Later, they're laying side-by-side in Jeff's bed. Both are staring at the ceiling, shell-shocked. They're barely touching except where Annie is lying across Jeff's arm, and he's running his thumbnail gently along her shoulder.
"Wow," says Annie.
Jeff echoes, "Wow."
Annie pushes herself up on one elbow, turning to look at Jeff. Her dark hair spills smoothly over her shoulder and chest. "So what do we do next?" A sneaky smile grows on Jeff's face. "Jeff!" she smacks him, laughing. "I don't mean that! I mean, like…was this a one-time thing…or a first-time thing?"
Jeff looks at her tenderly. He's about to speak, when their bubble is split open by the sound of both their phone alarms.
"Oh no!" Annie tumbles out of bed and starts pulling on clothes. Jeff heaves a martyred sigh and scrubs his hands over his face.
"The Zoom."
"The Zoom! Who's hosting?"
"Me." Jeff sighs again and climbs out of bed, glancing regretfully at Annie's rapidly vanishing naked body.
"I'll never get home in time." Annie accidentally intercepts his look. Blushing but smiling, she buttons her blouse.
"Just log on from your phone."
"But they'll see…"
The realization occurs to both of them. "Virtual background!"
Jeff roughly pulls his bedroom into semi-order, grabs an unwrinkled shirt, and plugs in his earbuds to start the call. Annie tumbles into the kitchen nook, hurriedly finger-combing her hair, and signs in a minute early to check that her background is in place. It is. Jeff and Annie are left smiling goofily at other on the screen, a door and twenty feet between them.
"What you asked earlier…" Jeff begins.
"We don't have to talk about this now – "
"I want to talk about –"
Ding-dong! Abed appears on screen. "Jeff, Annie," he says curtly.
"Abed!" they both chorus together, guiltily over-bright.
Abed peers into his laptop camera. "What? Are you doing a bit?"
Annie giggles nervously but Jeff slowly nods. "Yes. Yes, we're doing a bit…for the first time."
A warm glow suffuses Annie's face and her eyes soften. Abed looks suspicious.
Ding-dong!
"Britta!" the three of them shout together.
"We're trying a new bit," Abed explains. "I'm not sure it's working."
"But it's worth finding out," Annie rushes to add. "I mean, it's new, but it's also been a long time coming, right?"
"…Right?" Britta wrinkles her eyebrows at them. "I mean…what?!"
"SHIRLEY!" they shout, as her picture appears.
"Oh, that's nice," Shirley smiles at them. "Have you been practicing?"
"Um…you could say that," says Jeff, smothering a laugh. Then his face gets serious. "I was wondering though…is it just, you know…a pandemic thing?" He stares intently into the camera.
"What, the bit?" Britta asks.
Abed says, "I wouldn't worry about it. It's not that good."
"It's not just a pandemic thing," Annie says firmly, a wide smile on her face. "And we'll definitely keep practicing."
"Guys, it's really not that good," says Abed. He cocks his head. "Does anyone have a weird feeling? Like another conversation is happening alongside the conversation that we hear? Some kind of subtext?"
"It's called the chat function, Abed!" Britta explains. "See!" She spams them with marijuana leaf emojis.
"And Annie's lighting is wrong," says Abed, peering carefully. "See? The window is on the other side of her face."
"Ha ha, Abed, you lovable nut! Shirley, how's remote school?!" Annie quickly asks.
"There's prayer in my classroom," says Shirley. "Because every day I'm praying my beautiful boys will go the hell back to school."
Conversation moves on, though pretty quickly Jeff mentions that it's going to be a short call, because he has a busy night.
"There it is again!" Abed says.