Joel was dodging her calls.

They hadn't actually spoken since the argument that night in Las Vegas, and that was almost two months ago. Now Midge was back in New York while Shy took a much needed break, and it was very clear that Joel was making an effort to avoid a continuation of the fight. He had yelled some pretty horrible things about her abandoning their children to go on tour. As though she'd left them on the side of the street with a sign and well wishes. In turn though, Midge screamed 'ditto' across the casino floor half a dozen times (earning a few glares, and one impressed look from Kim Novak).

She didn't want to rehash that argument though. She didn't even really need an apology from him for accusing her of sleeping with Shy (among other things). She needed to tell him that she was married.

It took a lot of convincing on her part, but her parents finally agreed not to say anything until she had the chance to speak with her Weismann's inexplicably seemed to love Lenny, and were encouraging of the relationship between him and their daughter. At one point her mother had even brought up the family trip to the Catskills, and Abe couldn't stop waxing lyrical about the tomato juice.

So, Midge found out where Joel's new club was located from Shirley's address book, and made her way down to Chinatown.

"Nice place!" She called out as she stepped inside the freshly painted entrance. Her heels click-clacked against the wooden and tile flooring as she walked through the arches and towards where Joel was, bent over what looked like the building's blueprints.

"You should have called." She'd heard that from him more than a dozen times since they'd met, but lately the word had held more derision. He didn't even bother turning away from his blueprints when he answered.

"I did call," she replied in her snarkiest tone, deciding that he deserved a bit more attitude than usual. "You should have answered."

He stomped his foot on the floor and finally turned with his hands on his hips to look at Midge. She was staring definitely at him. There was no way she was going to apologise again for leaving him to look after his own children. Joel was expecting her to grovel though. She could tell that he had been preparing himself to wait as long as it took for her to say that she was sorry. Clearly he had forgotten just how long Midge Weissman could wait for what she wanted. Her patience was endless, and so was her frustration.

He took a bit longer than expected to recognize this, but eventually groaned and moved his arms to fold over his chest. "What do you want, Midge?"

"I just thought you might like to talk," she tried to keep her voice calm and level. "We haven't spoken since our fight."

"So you came here for an apology?" He held a hand out and gestured vaguely in her direction.

Midge shifted her weight from one foot to the other and held the strap of her purse in front of her with both hands. Obviously now was not the time to tell Joel that she'd gotten married. There was a high chance that if the information was shared now, that his head would actually explode. For now, her mission was to simply keep the peace between them. With that in mind, she tacked on a smile and shook her head.

"We had a misunderstanding, Joel."

"You screamed at me across a casino floor. A busy casino floor."

She stared at him while trying to make him understand that she was trying to end this without either of them needing to apologise for what was said. It was clear that he didn't think he'd done anything wrong, and she felt no guilt over her retaliation. They'd both done enough apologising in the past year, and she was done. Midge just needed him to know that without actually saying the words; saying them was almost as bad as saying sorry.

And she'd be damned if Midge Bruce was going to say 'sorry' for her ex-husband saying that she abandoned her children. He'd said a lot of other things to upset her too, but for obvious reasons, the accusation of abandonment was the one that had particularly set her off that night.

"Look, I'm going out tonight to do some research for the club." He'd clearly gotten the silent message she was trying to communicate. "Did you want to come? I'm going to a couple clubs, might stop in to see a comedian or two."

There was a part of her that almost wanted to say yes. It would go a long way in ending the small feud they had started and maybe smooth some rough patches that have appeared in the past few months. But, she already had a plan to surprise Lenny tonight at his gig, and frankly, she'd rather be there. She hadn't even told him that she was back in New York yet, and was looking forward to what the welcome wagon might look like.

"I um… I can't tonight. I actually have some other plans."

"Oh, are you seeing Imogene again before you head out?"

"No," she stalled for a moment as her brain tried to come up with some sort of excuse. She felt certain that telling him she couldn't join him because she wanted to surprise her husband, wouldn't end very well right now. "I'm going out… I have a date." Midge hadn't meant to say it, but it was close enough to the truth that it didn't feel too much like a lie.

"A date?" He sounded like this was a new concept.

"Yes, and it is pretty serious, Joel."

"Serious?"

"Are you just going to repeat everything I say?"

Joel at least had the courage to look offended once again at her words. He had the tendency to repeat what she had been saying when he didn't want to admit the truth of her words. Midge dating, and telling him directly, was new territory for them; if only he knew how deep in she was already. It crossed her mind briefly to tell him about her marriage then, but she dashed the thoughts away after another glance at his expression.

"I don't know, Midge!" He tossed his hands in the air and turned away from her again. She could hear the emotion in his voice as he picked up the pencil he'd been writing with, and continued making marks on the blueprint. "Maybe you should just go."

She stared blankly at his back, feeling a supreme case of deja vu. How many times in the almost two years since they'd broken up had she stared at his back?

It took that thought to push her out the door.

Midge remembered going to Upstairs at the Downstairs with Suzy a couple of times to see other comedians, and had always loved the atmosphere. It was a packed house when she walked in, but she still managed to order a drink at the bar with little to no trouble. She was starting to learn just how convenient being a woman at a club could be at times.

She stood near the bar gazing out at the groups of people milling about and sitting at their tables. It isn't with a particular purpose, but she wanted to get a feel for the room and calm her nerves a bit. She knew Lenny would be happy to see her, but it didn't stop her from being nervous. He thought she wouldn't be home until next week, and even then neither of them really know how long it was going to be until she was out on the road (or in the sky) again.

