Work Text:
If Bobby thought about it, really thought about it, he didn’t actually know how he made any of his friends. To say he made friends at all was a bit misleading. Really, they shanghai-ed him into their lives. One minute, there was a guy he chatted with every time he got drinks at a particular bar—the next, he was getting invited to his wedding and his kids’ christenings. He didn't understand exactly what happened in between.
When Bobby came to New York, twenty-two and fresh out of college, he didn’t have a friend to his name. He knew Amy, but she didn’t move out for another few years, not until Paul’s job wanted him in the city. Before then, Bobby was a free man. He could go to a different bar every night, chitchat with the crowd, and never see them again. It was a beautiful thing. With five boroughs to choose from and the subway running all night, it felt like he could do that forever and never run out of spots.
Bobby must have met Joanne in one of those places. That would make sense. She was as bad of a barfly as him. Once Joanne decided she liked someone, they’d never, ever be free. Bobby never tried to keep in contact with her, but he didn't have to. It was inevitable. When Joanne wanted something, she always, always got it, and after a chance encounter or two, she decided that she wanted Bobby.
One of them might have been his coworker. Was it Peter? Bobby definitely worked with Peter for a period of time, but he didn’t remember if that was before or after they were friends. Maybe it was Harry. There was a period of time where it felt like Harry was consulting for a different company every day. Maybe Bobby’s employer had been one of them, and that was how they got to know each other.
Marriage did a lot, of course. He wouldn’t know Paul without Amy, or Larry without Joanne. Every time anyone got romantically attached to someone else, suddenly they were part of the fold. That was one more face at every party, one more birthday Bobby neededl to remember, and one more person setting Bobby up with every girl they knew. The next thing he knew, ten different people snuck into his apartment to throw a surprise party. He didn’t remember giving one of them the key.
Maybe he needed to look at it the way Joanne did. “Everybody adores you. What an awful thing.” Bobby had nothing to complain about, not really. Most people would kill to be loved the way that Bobby was. Bobby’s friends all thought he was witty and handsome and charming. They laughed at his jokes. They claimed to envy him. Some people struggled to make a single friend, but Bobby stumbled into an entire herd. Apparently he radiated charisma.
Of course Bobby didn’t want to get married. He was tied down enough as it was. Most people only had one person to buy gifts for, one person to go out for dinner with, one person demanding to be updated on every little detail of Bobby’s life. Bobby had ten of them, and not one ever left him alone.