“Hey, you gotta go back in and pay.”

“What, I didn’t buy anything!”

“You gotta go pay!”

“But I didn’t buy anything! Look, it’s empty!” I could barely understand his Portuguese, and I doubt that whatever I was drunkenly saying made sense. Things just devolved into a lot of arm waving.

The other bouncer, who was much bigger but had remained silent, stepped in. “Pay,” he said slowly, pointing back up the stairs.

He wasn’t a man I could argue with, and I had no idea if the place required a purchase or not. I headed back upstairs feeling extremely sheepish to buy a beer. The place only sold liter bottles because most of their clientèle split them. I ordered one and made sure to pay immediately. I couldn’t find anyone I knew, so I leaned with my back against the bar constantly refilling the tiny juice glasses the place used. By the time Julia found me again, I was quite drunk.

“Hey, there you are! We’re going to head back up to the roof? You want to come? Bruna was asking about you…” She trailed off with the sales look you’d expect from a used car salesman.

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Let’s go.” I waited until she walked in front of me so that she didn’t notice me hobo-shuffling across the room.

When we got back onto the roof Dan’s cousin was in full force, jumping about excitedly and yelling about the president. I was trying to decipher what he was saying when Bruna walked up.

“I’m sorry about what happened back there.” I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant. I didn’t think anything had happened. “My boyfriend got pretty mad when he saw us hugging and holding hands.” Now I was really confused. Aside from her awkwardly pawing my elbow once, we hadn’t touched. “But whatever. He’s a jerk. I told him to get the hell out of here. Now we’re okay to be together. Want to go to my studio?”

I had no idea what to say, but I knew I wanted nothing to do with whatever crazy shit went on in her “studio.” “Sure thing,” I said. “Just wait here a second while I go to the bathroom.”

This time I didn’t wait. I wadded my tab up and threw it at the bouncers as I ran out into the street.