Page 27 of The Girl with No Name

“What about you?”

“I’m a Sagittarius.”

“Oh, sorry,” the blonde chimes in. “That means you two aren’t built to last.”

“A shame, because the chemistry is radiating.” The redhead adds. “I can feel it.”

“Yeah, I have a girlfriend,” I inform them. “Nothing is radiating.”

“Isn’t Zach Bryan playing all the way in, like, Kentucky?” the dark-haired girl asks. “How are you getting there?”

“I’m driving,” Dunn says.

“That’s so cool. Can I come?”

“Um…you just met them,” the blonde points out.

“I know, but I’m getting good energy from these two,” she counters. “And I’ve never seen him in concert and I need to. Bucket list.”

“Look, I’m married,” Dunn says.

“Great. I’m not trying to date either of you, so that’s perfect. Can I hitch a ride?”

“Well, wedohave one extra ticket,” Dunn chimes in. “I bought three of them eight months ago. Now my wife is extremely pregnant, so she can’t go.”

I chuckle. “I have to work tomorrow. We’re not actually going. He’s joking.”

“We are, in fact, going,” Dunn says without the slightest hint of irony.

The raven-haired girl looks between the two of us, presumably trying to figure out who’s going to win this argument.

“We’re leaving Saturday morning,” I tell her. Dunn slaps me on the shoulder again.

“We should get those drinks,” the redhead suggests.

We all head over to the bar, and Dunn waves the bartender down, insisting that we won’t be accepting any drinks from them. When the bartender finally takes Charlie’s money, he turns around. “What my friend Reed means is we’re leaving tomorrow.”

“So tomorrow?” the brunette confirms.

“I wish I could go,” the blonde adds. “I’m leaving for Michigan tomorrow for a weekend with my family.”

“Can’t go,” the redhead says. “I have a shift tomorrow.”

“I worked doubles last weekend, so I’m free this one. I’m a bartender, by the way,” the brunette says. “I’m just saving enough money so I can go start my own farm.”

I laugh. “You’ve got jokes.”

She doesn’t laugh.

“Oh. You’re serious?”

“Modern living doesn’t work for me. Don’t you ever think,Is this all there is?” She gestures upward with her palm, in a sort of Shakespearean way.

“I like my life,” I tell her.

“Do youloveyour life, though? Do you ooze with passion when you think about waking up?”

Dunn shoots me a knowing look.