"I'm gonna need a rain check on that dance."
The Stork Club, that following Saturday night, was just as busy as Peggy always observed it. Inside, a scattered assortment of people, some lost, some following, some celebrating, some crying, were meeting in the din of the band's serenade to just waste away the time.
Stepping out of the cab, Peggy straightened the plain black dress she was wearing and stepped up to the club's window. In it she glimpsed the stoic, lipstick-less face staring back at her for a moment before the darkening sky pulled it away. She turned, looking down the street and up again, before turning inside with a faded smile on her face.
Inside, there he was standing. Tall, and resplendent in his glossy, star-spangled poster. He was saluting the men, boys many of them, that were entering the club that evening as he would for many years, she was sure. He would always be there, for them, for his men, for the people he believed in.
"Water miss?" a gentleman asked after guiding her to the only empty table left. She shook her head politely, ordered something harder but it couldn't come quickly enough to stop the memories from flooding back in.
"Please, don't do this. We have time. We can work it out." she could still hear her own voice begging.
"I gotta put her in the water," he replied, as always. "Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer a lot of people are gonna die."
Her drink arrived, dark and strong and she took a sip, but even the punch of whiskey couldn't dull the sting of the words she had told Steve, and he had repeated back to her.
"Peggy, this is my choice."
"But it's not the same Steve," she whispered closing her eyes.
Around her, the din slowed to a silence, the bar emptied until it was just her, and him but the drink was still in her hand, the conversation was reversed and there were tears swelling her throat closed.
"You did everything you could," he told her, softly, leaning forward on his seat, as she had. "Did you believe in me? Did you respect me?"
Of course I did. More than that even.
But her throat was too tight to allow for words and Steve continued on.
"Then stop blaming yourself. Allow me the dignity of my choice. I knew you and everyone else, was worth it."
Peggy forced another sip, this time, the liquid burned it's way through the seal in her and seared its way into her lungs. She stood, straightening her skirt and stepped over to the band, placed her request, and returned to her seat. Waited.
A couple songs passed but then it came on, slow, steady, a simple song, a love song, a lonely song.
She sat, eyes closed, a smirk gracing her thin lips as she bobbed her head in time to the song.
"You know, I still don't know how to dance."
"I'll show you how."
When the song and the drink were through she stood again, she thanked the band, thanked the bartender and opened the door to the bleak, desolate sky. Rain was pouring down now and her heels splashed lightly in the puddle at the door.
Adjusting the hat on her head and re-buttoning the clasp of her coat she stepped out of the club's doorway, rain immediately barraging her face and washing away the faded streaks of makeup. She looked up at the sky and whispered softly although no one was around to hear.
"You know, you didn't step on my toes after all."