"He needs to just get back in the saddle" Steve said.

"What saddle?"

"The one on the horse. He needs to get back on the horse."

"He wasn't on the horse in the first place" Eric argued

"That's not what I hear . . ."

"I mean - I mean, he had a one-night-stand with her, but it wasn't like they were even going out or anything."

"Man" said Steve, "if we're gonna start talking about sex we need to ditch this horse metaphor."

"Hey man, no argument here. I wasn't going with the horse thing in the first place. Let's just drop that shit altogether."

"Okay, cool man." Steve looked around the café to see where his coffee might be coming from. He could see a cappuccino and an iced coffee poised on the bar, but nobody seemed to be paying attention to them, and neither of them was his long black. He drummed his fingers on the table-top and turned back to Eric. "But what I'm saying is, he's our bandmate. We gotta do something to help him out."

"Like give him riding lessons?" Eric sniggered.

"Dude! I said let's drop that!"

"You said? . . . Okay, all right. I just couldn't help myself. You've gotta admit, it was pretty funny . . ."

Steve held the tip of his forefinger a centimetre away from the tip of his thumb. "It was this much funny" he said. After a moment's thought he widened the gap a little. "Maybe this much" he said.

"Anyway, you weren't saying we needed to help him out. You were saying he needed to get back in the saddle."

"With our help!"

"Dude, that's a little creepy."

"What? We take him out, he meets a nice girl, bam! Done!"

"Isn't that how he got in this mess in the first place?"

Steve shook his head. "He wasn't out with us."

"Ohh" Eric laughed. "So you're saying with us by his side he'll find true love and happiness? You're saying you'll be able to introduce him to the pick of the chicks? From your personal stable?"

"Nah, man. What does he want true love for? He's not even thirty yet! I'm just saying we get him laid, he'll forget all about this Angie chick or whatever her name is."

Eric folded his arms across the table. "It's a nice simple world, your world, isn't it?"

"Dude!" Steve beamed. "You should visit it some time!" A waitress came past and put two coffees down on the table. Steve leaned across to look at the one in front of Eric. "Is that my long black?" he asked.