The scene opens in a cafe near the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where a young man named Ted tries to flirt with a young woman named Jo. The young woman, however, is wearing a dress that is too tight for him to fit in. He tells her that he has been holding on to her dress for the past two days, and she tells him that she feels bad for stopping him from kissing her. He apologizes, saying that he feels bad every time he drinks, but that he always overdrinks, and he worries that he will get drunk and hit people if he does not stop drinking. He offers to take her to a nearby coffee shop, but she refuses, saying she will not share the place with others. He asks if he is his friend, and the young woman says that he is, and that she does not try to lie. She tells him to enjoy the cakes at the cafe, which are "so soft and moist" because the young man likes them. He is like a "younger brother" to her, she says, and asks if she has a "real brother." She says that she has, and they go off to buy a cake for him. When she returns, she finds that the cake is the "best" she has ever had, and says that it was made with "snort ham too late" . She claims that she is not lying, but he says it was a "slip of the tongue," and she believes him.