Karl
Two days later, I’m sittin there watching Oprah give tips on how to declutter your home when the phone rings. I say hello, and the guy on the other end says, hey man. I’m not sure who it is yet, but I say, hey, what’s up, hoping that I’ll figure it out once he talks some more. Watcha up to, the guy says. And since I’m not sure who he is, I don’t know if I should tell him exactly what I’m up to, so I say, not much. He says, that’s cool, and then neither one of us says anything for a second. And then he says, so a couple of us were gonna go out for some beers tonight, you in?
And now I know who it is and I say, shit, Jimmy? I had no idea who you were until just now. Jimmy and I go back a long way. Even though he went to MIT and has a job where he makes tons of money, he never disowned me. Jimmy laughs and I tell him I’m watching Oprah and I say sure I’ll go out for beers, and we call each other assholes and laugh cuz we’re good friends and Jimmy says be there at 8:00. When I hang up, Oprah’s saying, when we return, Dr. Robin will talk to us about obstacles in our friendships.
So later that night, I get to the bar and I’m like a half hour late, which Jimmy knew would happen, but I figure I don’t wanna get there early and be sittin around alone like a jackass waitin for other people to show up. Jimmy sees me and shouts my name and I walk over through the crowd and he’s there with like five or six other people. He starts introducing me to everybody, saying this is Kate, this is Randy, this is Alex. And of course, Nata is there, and I smile at her cuz I kinda have this thing for Nata, who works with Jimmy and is like the hottest nerd girl I know. And this is Karl, Jimmy says, and at first, I’m not really paying attention cuz I’m staring at Nata, but then I snap out of it and I look at Karl, and sure enough, it’s the same creepy mofo who gave me a ride the other day.