As Buddy Holly crooned away on the record player, to further delay the 'why, why,' Meg invited George over to her place the next night for a dinner of burned steak, raw potatoes and asparagus that was cooked perfectly fine.
"So ahead of your time," George commented. "Inviting the man over, cooking dinner…"
"It's just who I am." Meg shrugged. "We've both been so busy lately. I wanted at least a little time with you… Speaking of which, how's accounting going?"
George lifted a shoulder. "It's accounting. Not nearly as interesting as what you do." He blanched at his destroyed dinner. "So… what's for dessert?"
She gasped. "I almost forgot. You're gonna love it." Over in the kitchen, Meg unwrapped a loaf and presented it like an ancient artifact.
"A sugar loaf?"
"It's crumb cake, silly! You took me to get some the day I met you, remember?"
"Oh, I remember. And the old lady in the table next to ours said, 'I'd be careful if I were you. This place has a seedy reputation and when I worked here back in '12 I saw a rat jump out of the oven.'"
"She didn't say that!" Meg shrieked, swatting a giggling George as she began to slice. "That is not what she said. She said - first of all, I don't even remember an old lady. She was an old man and he said, 'That was the treat I ordered me gyalfriend and now dat dame's me wife!'"
They fell into hysterics while I sat there, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It didn't have to. George dropped his eyes so as not to get lost in her mesmerizing gaze, and a pathetic mutter escaped: "Do you really have to go?"
Meg froze, her knife still stuck in the cake. "I live here."
"That's not, no… "
"You didn't mean… "
George shook his head. "No, of course not."
"Well, what did you mean?"
"Nothing."
"What did you mean? What did you say?"
"Nothing - "
"No, George, what did you say? I didn't - "
"I didn't say anything, it's fine and I hope you have a good life in China, alright? I hope you have a real swingin' time."
Meg blinked. "You don't have to be like that, George. Why are you… ?"
"Why am I what, Meg? Like what? Why am I what?"
Her mouth clamped resolutely shut.
"What? You want me to jump up on the table and act all happy and la-di-da and do the Jitterbug? What do you want from me? How am I supposed to react?"
"How about congratulations? How about - " She stopped. Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "... I just want you to be proud of me."
George let out a surprised guffaw. "Well - that's a laugh, because clearly you don't. Clearly it doesn't matter what I say, because you're just going to go ahead and do what you want anyway and forget about me. Why did you bring me here? And what's so great about them appointing a woman to chief-of-staff? That's going to last long. I mean seriously, who gets that excited about their job? It's like you have no life. Are you really that lonely?"
Okay, that was bad. George had raised his voice by the end of it and was actually standing up; it got so heated. Meg on the other hand, was calm - scary calm - and the room was silent. Even Buddy Holly stopped singing.
"Okay." She rose too and began collecting the dishes. "You can go now."
"Meg, I'm sorry - "
"Please just leave, George. I mean it."
"Meg - "
The dishes rained down into the sink and she whipped around. "Now, George. Leave now."
Gosh. I don't think I've ever seen Meg so upset. I thought I saw her trembling! Oh, it got so heated…
George grabbed his coat and was out of the apartment like that. I followed him because I had no choice, having been unceremoniously shoved into his pocket and all. But not before I felt him flinch as the thunk of Meg throwing the entire loaf of crumb cake in the garbage echoed across the hall.