"What? No."
"She's so sad, Roger. I can't let her alone like that."
"It's our anniversary."
"I know." Mimi said. "But we can share it with her. She'll love to go to the club with us. We'll dance, she'll forget Joanne."
"She and Joanne break up every week."
"I think it's serious this time."
Roger shook his head angrily. "Can't you comfort and go out with her tomorrow?"
"She's sad today. I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow." she said serious.
"What about us?" he said sitting on the bed.
"We'll do the same thing we had planned."
"I had planned to go out with you and have your attentions directed to me."
She smiled and crawled on the bed sitting on his lap facing him and running her hands through his hair. "I had planned to go out to a nice club with you, drink, dance, talk, have fun and then come back here and direct all my attentions to you." she moved her hips in a way that almost made him forget about going out at all. "We can still do that."
He looked away from her, shaking his head.
"Pleeease. I swear I'll make it up to you." she cooed.
He knew he had lost the argument then. All that hair stroking and hip moving and soft begging had made his skin tingle and he would say yes to anything she proposed next.
"Alright." he said defeated.
She grinned and kissed him deeply. "I love you." she said jumping from his lap and running out of the room.
When she was no longer touching him the spell she had over him broke off and he fell back on the bed and hit his own forehead a few times mentally calling himself an idiot.
Maureen tried to decline Mimi's invitation, saying she was too sad to go out, they should go and have fun and she would stay inside drinking alone and crying. But Mimi convinced her that she had to go out, have some fun and forget the whole mess.
They went to a very nice night club were a band that Roger knew was playing, so they didn't have to pay for the show. Mimi knew the door man and they got in without having to wait in line.
"It's so good to go out with connected people like you." Maureen said toasting on their first drink.
"So, what happened between you and Joanne this time?" Roger asked. Mimi looked and him reprehensibly.
"She took a job in Chicago." She said sadly turning her drink with one gulp. "It's a good job. She's gonna run a subsidiary of her law firm, or something like that." She gestured to the waiter to bring another drink.
"Didn't she invite you to go with her?" He asked.
"She did." Maureen felt tears forming in her eyes.
"Hey" Mimi said holding her hand. "We don't have to talk about that."
"I can't go to Chicago. A have a carrier here. I'm a New Yorker." Maureen said bursting into tears and holding Mimi.
"Roger, why don't you go get us another drink?" Mimi said looking angrily at him.
He snorted and stood up going to the bar. The placed was packed and took him good ten minutes to get back with three new drinks.
When he got to the table Maureen was alone finishing Mimi's first drink.
"Where's Mimi?" he asked.
"Went to the ladies room." she said, taking the drink he had brought for her and drinking it up.
"You might want to go a little slower with that. It's kind of hard to get new drinks, the place is packed."
"Whatever. I already ordered another" she said, not interest in going slow. "Thank you for taking me out tonight. You two are super friends." she said holding Roger's hand and already showing some signs of drunkenness.
"You should thank Mimi. She's the one devoted to make everyone fell good today. I'm amazed she didn't call Angel, Collins and Mark to join us." he said that last part a little bitter.
"She's a good girl." Maureen said picking up what should be Mimi's second drink. "You're a very lucky man you know. You should value what you have. Someone that loves you unconditionally, even though you're a total pain in the ass."
"Hey, first you thank me then you insult me."
"I'm not insulting you, it's a fact. You have this hot, gentle, loving girl, head over heels in love with you and you don't give her the proper value."
"Well, you're a worst pain in the ass than me. And you should try to work on your relationship before giving advices on mine."
"I don't have a relationship anymore." she screamed at him. "But i'm experienced enough to tell you how not to screw up yours."
"Really, Maureen. And what should I do to not screw my relationship up?"
"You shouldn't take a job in Chicago, for once." she said, reaching for his drink, the only glass with something in it on the table. "And you shouldn't try to convince her to go with you if you knew she can't live anywhere else. When you know that her soul, that her art, that her dreams are in this city, are this city."
A waiter mysteriously appeared with more drinks.
Roger stood up after he paid for the drinks.
"Where you're going?" Maureen asked sipping the glass.
"After Mimi, she's taking too long." He said concerned.
"She's probably waiting in the line, silly. Didn't you say this place was packed? Stop being such a control freak. That's another advice for you." she yelled the last part as he walked away from the table.
When Maureen was talking about Joanne trying to convince her to do something she didn't want to do, he suddenly had a though of something that worried him. Something he'd been trying to convince Mimi to do.
