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It was the first weekend of classes at Dartmouth, and several girls from the dorm were heading out to a bar, so Tammy tagged along. She had only barely gotten to know them, and quickly lost sight of them when the music was blasting and the lights were dim inside. She had thought about asking her father for advice about social life, but of course, the school hadn’t been co-ed when he had been there, so would his advice really have helped? And her mother had gone to a Seven Sisters school, so of course that was going to be different.
Tammy gave up on finding the girls she came with, and debated for a moment about whether to go ahead and buy a beer or go out on the dance floor. She had just decided on dancing, when some guy came up to her.
“Can I buy you a drink?” he asked. He had clearly already had a few too many, from the smell of things.
“No thanks,” she replied. She wasn’t here to get free drinks, and she knew very well what he’d be expecting.
“You sure?”
“I’m just going to go dance,” she said.
“Well, let me come with you,” he said. “You look like you’re here alone.”
“No, I just saw my boyfriend over there,” she lied.
“Oh yeah?” the drunk guy asked skeptically. “Introduce me to him.”
Tammy’s eyes darted around the dance floor. There were a few guys she had met earlier in the week who seemed trustworthy, but none of them were at this bar tonight.
She spotted one who was talking to another guy. They looked a bit older, maybe seniors, and it seemed like as safe a bet as any, so she waved at them. The first guy saw her and waved back.
“Hi!” she said as he walked over. She decided to go for broke. “My new friend here wanted to meet my boyfriend.”
The guy put his arm around her shoulders. “Hey, nice to meet you,” he said, setting down his beer to shake hands, but the drunk guy had already retreated into the crowd without a word.
“Well, thanks for that,” Tammy laughed as her spontaneous boyfriend took a step back and picked his beer up from the bar.
“Any time. I’d offer you a beer, but I have the feeling you’ve already gotten an offer of one.”
“I’ll buy my own, but thanks,” Tammy said.
“I was honestly in kind of a dull conversation back there. Just because I’m in business school doesn’t mean I want to talk business at a bar on a Friday night.”
Tammy smiled, trying to think of what she should say. It would feel a bit obvious if she began flirting now, and she wasn’t about to ask what kind of business he was studying, even if she wouldn’t mind hearing about it.
There was a brief lull in the music as the song changed.
Hey little sister, what have you done?
He put the beer down again.
“I love this song, do you want to dance?”
“I’d love to,” she said, following him onto the dance floor.