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| Photo: Danny Feld |
As I expected, Manfro finally finds out Joe has been cutting in on his bookie business and he’s not happy. I don’t know if it’ll cost Joe Manfro’s friendship, but it cost him a tooth. Terry takes him to a dentist, where Joe bumps into an old flame named Dory – yet another failure in Joe’s life that he tries to ignore.
After the dentist reinserts Joe’s tooth, Dory tracks Joe down by the elevator.
“I should’ve at least given you an explanation,” Dory says. She looks at the elevator button because she can’t look him in the eye. She’s struggling. You get the feeling she cares more about Joe than he realizes. “It’s just, when you told me about that big bet you made …”
“Hey, you saw what you saw,” Joe says. He’s still clueless. “It was scary.”
“No … I had to break it off, but I just want you to know,” she says, “it wasn’t some little thing … meeting you.”
He finally gets it – by it, I don’t just mean Dory’s feelings for him, though, that’s part of it. But he finally understands what a mess he’s made of his life – often at the expense of others.
Now it’s his turn to look down.
“Ah, I screwed up so many things,” he says.
Dory lets five seconds pass. She seems to be debating whether she should pile on or offer him an olive branch.
She makes a decision, and it’s a beautiful one.
“Hey,” she says, “don’t let bad Joe win, okay? Cuz good Joe’s kinda awesome.”
