On the Rocks by Erin Duffy

reinvention, so really, who was I to judge? I ordered Dark ’n’ Stormys for Grace and myself, but when I turned around to hand her drink to her, she was scurrying off into the corner of the room.
    “Where are you going?” I asked, almost panicked at the thought of being left alone at the bar.
    “Sorry, I have to take a quick call from work. I’ll be right back,” she said casually.
    “Please don’t leave me!” I joked, looking around at all the strangers and knowing that I was terrible at making small talk. I didn’t want to be the girl standing alone in the bar, hoping that someone would talk to her. I had thought that by the time I hit thirty I’d have outgrown the fear of being alone in a crowd, but apparently I was a late bloomer. “Who am I going to talk to?” I whined.
    “I’ll be right back, and you’ll be just fine. Go mingle. You can talk to people, Abby. I have complete faith in you,” she said as she walked off.
    “Sure. I’ll just mingle. Because I’m good at that.” I sipped my drink and glanced nervously around the room. Bobby wasted no time invading the dance floor with his ridiculously uncoordinated dance moves, and Wolf stood to the side saying “Guttentag” to every pretty girl who walked by. I took my drink and stood next to Wolf. While I watched people dance with each other, I couldn’t help but have the same thought I’d had on the walk over: I’m getting old. When did that happen?
    “You know what’s funny, Wolfie?” I asked with a sigh.
    “The girl in the corner dancing with the wall?” he asked. We both turned to stare at the very intoxicated girl in a short spandex dress slow-dancing with the wall. That was one I hadn’t seen before.
    “Yeah, but other than her. There was a time when I would’ve been leading the pack on that dance floor. I would’ve been the life of the party. Now all I can think about is what movie I’m missing on TV. I can’t compete with these kids and their miniature outfits.”
    “Abby, I think you look very nice. Don’t worry about those other girls, just relax and have fun. There are plenty of people our age here,” he said, bobbing his head to the music, smiling at everyone who walked by.
    “They’re staff,” I said with a sigh.
    “Not just them. You’re prettier than those drunk kids anyway.”
    “Thanks, Wolf.” I reached over and patted his arm, happy to have a genuinely nice guy as a friend.
    “I mean it,” he said with a smile, instantly putting me at ease. “Any guy here would be lucky to have you.”
    “Why aren’t you dating anyone? Haven’t you found any nice American girls to go out with?” I asked, hoping that I wasn’t intruding on his personal life the way I felt Bobby continually intruded on mine.
    “Not yet, but I’m having fun looking.”
    “That’s the attitude I should have,” I said. He was right. I needed to relax.
    “Hey, can I ask you a question?” Wolf said.
    “Sure.”
    “What’s that over there?” he asked, pointing to the other side of the bar.
    Oh God.
    There were more than a few things I didn’t know about Newport nightlife. I didn’t know which bars were popular on which nights, I didn’t know which places had the good bands or the bartenders with the heavy pours, and I was fine with that. What I wasn’t fine with was no one bothering to tell me that Newport was apparently a hot spot for bachelor and bachelorette parties. I scanned the crowd and discovered you couldn’t swing a bat (which I had unfortunately neglected to throw in my clutch before leaving the house, though I won’t be making that mistake again) without smacking a girl wearing some kind of accessory letting the world know that she was about to be married. Stepping into the middle of the bachelorette party mecca of the Northeast wasn’t really how I’d envisioned the first night of my project going. I knew I’d remember this night forever, just not for the reasons I had hoped. You can only watch so many girls