A Bud for The Ladies

Jentz points to Moniello. "He's been an author."

Moniello grins. "I've written a few books."

Books, plural? At age 22?

"Hey, you only have a couple of minutes to make an impression," Moniello continues. "So if you have to save a baby seal from an oil spill in Alaska, you have to save a baby seal."

Jentz picks up: "Sometimes you're a lawyer. You may only have taken one law class, but what the heck? It adds flavor, gets people excited."

Moniello says his hometown wingman -- good wingman relationships never die -- is as adept as they come. "If I go to the bathroom, he'll make me look like Jesus. . . . The girl I'm after will say something like 'I hear he's a player' and he'll convince her I'm really in love with her."

If the wingman is the least bit interested in the sidekick girl, he'll signal that to his partner-in-crime and include himself in the lie.

"You can't assume that every girl with a wingman is ugly," Moniello says. "She may be very attractive. If she is, then me and Jay own all the Ben & Jerry's in the Northeast."

The wingman will find a way to squire away the target's sidekick. Maybe he buys her a drink. Maybe he drags her over to the dance floor. He keeps her occupied until the lead man gives him one of two signals. Either the transaction is going nowhere and they need to bail, or he's about to go home with the target. In the latter case, the target's bodyguard -- um, girlfriend -- is probably coming along, and so is the wingman.

Jentz was Waclawiczek's wingman in just such a situation a few weeks ago. They were at a bar that was about to close. Waclawiczek decided to hit on a freshman and see if he could get her to go home with him. He did fine until it came to the going-home part, and then it became clear she wasn't leaving without her girlfriend. Jentz knew his role: Not only did he bring the girlfriend along, he also kept her occupied once they got to Waclawiczek's place. Both guys were happy at the end of the night.

(Waclawiczek wanted one thing about this episode made clear: "Normally I wouldn't need help getting this girl. But she wouldn't have left her friend.")

Duties of the wingman: He must be decent-looking but not too handsome, or the lead man will end up being the wingman. He must be sociable, able to move the conversation forward or back off, depending on how the lead is doing. It helps if he can gather intelligence on the girl early in the evening, sense whether his buddy has a chance and impart that wisdom privately before the offensive starts.