“I don’t know the rules anymore!” The blonde turned to Claudia. “I just got out of a relationship.”

“Your boyfriend dumped your ass at Halloween, Lesley,” said Frankie. “It’s been a while.”

“Can I help I’m too trusting?”

“I don’t trust anybody anymore,” said Claudia.

“Oh, shit,” said Frankie. “You too young to be like that.”

Lesley put her arm around Claudia.

“She’s smart,” said Lesley. “I wish I was a little smarter sometimes.”

Frankie set the vodka and soda in front of Claudia. “You said it, I didn’t.”

Lesley laughed. “Cheers to smart bitches.”

Cheers. Lesley began to talk. She was from “outside Atlanta,” worked at Hooters (“I transferred up … It’s actually a great company!”) and lived in Bay Ridge. She’d moved to New York for a guy she met online two years before. He worked “in finance” and lived in Murray Hill in a “nice” one-bedroom “with a doorman.”

“My mom was happy about the doorman,” she said. “She was certain I was gonna get raped when I moved here. I was, like, Mom, New York is the safest big city in the country! You know that, right? It’s crazy, but it’s true. I looked it up. Anyway, he literally broke up with me on Halloween. While I was wearin’ my costume.”

“Tell him what you were,” said Frankie.

“I was a sexy bride.”

Frankie howled a laugh shook. “I felt sorry for her. I did.”

“And it’s been love ever since,” said Lesley, blowing him a kiss.

Frankie rolled his eyes. “I said I did. I don’t have no sympathy for bitches who don’t learn.”

Lesley told Claudia that she came here to meet her online dates because it was near her job and reminded her of home. Apparently she had a lot of online dates.

“I gotta find somebody to pay the rent!” She laughed and Frankie, who was refilling the maraschino cherries, slapped her a high-five. As if on cue, the two exclaimed: “The rent is too damn high!”

Claudia ordered dinner for them both and another round of drinks. Lesley was drinking Chardonnay, so Claudia switched to that. Men came up to the bar and tried to talk to them, but Lesley shooed them away.

“We’re having a girls’ night,” she said, and turned her back.

At midnight, Lesley announced that she had to get home.

“No sleep till Brooklyn,” she said. “That’s how you say it, right, Frankie?”

“Yeah, but it’s never gonna sound right coming outta your mouth.”

Claudia signed the bill and, as casually as she could possibly manage, turned to Lesley and said, “Crash in my room. I’ve got a suite.”