EXT. LOU'S TAVERN - NIGHT

A small building, sitting squarely in the middle of a large concrete parking lot. A few street lamps illuminate the lot. a freeway runs nearby.

INT. LOU'S TAVERN - SAME

Jack and Tyler sit at a table in the very back of the room. A
half-empty pitcher of beer shows dried foam scum from the previous refill.

Five DRUNKEN GUYS at a table at the opposite side of the bar keep glancing over and chuckling in a potentially hostile manner.

TYLER: You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa you'll ever need in your life; no matter what else goes wrong, you've got the sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the right bed. The drapes. The rug. This is how you're good to yourself. This is how you fill up your life.

JACK: I ... guess so.

TYLER: And now your condo blows up and you have nothing.

JACK: I ... guess so.

TYLER: And now you find yourself, sitting here, feeling like it's the best thing that ever happened to you.

JACK: ... yeah.

TYLER: I don't know you, so maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's a terrible fucking tragedy.

JACK: ... no.

TYLER: I mean, you lost a lot of nice, perfect, neat little shit.

JACK: Fuck it all.

TYLER: Wow. That's pretty strong.

JACK: ... yeah.

TYLER: Do you have family you can call?

JACK: My mother would just go into hysterics. My Dad ... Don't know where he is. Only knew him for six years. Then, he ran off to a new city and married another woman and had more kids. Every six years -- new city, new family. He was setting up franchises.

Tyler smiles, snorts, shakes his head.

TYLER: A generation of men raised by women. Look what it's done to you.

JACK: To me?

TYLER: We're on our third pitcher of beer and you still can't ask me.

JACK: Huh?

TYLER: Why don't you cut the shit and ask me if you can stay at my place?

JACK: Well ... uh ...

TYLER: Why don't you cut the shit and ask me if you can stay at my place?

JACK: Would that be a problem?

TYLER: Is it a problem for you to ask me?

JACK: Can I stay at your place?

TYLER: Yeah.

JACK: Thanks.

TYLER: -- If you do me one favor.

JACK: What's that?

TYLER: I want you to hit me as hard as you can.

*FREEZE PICTURE*