"Right. I was a little blasted that night."
            "Really. It didn’t show."
            "Your girl’s got a flair for sarcasm," El Sob said to me.
            "Ask her about radiation," I mumbled quietly.
            "I need to find the restroom," Stephanie announced, standing up from the couch.
            El Sob ordered two more beers the next time the waitress came by.
            "So, what have you been doing with yourself, lately?" he asked.
            "I assume you mean since the six months of masturbation and self loathing?"
            "Well, yeah. Of course. Everyone knew about that."
            "One morning I woke up and I knew I needed to get a job. Living in my parents' basement just wasn't cutting it anymore."
            "Did you go back to IKEA?"
            "Please. I'm working at an office downtown. Got set up with a temp agency. I type memos and wear a tie now."
            "Jesus Christ, man."
            "So, yeah. I got a steady paycheck going, and that was nice. Got settled in my new apartment and started thinking that Emily wasn't the end of the world."
            "So, she wasn't returning your calls?"
            "Basically."
            El Sob slapped me on the back of the head and called me a dumb-fuck.
            "Go on."
            "I started going to bars that I'd never been kicked out of before, tried to establish some kind of scene for myself. Dated around a bit, nothing serious."
            "Anyone worth mention?"
            "I went out with this Russian stripper a few times, she seemed more like your time than mine."
            "How so?"
            "Good head and bad English."
            "That sounds perfect, how'd you let her go?"
            "We just really didn't have that much in common."
            "Right. Come have a cigarette with me."
            "Where's my girlfriend?"
            "She won't go far."
            Outside, under a streetlight I noticed that El Sob's two front teeth were broken.
            "What the fuck happened to you?"
            "What?"[read on]