the duel

I went to a dueling piano bar on Friday night. I was disappointed because the pianos did not "duel." I envisioned two men going back and forth trying to out-piano each other on each song. They simply played together at once, you know, like a duet.

Going to the piano bar was Lilac's idea. She came with her boyfriend and her boyfriend's best friend's ex-girlfriend. Yes, you heard right. The boyfriend (BF) has a best friend who recently broke up his girlfriend and she was there. I'll use her real name, Amy, since by the end of the night I didn't care much for her.

Lilac was polite and even friendly with Amy but I know her well enough that once we had a moment alone at the table I quickly whispered "Do you like her?" In true and dignified Lilac fashion she responded with "I wouldn't feel comfortable having them hang out on their own."

I knew it. There was just something a little too comfortable about how Amy approached BF. He, being male, was completely oblivious to the undertones, or at least ignored them. But I watched Amy watch BF and Lilac watch Amy.

At the end of the night Amy had to walk a few blocks to meet her ride home. Before taking off she asked, many times, whether or not it was safe for her to walk to that part of town. (It was). This was the best she could do to try to get BF to volunteer to walk her. Lilac and I caught on and stole glances at each other. BF made no such recommendation and we all quickly went our separate ways, with BF and Lilac as one. The duel was over.