Greg woke up, hearing the water running in the bathroom. For a second, he thought that the previous day must've been some sort of dream. When the door opened and Maggie's naked, petite body came out and crawled back on the bed, he knew that it was real. She hovered over him from her knees, her brown hair framing her face, and then leaned over to give him a kiss. "Good morning. I didn't wake you did I?"
"No, I would've woken up anyway." He pushed her hair from one side of her face, looking at her like she had just dropped from out of the sky. She smiled at him and touched his face. "I'm only speaking for me, but I doubt she left you because you were bad in bed."
"I'd have to say the same thing about you."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, he didn't give a damn about sex most of the time. Sometimes I wondered if he was gay, for all the attention he paid to me."
"His loss."
"Yeah really. That's what you get when you date someone who's in the same artistic field you are. Two musicians are a bad mix."
"I'm glad I stopped taking music lessons then."
Maggie laughed. "I never thought I'd ever go for someone who wasn't attuned to my musical sensabilities. But I think you need to have a broader horizon. You can learn more from someone who's not into the same kinds of things you are."
"I agree. What made you think that I wasn't?"
"Just listening to you and your friends talk. I don't hear many conversations like that."
"Well, it was a departure from our usual conversations. Normally all we talk about is women and sports."
Maggie smiled. "I don't even hear that. All the people I'm around are very arty. It can get old at times."
Greg put his arms around her waist and raised up off the bed. "Lets eat. I'm starved." She cupped her hands around the back of his head. "Let's not. Yet."
After fixing breakfast, he took Maggie home. They had talked some more about what they actually were in the middle of now. Greg had decided to think of it as being life-jackets for one another--there if you need it, but you don't have to wear it around all the time. He put the car back into the garage and picked up a couple of newspapers on the way back to the apartment. When he got there, he found he had a message on the answering machine. It was Eric, who said to call him back. He dialed the number and Lisa answered. "What's Eric doing?"
"Oh, he's here. We wondered if you two wanted to go out shopping with us."
Greg thought about how he was going to answer. He figured he had better tell someone. "I don't think so. There's a small problem."
"What's the matter?"
"She's not here. She's gone."
"Uh, gone?"
"Yeah, she left yesterday. She's not coming back."
"Greg, that's terrible. What happened?"
"I'm still not sure myself. It was kinda unexpected. She said she wasn't ready for this."
"I'm very sorry. Are you OK?"
"I'll be alright. I'm just trying to figure out what I did to make her feel this way."
"I'm sure it wasn't you. You can't blame yourself. Maybe she wasn't ready for commitment."
"Maybe. I don't know."
"Here, Eric wants to talk to you."
He heard Lisa hand Eric the phone. "Hey man, that's rough. You want us to come over?"
"No, not right now. I'm just gonna read the paper for awhile. Collect my thoughts. But thanks for the offer."
"Well call us if you need someone to talk to, alright?"
"I will. Don't worry about me. It'll be cool."
He hung up the phone and sat down in the recliner. He felt lucky to have friends like Lisa and Eric. Eric had been his best friend since he moved here, and it gave Greg a sense of satisfaction that he had been partly responsible for introducing Lisa to him. They had always gone out of their way to help Greg, and he knew that it was the right thing to tell them first. But he didn't need them to rush over, since he hadn't cleaned up the apartment from Maggie being there. That would be a tough one to explain.
Jill had spent the last two days in a sulk. She didn't feel guilty about leaving, but she didn't exactly feel relief. Her thoughts kept going back to what she had told him; all of the reasons which seemed right at the time didn't look very good now, in retrospect. Why she couldn't have shared what she was feeling with him earlier was bothering her. She knew that all of the hurt in the past was what kept her from being able to open up about her fears. She wondered if she was trying to escape from the possibility of him hurting her, or whether she was doing him a favor by letting him go. The more she turned it over in her mind, the more confused she was about everything. Maybe she had just tossed away the only chance at happiness she'd ever get.