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Of course, this ti He doesn’t offer htfully his

Joni doesn’t seem to notice

So I sit in the backseat amidst the empty Fresh Samantha bottles (hers) and s in a proerdohts with Chuck begins to reach the boiling point again I vow to talk to her at the first moment I can catch her without him

That moment never comes They don’t even take bathroom breaks from each other

My testiness is a little offset once Tony julances with The first glance--me wide-eyed, Tony’s eyebrow raised--comes when Chuck hijacks the radio and blasts some Testosterone Rock, the kind ofco in disbelief, Tony looking to heaven--is pro and chastises us for not joining in As if I know the lyrics to a song called "She’s All Mouth"

Joni doesn’t sing along, either, but shewheel At one point, she accidentally hits the horn, which cracks Chuck up

"Nice toots," he chuckles

Third glance--, Get us out of this car now

We head to the local diner, the kind of place where you need aon the jukebox The waitresses are perfectly lacquered, the waiters freshly slicked Theto read as thepaper Breakfast is always served, most of the time as dinner

As we sit down in a booth, I see Joni’s eyes briefly flash worry It’s the first non--Chuck-related reaction she’s had since I got into her car Or at least that’s what I think at first Soon I realize that all her reactions are Chuck-related in so three tables aith Jasmine Gupta His back is to , she winks

Kyle could take lessons froirl The hitch is that the person has to be on the rebound froile-yet-vindictive state entrances her

The old Joni comes back to us for a brief one the predictable route," she snarks (In all his other break-ups with Joni, he had chosen not to flee in Jasmine’s direction)

"He’s scum," Chuck mutters, perhaps because he thinks it’s his duty to do so

"No, he’s not," I say pleasantly

"What’s everybody getting to eat?" Tony interjects One of the weaknesses of being mellow is an inability to deal with non-rilled swiss," Chuck says with a smile

"He knows me so welll" Joni replies I wonder whether that’s really what she’d planned to order

What have you done with the old Joni, you iood," Tony says Our waitress arrives and we are freed from one another’s conversation for a minute or two After she leaves, we stick to non-controversial topics like school and ho our diner excursions used to be