Michael was on time. 7 pm and he was in front of her door. He had been watching his watch for the past two hours, wishing the hands on it would go faster. He was really excited about this first date. It was weird to think of it this way since they had already spent a lot of time together, including a lot of intimate time, but he could understand how she thought of it as their first date. Tonight was not about sneaking around. Tonight he had brought a bottle of wine and flowers and he could guess that she had lighted some candles. She had probably told Tom about it too. Tonight was official. And strangely his heart was beating fast as he rang the bell.

She opened right away and he gave her a little kiss on the lips to say hello. She was really beautiful. She took the flowers and went to put them in water. He followed her into her new apartment, looking around him. There wasn't much furniture yet but a piano was standing in the middle of the living room.
"The piano before the TV ?"
"That's what happens when you rely on Tom to help you with the furniture. I don't even play the piano !"
He came closer and sat to play.
"And it's tuned !" He looked surprised.
"First thing Tom made sure of. He was always teasing me about my old piano never being tuned."
"Yeah, I remember your old piano, that's why I was surprised. I thought this was the one."
She just shook her head, talking about it would mean talking about Frank keeping the piano and it wasn't really what she wanted to talk about with Michael. In fact she didn't want to think of Frank at all, the thought of him was making her feel uncomfortable.

Michael looked around the piano and saw her latest work. Tom had quickly found a melody and she had already found some lyrics to go with it, it was going to be a nice song.
"What is it ? I thought you weren't writing new songs anymore."
"Well, we talked with Jerry and he is a big fan of yours. He thinks we are not giving you enough songs. He is one of those who think that Joe was Marilyn's soul mate, the love of her life, and says we are not insisting enough on that."
"I thought this was not necessarily the show you were writing." He was teasing her by quoting what she had said to him a few months earlier when he had fought for his character's good name.
She rolled her eyes. "But what's bigger than love ?" It was her turn to mimic him.
They both laughed.

"So, what's this one about ?"
"Joe getting her out of the psychiatric hospital and telling her he would always be there for her."
"It's sad that they haven't had the chance to get married again. It could have worked, I think he really loved her and that it was reciprocal."
"Yeah... I think too. But we'll never know, will we ?"
"I guess we won't. Anyway I'm glad that I'm getting more songs. I was afraid he might want to focus more on Arthur Miller, he hasn't a lot of songs."
"Well you don't have anything to be afraid of, everyone thinks you're amazing and I think we all are on DiMaggio's side. Arthur Miller is a little bit boring."

She came behind him and put her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder and looking at the music sheet with unfinished lyrics. He looked at it too and started playing the piano and singing. She could never get enough of his voice. Of course everyone was thinking that he was fantastic, how could they not think that ? She unwrapped her arms from around him and sat next to him. She began singing Marilyn's part, improvising the lyrics she still hadn't figured out. Her voice wasn't really as great as Ivy's or Karen's but she was still pretty good.

"You have to write that down, that could totally work."
"You're right, if I don't write it down right away I'm going to forget." And she went to grab her pen.
"I'm going to explore the kitchen in the meantime."

A few minutes later she joined him in the kitchen. He had put the big uncooked chicken on the kitchen counter. Tom had bought everything that was in her fridge and she was still wondering how he had gotten the idea of buying that huge scary thing. It was the only thing she could see when she was opening the fridge and it was creeping her out.

She raised her eyebrow and pointed at the chicken with her finger. "You want to eat that ?"
"That is a chicken and it's really easy to cook. And that way you will have plenty of leftovers for when Leo comes and wants to eat real food."
"Actually this might be a good idea since he is coming tomorrow."
"See, I'm full of bright ideas !" He gave her his best smile.
She went to stand next to the chicken. "So, how do we do this ?"
"Well... a dish would be useful, maybe some onions, garlic and potatoes too and we're ready to go."
She found everything he was looking for and a few minutes later he was putting the dish in the oven, trying to understand how the buttons worked. She finally reached for the manual and told him everything he had to do. At least she had made herself useful. Now they had to wait a really long time before everything was cooked. This was her least favorite thing about cooking, the long waiting time between actual cooking and eating.

Touching all the food had made her hungry, so she took some grapes and they went back to the piano. She would have suggested to watch a movie but thanks to Tom there wasn't any TV yet. Instead he helped her finishing the new song and then they went through all the musical classics. After all they were working on Broadway, it was a big part of who they were.

When the beep of the oven could finally be heard they rushed to the kitchen, both starving. Michael opened the door with a confident look on his face, whereas Julia's face was more suspicious. But surprisingly the scary white thing had turned in a real golden chicken and the smell was amazing. They ate it quickly, with the wine Michael had brought, and finished the evening in her bedroom. It was the only place she had had time to decorate but neither one of them was paying attention to that, the only thing they could see was each other.

The next morning the only thing Michael could see when he opened his eyes was the weird look on Julia's face. He would have expected a happy face and it was worrying him that this wasn't the case. She saw that he was awake and she turned to look in his eyes.

"Good morning." She smiled.
"Good morning, Jules." He could see the weird look again. "What's wrong ?"
"Nothing." She turned again, this time facing the wall.

But he wasn't giving up, he leaned upon her and their eyes met again. "I can see that there is something wrong."
She hesitated a few seconds but finally gave in. "It's just that... I still feel guilty."
It hurt him a little bit. He didn't know what to respond to that. Why couldn't everything be simple between them ?
She saw the cloud that she had brought in his translucent eyes. "But it will go away... eventually. I'm sure it will." And she kissed him again, ending their discussion and returning to their favorite activity. But she suddenly noticed the clock. "Michael ! We have to be at rehearsal in twenty minutes !" They both jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Michael couldn't help but think that his life would be heaven if he could do that every morning.

I understood from the last reviews that you would like to see some happy chapters for Julia & Michael, so here is a gift to you ! Let me know what you think of it, I wasn't really inspired.