Page 4 of The Moment You Know

“Not really,” he disagreed. “They’re more like the color of …” he trailed off for a long moment, before finishing with, “… my Sabre-Toothed Squirrel.”

Next to him, Alex made a choking sound. “Jesus Christ, man. It’s a good thing you’re so pretty. Because you have zero game, Davy.”

Barely glancing in Alex’s direction, David said, “Go fuck yourself,” then turned back to Paige, angling himself to cut Alex off from any further involvement in their conversation.

“What’s a … Sabre-Toothed Squirrel?” she asked slowly, wondering if it was some kind of joke.

“My ale.” David grabbed his glass of beer, which was still half full and held it up so that the amber liquid caught the light. “See? Perfect match.”

“Your ale is called ‘Sabre-Toothed Squirrel’?”

He reached over to turn his beer bottle toward her so she could see the label. To her amusement it showed a squirrel with crazy eyes and long teeth getting ready to bite into a hop, instead of a nut.

“I’ve never heard of it,” she said.

“You’re not the only one,” Alex told her, apparently still listening in on their conversation, undeterred by David’s attempt at blocking him. “It could’ve been worse, though. Earlier he was drinking something called Moustache Ride, so he could’ve compared your eyes tothat.”

Paige laughed. “That probably wouldn’t have gone over as well as the Sabre-Toothed Squirrel comparison.”

“He’s just being an asshole,” David said. “I wouldn’t have compared your eyes to my Moustache Ride. I’d have come up with something better.”

“What was it you were you throwing back last week?” Alex asked. “Maple Tit, or something like that?”

“MapleNipple,”David corrected him, then told Paige, “That wasn’t very good. Amber Smashed Face was better.”

Paige noticed that the other guys were all drinking Budweiser. “Are you a beer snob?”

“Oh, my God. He’s the fuckingworst,” Alex answered, not caring that the question hadn’t been directed at him. “He won’t drink anything on tap, or from a can. His bar bills are ridiculous.”

Having had enough of Alex, David twisted to look at him, warning in a low voice, “If you don’t immediately find another conversation to get involved in, I’m going to tell the girl in our Business Ethics class you want to hook up with that you got tested for an STD recently.”

“Fuck you.” Alex glared at David and then glanced over at Paige. “It was negative.”

Not exactly sure how to respond to that, Paige finally settled on, “Oh, well … congratulations.”

David stifled a laugh and Alex glared at him again before mumbling, “Asshole,” and turning away. Almost immediately, he turned back and jabbed a finger at David’s glass of beer. “And by the way, that’s thelastten-dollar beer I’m buying for your fucking birthday,” he added, sounding more like a petulant seven-year-old than a legal adult as he started to turn away again, only to turn backagain.

Paige was surprised he didn’t have whiplash.

“Actually, you know what?” Alex reached around David, pushing against him in the process as he grabbed the ten-dollar beer in question. “You don’t get to drink the rest of this. Fuck that,” he said, then proceeded to lift the half-full glass to his mouth and drain it. When he was finished, he set the glass down on the table in front of David with a heavy thud, almost directly over Angus Young’s face on AC/DC’sHighway To Hellalbum cover, before turning away a third time.

“He seems a little upset,” Paige whispered.

“He’ll get over it,” David assured her. Then, sounding slightly perturbed, he muttered, “Probably before I get over him drinking my beer. What a dick.”

His adorable pout gave Paige an idea and she flagged down the waitress. Paige picked up the empty Sabre-Toothed Squirrel bottle and tilted it toward David, not missing the appreciation in the waitress’s eyes as she came to a stop next to David.

“Can you bring him another one of these?” Paige asked. “Onme,”she added, surprised at how territorial she was sounding, given that she’d only just barely met David and all they were doing was talking. However, the waitress was pretty, with great boobs, and Paige didn’t want her thinking David’s door was open, so a little warning was in order.

With a short nod, the waitress took the empty bottle, then made her way around the rest of the table, checking on other refills.

“You didn’t have to do that,” David told Paige, even though he really liked that she had.

For a second, she thought he meant her little thing with the waitress, but then decided he meant her buying him a beer. She shrugged. “I happen to have ten dollars I don’t know what to do with.”

He smiled at that and Paige found herself caught up in another layer of his appeal. “Plus, I might’ve heard it was your birthday,” she added.

He nodded.

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