Laura and Monty each had a good sense of humor, which helped the conversation between two strangers. She kidded him about the way he was dressed, asking if he needed the high heels on his fancy cowboy boots to make him taller. Monty took it in stride, explaining that the pointed toes made it easier to slip into a stirrup if a foot came out during a wild ride, and the high undershot heels kept a foot from sliding all the way through the stirrup. Then she joshed him about the fact that his light blue shirt had dark blue pearl snaps rather than buttons, but he explained that when a shirtfront or sleeve got caught when riding through brush, snaps popped open and left the shirt unharmed, whereas buttons would hold and the shirt would rip.
Monty got his own back when the timed bronco riding began. Monty explained the scoring system used, with points given both to the horse and to the rider. Shortly after each ride, the announcer would call out the score, "86," "78," "no score." After the third ride, Monty started guessing at the score as soon as the ride ended, and he was always within one or two points of the score when it was announced. Laura was more and more impressed with each success - until she finally noticed the small screen high in the rafters, where the score was displayed a few seconds before the announcer called it out. "You cheater!" she exclaimed, playfully punching Monty on the shoulder, and they both laughed over that.
So the evening passed, with the two young people becoming more and more comfortable with every passing minute. Monty said he felt like having some nachos and a beer, and asked what she'd like. Laura usually drank wine, but had noticed that most of the rodeo spectators were drinking beer so decided she would fit in better if she asked for a beer. They shared nachos and sipped their beers, and both silently thanked whatever throw of the cosmic dice had resulted in those two seats being occupied by those two people on that particular night.
When the performance ended, Monty asked Laura if she needed a ride home.
"I took a taxi from the hotel in town to get here, so I can just catch one to go back - and I can charge it to my expense account," Laura said, secretly hoping that the evening wouldn't end that quickly.
"Taxis will be hard to find now with all these people flooding out of the Cow Palace at the same time. If you don't mind riding in a pickup truck, I'd be happy to drive you back into the city," said Monty, hoping that she'd accept, because he didn't want the evening to end this soon, either.