Sandy was leaning back into Jerry rubbing her shoulder in his. I watched as Sandy smiled, laughing at something Jerry had said. I broke myself away fr...m watching them and took the beers back to our guests, but my mind was wandering. This seemed familiar, my stomach churned. We replayed our college World Series championship game that I had put on our big screen television. By the time the game was over everyone was ready to leave. We all said our goodbye’s, planning another future party. After. Of course they had their 'I dare ya' games where suits come off and every possible option you can imagine. They were having so much fun and Sarah and I were absolutely loving it.It seemed this was going to be an all nighter with the amount of beer they'd brought along. Plus, they just invited 3 more guys over to party. So, I decided that this just doesn't happen that often and I wanted to be as much a part of it as possible so I called into work and asked for a vacation day the next day and it. Extra, unimportant. Make no mistake. I knew that Kris didn't mean to hurt me, wouldn't have said those things for the world had she known the effect they ended up having on me. But that didn't lessen the pain one iota. That's when I began to understand what role I was going to play in the lives of all my female friends. I was always going to be the best friend, the surrogate big brother. They would take the flattery I offered in the spirit in which they thought it was intended, that of a friend. ”“True.” The waiter was hovering. “I just want some coffee. You have sweets or liqueur if you wish.” Winnie and Rachel ordered tea, Patrick took coffee.“I also need to make friends.” Rachel started, but I held up my hand. “Outside of work, the Evanses and the Eyres and you are the only friends I have. I know many people, but I realized that I don’t know how to make friends.”Winnie looked as though she was really contemplating what I’d said. “And you’ve known me for nearly thirty.