Lyall brings us two Mexican beers with foil around the necks. Some’s dangling on the lips of mine and I pick it off so I don’t get that horrible foil-on-your-teeth thing before I take a pull. We lean against the bar; a drum kit and mics and shit are set up on the little stage at the end. “Blue Monday” by New Order is finishing and that Arctic Monkeys song starts up after it.

Rose elbows me in the side. “You wanna dance, don’t cha, junior?”

I didn’t realize it but I guess I’d been moving. “Are you offering?”

“Not me, not tonight, no, ma’am. Hip’s acting up—rain on the way.”

It’s cool how she can tell the weather by her body.

“Lyall, this new door policy of yours—didn’t see fit to put it to a vote?”

Lyall looks at me; he clearly knows what Nick means. Fucker. I should have left his screen just the way it was, make him go back to the Bad Place and buy a whole new computer. But Lyall raises his eyebrows and says to him, “Please don’t tell me you plan to start coming here in white sneakers. That I simply can’t abide. On you, that is. Proper shoes make you look so much more distinguished.”

“It’s not the dress code that’s bothering me. It’s the company. Seems you’ll let anybody in nowadays. Better watch those standards. Slipping, slipping. Too many slips and the whole house falls down . . .” He’s looking right at me; he’s not even trying to hide it.

“Ignore him,” Rose murmurs into my shoulder. And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to ignore him. I put on a smile and laugh at nothing. I fight with the niggling urge to see if he’s still staring at me. But I don’t look. I do as Rose tells me and keep my attention on drinking my beer.

Then it occurs to me that it’s impossible to ignore someone. It’s necessarily a contradiction because when you’re ignoring someone you’re paying them this special, unique kind of attention, like they’re actually the most important person in the world. You’re doing this odd performance just for them, paying more attention to someone you hate than you would to someone you love. Maybe to ignore someone really means failing to drop dead no matter how much they want you to. If that’s the game between me and Nick, I’m totally winning.

The door opens and Earl has barely stepped into the tavern before Rose is squealing. “Git on in here, ya sonofabitch, and git a round in!”

“What’s the occasion?”

Lyall flings his arms out. “The natal day of our young guest. Joy to the world.”

“Small-fry here’s eighteen today,” Rose adds.