Greg felt like he'd walked 25 miles since he left the apartment, but a glance at his watch told him he'd only been gone for a couple of hours. That made it an impossibility that he'd actually gone that far, but he was leg weary enough to break down and take the subway back home. As he got off the subway and walked around the block, he decided he didn't have to go home just yet; a beer sounded good at the moment, so he stopped in at the White Horse, and found a seat at the bar. There was a basketball game on, but Greg didn't pay any attention. He picked up a section of the paper laying on the bar and read it for awhile. When he had finished reading all of the paper, he ordered another beer, and paid minimal attention to the game on TV, but his heart wasn't in it and he headed back to the apartment.
Deciding there was no time like the present, Greg began going around, collecting Jill's stuff from around the apartment. She hadn't really brought much in the way of every-day living items when she had moved in, but the few things she had--a picture here, a couple of plants, a few various things on the bookshelf--he piled together. He would need a couple of boxes the next time he went out, in order to put the stuff in. Next up was the bathroom, where he collected up her makeup and other toiletries she hadn't already taken. Then it was into the bedroom, and he emptied the drawers of her clothes, and put them in neat stacks in the corner. Moving her clothes from the bedroom closet to the hall closet near the front door was the last task. He even did a load of laundry, washing the few things in the hamper that she'd left behind.
Jill had shown up at Dianne's doorstep that morning, unsure about where she was headed in her life. "So, does this mean you're moving back in with me, Jill?" She looked at Dianne with an expression of shame. "I suppose so", she barely whispered in reply. Dianne wondered about what exactly had gone on between the 2 of them, how things had gone so down-hill so fast. She knew that Jill didn't have the capacity to really open up and say what she really felt inside; she'd been burned too many times in the past. But still, Dianne sensed that there was something not quite right about this, that somehow Jill had gotten an idea in her head and painted herself into a corner that she couldn't escape from without feeling like she had given in. She knew Jill hated giving in to anything, or accepting that she might be wrong. Jill slumped down on the couch, putting up a brave front, so as not to break down in tears again. "I don't know why, but I couldn't see myself with him anymore."
"Jill, from all I could tell, he tried to do everything he could to make you happy. He would do anything for you. You know that"
"Maybe that's the problem. Maybe he's too good for me."
"Don't say that, you make it sound like you're not deserving of being treated well by someone. After all you went through with Rick, you know that Greg wasn't gonna be like that."
Jill let out a deep breath and hung her head. "Maybe what happened with Rick was my fault. If I'd done what he wanted..."
"Stop that kind of talk right now. Rick was a world class creep. He tried to turn you into someone that you're not capable of being. At least Greg didn't try and keep you locked up at home all the time, with no friends."
Jill knew that Dianne was right. Her time with Rick was one big headache after another. She shouldn't have been so infatuated with him as to let herself be blinded to his jealousy and controlling personality. So why was she leaving Greg, who was the opposite of Rick in almost every way? "I just don't think I'm ready for someone like Greg right now."
"Well, all I can tell you is that if and when you're ready for him, he might not be there for you."
"I know, that's the worst part of it."
Dianne could sense that Jill was on the verge of breaking down, so she kept her next statement to herself, and put her arm around her friend, knowing that this was going to be tough on everyone involved.
Greg found himself later that evening back at the White Horse, sitting at a corner booth with a few of his friends. He made no mention of Jill to them, so there was a spirited discussion on all sorts of topics going on. The night wore on and the rounds kept coming, but Greg didn't let his guard down once. In fact, he was quite preoccupied with the waitress who was serving them, wondering why he'd never noticed her before. He imagined that she was making more than just casual eye contact with him, even from across the room, but thought it was just the beer and his frame of mind. Maggie was her name, in answer to Dan's question when she had come with a round earlier. She was very attractive, in a different sort of way from Jill, but he didn't dare make a move, for fear of giving away the secret to the rest of them. No matter how much the others flirted with her, she still kept coming back to him, always putting his glass down first.
When the last of them had said their goodbyes, Greg saw an open place at the bar, and moved there, to free up the table. The crowd had thinned out from earlier, and Greg went to great lengths to not make sustained eye contact with her. She had other ideas though. "Your friends left you here by yourself?"
"Well, sort of. I only live down the street, but I don't have any reason to go home just yet."
She smiled. "Why not?"
"You don't want to hear my problems. It's no big deal" He didn't want her to think he was desperate.
"Everybody could use someone to talk to. I get off in a half hour. Maybe we could go for a cup of coffee, if you want."
Greg thought about it for a minute. "Uh, yeah. OK. That would be nice."
"Let me finish up then, I know a place not too far from here."
Greg saw an expression in her eyes that he thought was relief, but he wasn't positive. He drank his beer and tried not to look at her. She might think he was some weirdo if he stared at her while she worked.
Thirty five minutes later they were walking down the street. "You probably think I'm nuts, going with some stranger whose name I don't know to drink coffee in the middle of the night." She laughed. "But I've seen you before, so I don't think you're some lunatic. At least I hope not."
"Well, it would be hard to explain to those people who saw us leave if anything happened, seeing as how I'm a regular there. Nothing will happen, you have my word."
She smiled at him again. "The guys in the kitchen said you were harmless, but they also said you had a girlfriend."
"Had would be the right word."
They arrived at the 24-hour coffee shop and sat down at a table. "When you said you didn't have a reason to go home, I figured that might be what you meant. I'm sorry."
"Thanks. It's one of those things, I guess. I'm still not sure why it happened."
"Not that I'm trying to cheer you up, but I was dumped this week too. I can relate to what you're feeling."
Greg looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Who would be so dumb to let you go?"
"Someone who needed to do a lot of growing up. Actually I'm glad he dumped me. I was losing interest in him anyway." Again, she smiled at him. She appeared to be one of those people who smiled all the time, which always drove Greg crazy anyway, but in Maggie's case, it suited her, because she had a very beautiful smile.
"I haven't even had time to think about it, she just left this morning, though things had been moving that way for awhile."
"I'm sure you'll be OK. You just have to take the time to let the hurt go away."
They talked about themselves, and how they had gotten to the point they were at now. Maggie talked openly, unafraid of talking about her own fears and the bumps in the road she had encountered since coming to the city to study at Julliard. She exuded self-confidence, in a way that Jill never had. Greg found her to be a refreshing change from the guarded, self-absorbed Jill, who never seemed to be at ease talking about her feelings.
"You said you lived close, right?"
"Yeah."
"I've had about all the coffee I can take, lets continue this conversation somewhere else."
Greg was both leery and excited. He wasn't sure what Maggie had in mind, but he knew that he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to, so they paid the tab and walked back to his apartment. He was a bit self-conscious that he hadn't cleaned up the apartment, but she didn't even mention it. She sat down on the couch and Greg wondered if he should sit next to her or take the chair. He decided on the couch, and in doing so, she slid next to him. Her brown eyes met his and it was like she knew what he was thinking. "They say when you break up with someone, you have to have a 'transition' relationship in order to move on. We're not fooling ourselves here. We both need someone to get past the hurt. Anything that happens from here isn't gonna be forever, but as long as we understand up front that this is a one day at a time thing, we can at least go away with respect for one another."
"Kinda like getting back on the bike after a fall?"
She laughed softly. "Exactly. You have to be able to know that not everyone is gonna hurt you." She leaned in and kissed him gently, swinging her arm around his shoulder. He returned her kiss, and instinctively put his arm around her waist. She broke the kiss and whispered. "I guess we're gonna make a transition then?"
It was Greg's turn to smile now. "I guess we are."