When Dan and Laurie didn't show up, he was surprised to see that Walter still did. He was so surprised, in fact, that he looked around to see if he had missed them or to see if they were hanging back slightly, but no one followed him into the club except a few regulars that Eddie did not actually know.

He had no idea why Dan and Laurie had not come, and he had even less idea why Walter would come by himself. It wasn't as if the two had any stellar conversations and he was sure that the younger man was only coming to spend time with his friend. Yet here he was, by himself, at their usual table.

But though the conversations were not stellar, they were there, and Eddie had found himself discussing things with Walter more and more as the happy couple get closer and shut the two of them out. The previous week had been ladies' night, so he hadn't seen them, and he was a little bit glad to see that Walter still came, even without the other two.

Still, he wondered where they were and why they had skipped out all of the sudden. He wondered if, perhaps, Laurie had finally managed to convince Dan that Eddie was the scumbag she was sure he was and that they would not be coming back. He didn't think about that possibility for long because he didn't want to; he would likely never see her again, if that were the case, and he had come to enjoy getting to know his daughter, even if he was getting to know her as a peer.

When his routine was over and he had taken his seat next to Walter, he wasted no time in asking, "So, where's our friends?"

"Special occasion," replied Walter, with the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice, something Eddie had previously thought him incapable of. "It's been a month."

"Since...?" But then he remembered. "Oh. Yeah, I guess it has been a month since they...ya know, left together." He shook his head. "Dunno why they'd want to spend it somewhere, considerin' this place kinda helped bring 'em together, but whatever the hell floats their boats."

"They were afraid to come here without me. If they go get fancy dinner, it makes sense to not invite me, for me to expect not to go. If they come somewhere I always go with them, they would have to explain why they didn't want me there." Eddie once again caught himself wondering about why the younger man would volunteer so much information when he was normally so reserved.

For the first time, he wondered if the two of them might have become friends of some sort over time. He laughed quietly to himself at the thought of the two of them, both oddballs in their own right, becoming friends at all, and then not even realizing that it had happened.

Eddie didn't really have many friends as it was. In fact, when he thought about it, he couldn't think of any friends he had, outside of this. He barely interacted with any coworkers, and work was the only place he went besides the club. Dan and Walter (and maybe someday Laurie, if he were lucky enough) were the closest things he had to friends, and it was only just dawning on him that was starting to get closer to Walter, in a way he hadn't with anyone.

It was hilarious, considering their conversations were lacking and they spent more time in silence than anything else. But even though he was more talkative, Eddie wasn't really better at holding a conversation, just better at pretending. He was loud and he wasn't shy and he was a performer and he and many others considered him to be funny, but that did not mean he was gifted with many social graces. It appeared that the two had more in common than met the eye.

So, no matter how the interactions went or how the two related to each other, the fact remained that he considered Walter his friend now, and since Dan was making a less frequent appearance in his life and Laurie wasn't his friend to begin with, that made Walter his best friend by default. And Eddie might not have been good at this, but he at least knew that when one's best friend was upset, it was one's responsibility to make them feel better by any mean's necessary.

"Ya know, I don't really see ya drink much," he said. "Or at all, come to think of it."

"I don't drink," replied Walter.

"Well, have ya ever tried?" When he shook his head, Eddie laughed and said, "Then ya don't even know if you like it or not! C'mon, whaddaya say ya let me show ya the ropes? I'll buy!"

"That's not a good idea."

"Aw, c'mon, what's the worst that could happen? Ya got me to look after you, remember? I can be the responsible one, alright?"

"It's not a good idea."

"Cos it's a great one!" Eddie gave his most persuasive smile. "I promise, it'll make ya feel a hell of a lot better."

"Temporarily," replied Walter.

Eddie shook his head. "Ya can't think like that, kid. Just live in the now, worry about later when it comes."

It took a lot more convincing than that, but eventually, Walter reluctantly agreed to just try a drink, and then Eddie told him he would have to try more than one to figure out what his drink of choice was, and that was the end of that. He turned out to be a lightweight; unsurprisingly, considering his height, build, and lack of prior experience, but the fact that he grew incredibly intoxicated without much effort made Eddie feel just a little bit left out.

So he decided not to be the responsible one, as he had previously promised, and soon enough, he was positively shitfaced. He found that Walter wasn't much more talkative when drunk, but he also found he didn't mind and could keep going on, rambling about some difficult customer he'd dealt with a week ago.

No one had found the story very funny when he'd relayed it to them sober, but he found telling it drunk earned him a few more laughs, or maybe that had more to do with the fact that his companion was also drunk. Either way, Walter laughed more openly at that than he had at anything Eddie had seen, and he laughed right along with him.

When they had both caught their breath, he said, "Say, kid, ya wanna...ya wanna, like, get outta here or somethin'?"

"Yeah, alright," replied Walter, and the two staggered to the nearest subway station and took the train to Brooklyn, where Eddie showed his friend the way to his home.

And that was where the two remained the next morning, in Eddie's bed while their clothes were strewn across the floor.