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Meg doesn't often wind up in Milliways in the morning. But she did today, and she ran into Laura, and it seemed high time they called their own bluffs and actually went to see a play, instead of just talking about it for months. Meg's roommates aren't awake yet, so there won't have to be any awkward explanations of how Laura suddenly arrived in their apartment, it's a beautiful fall day . . .

The only slight wrinkle is that it's a weekday, and Meg has classes. But it's easy enough to say that Laura is a prospective student, visiting McGill to see if it's a place she'd like to enroll. People do it all the time -- Meg did it, the year she applied. There are tours with students, and brochures about programs, and admissions couselors who are happy to answer questions, chances to eat in one of the dining halls, and Laura can even sit in on a class, if she likes.

Then there's a very quick not-quite-a-dinner before the play. "Just a snack, really," Meg says. "Alain's going to meet us back at the apartment for dinner after." (He's seen this production somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen times already, and he has work to finish that evening.)

They have good seats, especially considering Meg only called to reserve them this morning, and the play goes well -- Meg's heard the horror stories about the night the understudy for Goneril forgot half her lines, and the ones about the night the power went out in the middle of the storm scene. There's just time to introduce Laura to Luc afterwards before he has to run, and they have to get back to Meg's apartment to meet Alain.

Meg steps out onto the sidewalk in front of the theatre, pulling her hair free of her jacket. "Do you want to walk? It's not that far, really, and I don't think we'd save much time by taking the Metro."

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Alain coughs, the way you do when you've accidentially swallowed a mouthful of sandwich wrong.

Even Meg looks slightly startled.

Olivia, however, just takes the empty chair next to Laura's.

"Oh, you have no idea," she says. "Roy said that I was paying too much attention to the waiter, but the waiter was reading the specials and you're supposed to pay to the specials, it's not like you can just read about them in the menu. So I had to pay attention, right? And it's not my fault he was hot. The waiter, I mean, not Roy. Well, Roy is hot, too, the waiter was just hotter."

X, during Olivia's speech, starts in on her own sandwich. She makes a surprising amount of headway before Olivia is finished speaking.

Her gaze flicks to Alain and Meg, as if to gauge their response before making one of her own.

Then she bites the bullet. Metaphorically.

"I'll take your word for it. I hope he didn't cause too much of a fuss. Roy."

"God, he made such a fuss," Olivia says. "He's so melodramatic."

Alain half-chokes again and excuses himself, primarily with hand gestures, to the bathroon.

Even Meg looks like she's having a little trouble keeping a straight face.

"Guys like that are annoying."

Cessily would hear herself in those words, clear as a bell.

"I'm sorry."

Olivia waves one hand, dismissively. "I'm better off without him."

"You really are," Meg agrees. "But at least you figured it out before you had too much time invested."

And because Pixie would have asked --

"Did you get the waiter's number?"

Olivia grins.

"Of course."

"Olivia, you didn't," Meg says, incredulous.

"Well, only after Roy and I broke up. So I'm available."

Alain, coming back into the room, stops behind Olivia's chair, where she cannot see him, and rolls his eyes.

X calmly takes another sip of milk.

"Maybe this one won't be a jerk."

And there's Pam again. For the phrasing, anyhow.

"Let's all hope so," Alain says drily, taking his seat again.

There's a moment of not-quite-comfortable silence, and then the phone rings.

"Meg," Olivia says, "will you get it? If it's Roy, I don't want to talk to him."

"Yes, because it went so well the last time you asked Meg to deal with of your ex-boyfriends for you," Alain says.

The phone rings again.

"That was not my fault," Olivia says. "Meg, please?"

"Then whose fault do you think it was?" Alain says.

The phone rings a third time.

"Alain, s'il te plaît, laisse tomber," Meg says quietly.

Besides, they're two rings away from no one having to answer it, because the machine will pick up.

Edited 2010-11-09 18:57 (UTC)

X does not sigh. Obviously the other three are prepared to be here all night. X thinks this is ridiculous.

Which is why after the fourth ring she slips out of her seat and over to the phone.

She picks it up.

"Allô, ça va?"

. . . . that was unexpected.

But Laura, and whomever she is talking to, definitely have the attention of everyone else in the room.

X looks like she is listening intently to whoever is on the other end of the line.

A few moments later she turns, holding out the phone and looking at Olivia.

"It is your waiter. Chris. He would like to know if you are taking calls."

"Oooh," Olivia says, jumping up from her chair. "I'll take it in room," she calls over her shoulder, heading quickly that way. The door closes, and a moment later, Laura will hear her say hi to Chris the Waiter.

That's Laura's cue to hang up.

"Elle est folle," Alain says.

He's not talking about Laura.

"Elle est très jeune," is what X says in response. "Ce n'est pas trop mal."

She accompanies this with a very slight shrug, then makes her way back to the kitchen table.

And her sandwich.

"She's the same age we are," Alain says.

"Alain," Meg says, with a slight let-it-go shake of her head.

"I do not think that matters," X says.

"Most of the time."

Alain opens his mouth to say something, looks at Meg, and then closes it again.

"So, that was Olivia," Meg says to Laura, probably rather unnecessarily.

"She is interesting," X offers.

Carefully.

This is very true!

"She is," Meg says.

She just kind of treats dating like they're all on a teen soap opera.

"Though I really can't quite believe she traded numbers with the waiter."

X considers that, head tilted very slightly.

Then --

"I do not think I am surprised."

After all, she just saw it happen!

"I probably shouldn't be," Meg say.

"I'm not," Alain says.

"But it's . . . it's kind of a quick moving on, even for Olivia."

X considers that for a few moments.

"Roy was -- "

She hesitates.

" -- her boyfriend? For a long time?"

"Not . . ." Meg trails off, thinking. "Boyfriend would probably be too formal a term. Carrie calls whomever Olivia is dating her PADJ."

"For petit ami du jour," Alain says.

"Roy was around for a couple weeks," Meg says. "She doesn't really date anybody for more than about a month."

"And then there's a scene like the one you just saw, and then she starts over," Alain says. "Chris, this time, you said it was?"

"Yes," X says. "Chris."

Beat.

"There is a requisite time to wait after -- "

There is a fractional pause.

" -- breaking up?"

Speaking of things X does not know.

"There's no hard and fast rule," Meg says. "It depends on a lot of things. How long you'd been going out, how serious it was, why you broke up. It's more about . . . when you feel ready again, I guess."

"When I broke up with my first serious girlfriend, I didn't go out with anyone for five or six months, not on a date," Alain says. "And then I met Meg."

"And I'd only broken up with Brian about three weeks before I met Alain, but Brian and I weren't serious. And he was, as you pointed out at the time, a jerk."