There’s a club I crash with my circle of girlfriends once a month or so when we’re feeling in the mood to dance and be in a super-high-energy place with an eclectic mix of people. We know a lot of the regulars, but there is always a good crowd of randos from completely unpredictable walks of life, and sometimes, that’s half the fun.
I’d chatted a few times with this group of guys who seemed to pop up at the bar when we’d come around to freshen up our drinks. Just small talk, but they were lively, charismatic, good at making me laugh. One of them complemented my outfit, though I was just wearing a black crop top [that looked a lot like this](https://us.shein.com/Criss-Cross-Tie-Back-Crop-Top-p-2623022-cat-2223.html) and some tight jeans. When my bestie, Lia, got sidetracked chatting up a really cute guy who was also probably the most boring, self-absorbed person on Earth, I slipped off to the bar alone, fully intending to waste as much time as I could.