don’t drink.”

“That’s right,” Hutch said.

“But you’re so serious. All the time,” Cole protested. “Don’t you want to loosen up now and then?”

Hutch looked back and forth between the two of us, and then sat down at a table. “Not tonight, I don’t.”

I sat, too, trying to express solidarity.

But then Cole pulled his chair right next to mine and leaned up against me, draping an arm over my shoulder.

As soon as it happened, Hutch stood back up. “Let’s play pinball,” he said.

“Great,” Cole said. “Dolly Parton for the win.”

After that, Cole lost pinball game after pinball game—every single one—progressively playing worse and worse as he drank more and more beer. Also getting louder and ruder.

“What are you doing?” I said to Cole, after a while. “Nobody’s drinking but you.”

“I just want to have some fun tonight.” Cole looked over at Hutch. “You rememberfun?”

Nothing about this seemed fun to me. Or to Hutch, from the look of things.

“Leave him alone, Cole,” I said.

“Afraid you might say things you’ll regret?” Cole challenged Hutch.

Hutch met my eyes. “Always.”

When we finally sat back down at our table, Cole, already half a sheet to the wind, said, “Let’s have a drinking contest.”

Hutch just shook his head at him.

“I just lost six straight games of pinball,” Cole said. “I need a win.”

“Why do you want to have a drinking contest with a guy who doesn’t drink?” I asked.

“Because that way I can beat him,” Cole said—and then burped.

“I’m not doing a drinking contest with you, Cole,” Hutch said.

“Afraid I’ll win?”

“You’ll definitely win,” Hutch said. “Let’s just pretend that already happened.”

But Cole shook his head. “Come on,” he said.

Hutch, clearly trying to shut this down, said, “Why don’t you drink for both of us?”

But that didn’t shut anything down. Instead, Cole stood up. He turned toward the other tables in the bar. “Who wants to have a drinking contest with me?”

The other customers—all of them men—turned toward Cole. He had their attention.

“My brother doesn’t want to drink with me,” Cole went on. “Can I get a taker?”

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