Shy's extended break was said to be indefinite. Midge was fully supportive when he explained it to her, and even encouraged him when he was first debating on the decision over wine and late night dinner in her hotel room when they were still in Florida.

She should have been less surprised when she saw a familiar set of eyes through the smoky haze of the club. It took a moment for her brain to make the connection between familiarity and unexpected presence, but when she did, he must have noticed. He pushed the empty chair at his table out with a foot and nodded towards it as a sort of peace offering. Midge looked over the sprawl of humans around her and decided to try her luck.

"I know you're married," Joel's voice strained as he spoke over the noise around them. Midge hadn't even sat in the offered seat before the admittance made its way through the low music that was being played on the stage. "I overheard your parents talking about it when I dropped the kids off last week."

The way Midge fell into her seat could only be described as a flop. Some of the martini she was holding splashed onto her fingers and she hurriedly grabbed a napkin before it also spilled onto her blouse. She attempted to stutter her way through a reply, but only found herself shaking her head in disbelief.

"I didn't really hear much else. Just enough to know about you remarrying." Joel took a swig from his beer and set it back down. The music on stage had stopped and the MC was talking with someone off to the side before announcing the next act. "That's why I didn't want to talk. I didn't know what to say, Midge."

"I didn't know how to tell you."

"You can tell me now, if you want."

Sometimes Midge saw the old Joel shine behind the newer, more broken man. There are conversations and moments between them that reminded her of the man she fell in love with less than a decade ago. It was hard seeing this Joel eat that one alive, but it wasn't her place anymore. It hadn't been her place to fix him since he decided that walking out was easier than staying, and that he needed a different life than the one that she'd carefully built around what he'd told her he wanted. A life that she thought she wanted too.

"Ladies and gentleman!" The loud voice of the club's host interrupted anything that Midge was planning to cobble together. She wanted to tell him; wanted to come clean. But now they were going to sit side-by-side as they watched her husband perform his new comedy routine, and Joel would have no idea.

The man on stage did a lit preamble over which Joel leaned closer to Midge, "Remember when we saw Bruce perform years ago? I think he might be my favourite comedian."

"Lenny Bruce!"

Midge smiled, "Mine too."

Lenny came out on stage to scattered applause and excited murmerings. There had been a line up to get inside, and Suzy said that some clubs had even started selling tickets to see him on stage.

"Good evening, ladies and… men," Lenny's smirk warmed Midge's heart. "Now, I know all of you are here with your stop watches, waiting to see how long it takes me to get taken out by my lovely friends over there!" He points towards the two officers standing near the bathroom doors. "But unfortunately for them, and for you, I'm going to be talking about something a little different tonight than my usual complaints."

There was a buzz in the room, but Midge hardly noticed. She glanced over at Joel's starstruck face and then looked back at Lenny. He hadn't noticed her in the audience yet, and she hoped it stayed that way until the end of his set.

"Now I'm not sure if any of you know this," he looked down at his feet and Midge could tell that he was trying to bite back a laugh. "But I recently got married."

When the show was over most people filed out of the club. There was an air of excitement filling up the room and following out the throng of fans that had followed Lenny here. Joel stood up and was about to put his jacket back on when his absent chattering was interrupted.

"Well, well, well," Midge and Joel both turned around and saw Lenny holding what looked like a poorly built gin martini. "You were the last person I expected to see sitting in my audience tonight."

"I'm in town for a few weeks. Thought you might like the surprise. I really enjoyed your set." Midge took the martini he offered her and let her fingers linger on his for a moment when they brushed.

"I can't imagine why." She could tell that he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He motioned towards Joel, who seemed to be caught in the headlights "Are you going to introduce me to your friend there?"

"Oh!" Midge turned to grab Joel's sleeve and pull him closer. "Lenny, this is Joel. Joel, this is Lenny Bruce." Lenny raised his eyebrows at the introduction, but still reached out to shake Joel's offered hand. "Joel's a huge fan. He took me to one of your shows back when we were still dating."

"We aren't dating anymore though," Joel stammered dumbly. Midge could see the signs of a patented Maisel word dump coming their way; she was not disappointed."I actually proposed that night, and then we got married. And then I fucked up and we got divorice. But that isn't your fault, obviously."

"I didn't think it was…"

"Midge is married again though! She, uh… she remarried."

"I know, Joel," Lenny looked at Midge for help, but just found her shaking her head at Joel's rant. "I was there."

Joel seemed surprised at this news, but Midge could tell right away that his frazzled mind was going to take the wrong bit of information out of Lenny's admission.

"Oh, so you've met the husband then?"

"Joel, Lenny is the husband. My husband…" Midge took Lenny's hand and gave it a small squeeze. "I married Lenny."

It would have been unsurprising to anyone watching if a fire broke out backstage. Midge watched as Joel processed this information, then made an expression she'd never seen before. It was like his mind had skipped a few beats and was trying to figure out where it all went wrong. It also looked a bit like when he'd tried to change Ethan's diaper for the first time.

"You…" He paused and seemed to rethink what he was going to say before continuing. "You're married to Lenny Bruce?"

This was a rhetorical question, but it still took Midge squeezing Lenny's hand to stop him from answering with a joke. They stood there and waited for her ex-husband to process the information about her new husband. It was as quiet as possible considering the still very busy bar, and the music being played on stage.

They waited.

And waited.

And then Joel threw up.