with friends like these

Response to the pranks post has made me think of one of my best mind-fucks.

I was meeting a friend and his woman in a bar. They were married. Unfortunately, they were not married to each another. I don't begrudge anyone a mistake or three, but this woman on whom he was draping himself was no reason to be breaking marriage vows. She was preening, manipulative. She spewed complete nonsense. I caught her in needless, self-aggrandizing lies from word go. She was, to summarize, a most unwelcome development.

Shortly after I returned from the jukebox, I saw my friend twitch uncomfortably. It might have had something to do with the song selection, which happened to be what he and his wife were listening to the first time they made love. Or it might have just been gas. A couple tunes later, the jukebox played the "first dance" song from his wedding.

He was no longer listening to our conversation, which was about, oh, let's say politics. Noticing his distant glare, the mistress tried to loop him back in. "What do you think, hon?"

"I THINK SOMEONE'S DELIBERATELY FUCKING WITH ME, IS WHAT I THINK" he snarled contemptuously. "DON'T EVER TELL JOHN FUCKING ANYTHING."

Words to live by.