By six o’clock, Trip’s friends started to roll in. They were mostly guys he’d grown up with and who were still hanging around town for one reason or another, working at restaurants or making a half-hearted stab at the nearby community college. They sat around the horseshoe-shaped bar, downing beers and watching the Phillies beat up on the Braves on the wall-mounted TVs. The mood grew rowdier as the hits—and the beer bottles—piled up.

Canal House was filling up. Some guys in work boots and T-shirts were playing pool, and a couple of girls who looked like they may or may not be old enough to be in there were drinking cosmos, an even worse choice than the house IPA. A band was setting up on the small stage near the end of the bar. Trip had gone home with the singer, a brunette in heavy black eyeliner, last time they’d played. He couldn’t quite remember her name.

“The Phils are going all the way this year,” declared Andy, Trip’s buddy from high school.

“No way,” said Trip. “They’ll blow it. They’re peaking too soon.”

“I’ll put fifty bucks on it,” Andy said.

“Sure,” said Trip. “I’ll take your money.”

“Don’t bet against the home team,” Joe warned, refilling their shot glasses with Jim Beam.

Trip tipped his back. “It’s worked out for me so far. Why change a winning strategy?”

Joe turned to take drink orders from one of the guys who’d been playing pool, and Trip stood up to go to the restroom.

“Hold on there!” Joe said. “Where are you going?”

“The john,” Trip said. Standing up gave him a head rush.

“Sorry, buddy, I’m afraid not,” Joe said as he mixed drinks for the pool players.

“What?” Trip said, thinking Joe had misheard him. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

“Not in here, you’re not,” Joe said, grinning. “The boss said I was on strict orders to keep you out of there. He said he doesn’t want his toilet ending up on the deck.”

Andy started laughing. “Trip, man, everyone knows you’re not house-trained! Didn’t you take a piss in the dishwasher at that house?”

“Okay, very funny,” Trip said.

“Take it outside,” Joe said.

“You want me to go in the parking lot?” Trip asked.

“You won’t be the last one tonight,” Joe said with a wink.