One afternoon Lisa Lynne invited him for pizza.
"It's not a date, it's with me and a bunch of my other friends."
"A date?" laughed Jon. "Didn't even cross my mind. Sounds nice, though. The pizza with friends thing, I mean." Jon decided to shut up before he babbled himself into trouble. He hadn't dared to ask her out since the afternoon she yelled at him, but as always, hope sprang eternal that she perhaps would eventually ask him out. But he squelched that thought. They were just friends.
Friends. With a woman. It was a new concept for Jon, one that had taken some getting used to. He had never really been friends with men, let alone woman. There was his old roommate Lyman, and his high school buddy Wheezer, but he barely talked to them anymore. All he had was Odie, who was loving but rather stupid, and Garfield, who just slept all day and ate him out of house and home.
Being friends with a woman was an interesting and wonderful experience, though. He should have tried it much sooner. Then again, most women had only stayed around long enough to say buzz off so he had never had the opportunity.
Lisa Lynne's friends were Sheila, Jack, and Benny. Jon had Garfield with him, as Garfield had refused to miss the opportunity to go to a pizza joint. He was behaving pretty well, as Jon had bought him an entire pizza for himself.
They had a pretty good time. Sheila and Jack snickered when Jon mentioned he played the accordion, but Benny told him, with a serious face, that he played the glockenspiel. Excited, Jon asked him if he liked polka.
"Do I ever!" Benny replied enthusiastically, adjusting his thick, horn-rimmed glasses.
Ignoring the fact that Lisa Lynne, Sheila, and Jack were practically drowning in tears of laughter, Jon asked Benny if he'd like to jam with him on Saturday. Elated, Benny accepted.
Jon caught Lisa Lynne's eye and she winked at him. Under the table Garfield clawed at his ankle.
"More pizza!"
Jon kicked him away and winked back at Lisa Lynne. Then he turned to Benny and started to talk about the joys of polka when he heard a loud clatter.
Garfield had taken matters into his own hands by going in the kitchen in search of food. He wrecked two ovens in his rampage. The kitchen staff fled, as did some customers. Jon leapt up.
"GARFIELD!"
Later, after he was informed that they would not call the police if he paid for the damage and promised to never, ever set foot in that pizza parlor ever again, Jon dragged an unrepentant Garfield home. To his amazement, Lisa Lynne tagged along with him.
"You see what I have to put up with?" he said to her.
She giggled. "Garfield certainly can eat."
"I'm glad you think it was funny. You weren't the one banned for life!"
"Benny still plans to jam with you this weekend," she said consolingly. "And I noticed you didn't try to pick up Sheila. I'm impressed."
"Well, I didn't really look her way much," said Jon. He only had eyes for Lisa Lynne. But that was probably just because they were friends.