Mark

As I walked down the hall to Maureen's apartment, I thought about what Roger had said about me earlier. I had a few words that I can pull out of my vocabulary to describe myself, and likeable wasn't one of them. Annoying maybe, but not likeable. I knocked on Maureen's door and polished my camera lens with the back of my sleeve while I waited. The door swung wide open, revealing a surprisingly cheerful Maureen.

"Notice anything different about me?" she asked, smiling.

I looked her up and down, confused.

"Ummm.you got a haircut?

"Nope!" she chirped, "Guess again!"

"Er." I looked down at her feet. "You got new shoes?"

She shook her head vigorously.

"Alright, I give up, what is it?" I exclaimed, exasperated.

"I'm single!" she sang, hooking her arm through mine. "C'mon Marky, let's go have a night on the town!"

Slightly amused, I allowed myself to be dragged downstairs and walked to the Life Café.

Later, I was sitting across from Maureen in a stuffy little booth, pondering over untouched Jueros Rancheros, as Maureen forked Sashimi into her mouth. Ever since the protest she had made to stop the abuse of animals, she avoided anything that at one time had fur, feathers, or was featured in the song, 'Old McDonald."

"Maureen?"

"Mmm?" she replied, swallowing a piece of raw fish.

"I don't mean to pry, but.you seem a bit more cheerful than usual.

"How do you mean?" she asked, innocently.

"I mean, last week when Joanne moved out, you were really depressed and refused to even leave your apartment. What changed that?"

"Marky," she said, fiddling with her chopsticks, "I've decided to turn over a new leaf. Joanne was holding me back. Whenever I wanted to do something, she would do everything in her power to hold me back. She thought she was better than me- the ignorant, disgusting, REPULSIVE, unbelievable NERVE of her!" With every syllable she stabbed at the raw fish on her plate with her chopsticks.

"Maureen, jeez, calm down!" I placed a hand over hers to save the already deceased fish.

".And I'm happy that I finally have some freedom, but." she paused.

"But what?" I prodded.

"Well, just a small part of me sort of wishes that she could come back.a BIG part of me, actually." She glanced at me, sheepishly. "I mean, she could be a bitch sometimes, I admit, but she was a GREAT lover!"

I could feel the tips of my ears turning red.

"So you're really NOT okay," I said. It wasn't a question, it was a fact.

"I know," she sighed. "I just don't know what to do."

I picked up my camera from my lap and zoomed in on Maureen's face.

"Close on Maureen, who's dominating lover left her, and now she wants her back."

"Marky!" she gasped, laughing, "Stop!"

She tried to duck down under the table to hide from the camera, but I
only went down after her and soon we were both under the table,
laughing like morons. We got a lot of weird looks from the other
customers.

"Mark," Maureen whispered after a few moments, "I miss you."

We stared at each other, unsure of what to do then. Then, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Sir, if you and your friend do not stop, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You're disturbing the other customers."

I apologized, while Maureen giggled loudly.

"I guess we'd better go," I said, helping her up from under the table.

Later, I was back at the loft. Alone. Again. Roger was rarely here anymore, he was usually over at Mimi's.

I sat between my camera and a cardboard box of old reels of film that went back to last Christmas. I sorted through them, and plucked a few out of the box at random.

"Maureen's Performance," "Today 4 U: Proof Positive," were some of the titles that leapt out at me.

With nothing else to do, I took out the finished reel out of my camera and slipped it into the projector. Roger and I used to have a wall, but we had sold it to pay Benny back for paying for Angel's funeral. I flipped the switch on the projector, and familiar faces popped up in front of me against the wall.

The first clip showed Mimi and Roger. Roger as swinging Mimi around in his arms, and she screeched and tried to squirm away. Then it skipped to a clip of Mimi, sticking out her tongue, then another of Roger strumming out a random tune on his fender guitar. Then, a clip of Angel sitting on a table in the life café, her legs crossed, smiling seductively and waving at someone unseen. Then, Collins strutted over to her and Angel hopped onto his lap The last clip was the one taken earlier, of Maureen at the Life Café. Her head was tilted back, and she was laughing gaily. Then the picture lowered under the table to show her giggling madly, and trying to escape from the camera lens.

As I watched Maureen on the projector, I remember what she's said to me under the table. "I miss you, Mark."

Feeling a cold lump in my throat, I whispered, "I miss you too."