Dangling Conversation
Every week it was the same routine. Megan made her way across the large window of the café to the seat in the corner and sat down across from him. He had thoughtfully already ordered what she usually drank and it was still piping hot when she took her first sip.
“Frank, why do we do this every week?” she asked indignantly.
“Because I like seeing you.”
She unconsciously smiled, but caught herself and frowned again. “This is ridiculous. You know I’m married.”
“What exactly are you implying?” But before she could answer he added, "It isn’t like that at all. I keep telling you this week after week.”
“Excuse me for feeling that you are just a little too clingy. I can understand wanting to keep in touch, but meeting every week…?”
“Then why do you come?”
“I don’t know! I guess I’m just afraid…”
“That I’ll kill myself? I’m not like my brother, even if we were twins.”
She sighed. “If you aren’t in love with me, then I don’t know what your motivation is in all of this.”
“Who said I wasn’t in love with you?”
“You—”
“I said I knew you were married and you know me better than that to think that I would ever want to step between you and your husband. Come on, it’s just for breakfast.”
She didn’t respond.
“You could always call it off, I won’t be offended.”
“You would, but you just wouldn’t show it.”
They sat together in silence.
She sighed, again. “Well after knowing you twenty years, being married for five and coming here for six, there’s really nothing new. I’m in the same old job and I’m still hoping to have kids in the near future.”
He smiled. “That’s all right, I’m still in the same place.”
They sat in more moments of heavy silence.
“Frank, I have to go,” she said, “but it was nice seeing you.”
“Nice seeing you too. Next week, same time?”
She nodded in response. He waved to her as she looked back before walking out the door. She was such a pretty woman.
Author’s Note on post 340: Another ten-minute fiction. This one I like a lot better, though if I could, I might go into more detail. But that’s not the point of this exercise. Anyway, special thanks http://twitter.com/storyprompt for the prompt and to Simon and Garfunkel for the title of this post. Feel free to check out the lyrics for maybe a little extra insight into the characters.
This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 10:09 am and is filed under Fiction Prose, Realistic Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.