Pro tip: stop.

If your friend is telling you about something that happened to their Uncle Bob’s gerbil at Bob’s 3rd wedding, are you trying to score imaginary points with yourself by guessing what comes next while they’re talking to you? And then get mad if they surprise you? I’m guessing not.

If someone has a story to tell, let them tell it. Guessing what comes next accurately is something that happens after you’ve seen the same trope executed in different ways 100 times. It’s pattern recognition, and it’s utterly dependent on your sample size.