“She’s black?”
“Yes,” Gao says, “but she’s beautiful.”
I look at Gao. “She happens to be black,” I say. “And yes,” I tell Jesse, “she is beautiful.”
“She really is,” Gao says.
Jess tells him to play trivia and she pushes the console toward him. She puts her elbows—and her tits—on the bar and looks directly in my eyes. “Where did you meet her?” Her hands are on her cheeks.
“She came to my party.”
“He throws excellent parties,” Gao says. “There was this girl—what was her name?”
“Who?”
“The naked girl.”
“Oh..Constance.”
“Whatever happened to Constance. Why don’t you bring her around?”
“Tell me about this girl,” Jesse says, “The one you like.”
“Well. Her name is Jules—“
“Oooh. I like her already. Keep going.”
“Can I have another drink,” Gao deadpans.
“In a minute.”
“Can I have another drink,” Gao says.
“In a minute.”
“Can I have another—“
“Do you want me to sixty-nine you, Gao?”
Me and Gao look at each other and bust out laughing.
“You know what I mean.” Jesse’s never eighty-sixed anyone in her life. “””Shut up you guys.”
Gao’s like: “Um..yes.”
“Gao. Play your fucking trivia. Matt. Tell me about your girl.”
But I can’t. Those stupid surgeons are talking about some surgery they were doing the other day, and they’re laughing about it, talking about the patient, describing her in these really terrible terms..just..drinkin it up..talkin shop..
“Excuse me. Excuse me.”
“What do you want bro?”
Jesse stops me. She says: “Can you please not talk about surgery so loud, you know, people are eating.” She says it super super nice. You’d think after eight years of medical school you would learn not to talk about surgery in a bar. Jesse said what she said to them really nice. Have some freaking respect..talking about organ donors after they died and gave their heart to someone. Given the circumstances, what Jesse said to them was really nice. If I had said something to them, I would have never said it that nice.