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1Part Six: Saturday Morning
Meryn usually slept late on Saturdays, but not this late. Part of it was probably the wine from the night before, and part of it was clearly her tossing and turning once in bed as she tried to make some sense of what had gone on at Natasha’s. She definitely was upset with herself for arranging to meet with Jeremy today, but it had been a spur of the moment, angry reaction to Natasha’s inexplicable viciousness towards him. Well, she would meet with him, be pleasant, but put an end to this thing as nicely as she could.
It was with a groan when she woke and realized it was already 10:15. She was supposed to meet him at eleven, and she didn’t like being late for anything. She rolled out of bed,, quickly showered, dried her hair, deciding not to comb or brush it, but only to pull it back with a band. She quickly slipped on a sweatshirt, a pair of jeans and sneakers, and decided against any makeup. She wasn’t trying to impress anybody anyway, was she? Despite these best efforts it was ten after eleven before she left her apartment.
The coffee shop was only a block from her place, and she secretly hoped that her now being fifteen minutes late may have led Jeremy to believe she wasn’t coming, and leave. These hopes were dashed when as soon as she entered the shop, she saw him sitting by himself at a corner table.
Jeremy saw her at the same time, smiled broadly, and got up immediately to come over to greet her.
“I’m so glad you decided to come today, Miss Meryn.” He said as he led her back to the table.
“I said I was going to come didn’t I?” she answered sharply. As he pulled a chair out for her to sit, she spoke more mildly. “That wasn’t fair of me, Jeremy. Please forgive me for being late.”
“There’s never any need to apologize to me for anything, Miss Meryn.”
She glanced around anxiously. “Look Jeremy, we’re in a public place, just Meryn, please.”
“Of course...Meryn.”
At that point the waitress came over to take their order. Meryn ordered a yogurt with fresh strawberries and a café latte. The waitress looked to Jeremy, who looked down, and then tentatively at Meryn. In a perceptive flash, she realized that he was actually waiting for her permission to have something.
“Jeremy, please get something. I don’t like to eat alone.”
Jeremy beamed again as he ordered a bear claw honey bun and a café latte.
Meryn decided to begin their conversation with a safe topic by asking him about himself. He told her he was a junior high school English teacher, hence his nice way with words she thought. As he described his job, it was easy for her to see how much he loved it. After several minutes of detailing for her how he went about trying to get young teenagers to be as passionate about literature as he was, he sheepishly apologized for dominating the conversation, and asked Meryn about herself.
Meryn had no great desire to go into any great detail about her life, but after telling him about her job as an investment analyst, his apparent real interest spurred her to go on in greater depth about things at her job. She found him an attentive listener, and his occasional perceptive questions stimulated her to discuss things that she hardly ever talked about with anyone except at work. Usually there however, people were only interested in her facts, not her opinions, which she now voiced freely to this stranger who, surprisingly, seemed very interested.
After they ordered their second café lattes, and Jeremy his second bear claw, she began telling him about her personal interests, and family. She learned that, like herself, he only had his mother left. Unlike her, he was an only child, while she had two older sisters, both married and now living hours away. She enthused that she envied them their children, and how she loved being with her two nieces and nephew, but how she wasn’t ready for anything like that herself.
Meryn marveled to herself at how easy Jeremy was to talk to, and then even surprised herself even more by bringing up her recent problems with Rick. After going through the entire process leading up to the breakup, she really appreciated that Jeremy didn’t try to placate with empty platitudes, but only opined that this Rick must be one stupid idiot to have lost so much for so little.
After what she thought was about thirty minutes, Meryn realized it was already 12:30, and she hadn’t even brought up the reason for the meeting. She had to admit that she found Jeremy to be a very nice person, but she knew what he was looking for, and she also knew that she had no interest in being involved with it. So, taking a deep breath, she resolved to get this over with, once and for all.
“Jeremy,” she started in a tone that indicated a change in their conversational direction, “About last night.”
“Meryn, please let me apologize for my behavior last night.”
Now she was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“Well I know you must have thought it was very rude of me to seem so unenthusiastic about wanting to serve you. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s just that at that moment last night I...” he fell silent.
“You have nothing to be sorry about, Jeremy. It was Natasha’s behavior that was atrocious.”
“Oh no. Miss Natasha had every right. I just wasn’t expecting it.” Again a flash of hurt across his face, this time quickly replaced by one of his special smiles. “But I really do want you to know, Meryn, that I would really like the opportunity to do things for you. It could be any type of thing you’re comfortable with. Not because of last night with Miss Natasha, but because I really want to. For you.”
God, this was going to be harder than she thought. She was really going to have to hurt him again, but he had left her no choice. She suddenly realized that she didn’t want to do it here in public. It just wouldn’t be fair or nice for him, but it had to be done soon. Today. She couldn’t let this drag on any longer. So she grabbed at the only solution readily available to her and said, “Jeremy, I’m not comfortable with this conversation here. My apartment is only a block away. Let’s finish it there.”
“Whatever you like, Meryn.”
He called for the check. When he went to pay for it, Meryn objected, insisting that they split it. “This isn’t a date you know.” she snorted.
“I understand that perfectly, Meryn. But please let me take care of this.”
It was only a breakfast bill. It wasn’t worth arguing about, so she let it go, and was rewarded again with one of his smiles.
As they entered the front door of her apartment, Meryn suddenly had a horrid thought, and she whirled around to face Jeremy as he closed the door.
“Don’t even THINK about taking off your clothes.” She snapped.
“No, of course not Miss Meryn.”
Back to the Miss stuff again, she thought. Oh well, this will be over soon so why bother. She turned around and walked into her livingroom, and instantly saw it with new eyes. Though not by nature a sloppy person, nothing like Natasha, since her breakup with Rick she had not had the energy or inclination to do any cleaning. And the thing of it was that she hadn’t even noticed. Now for the first time since then she had a “guest” in the apartment, and she was horrified at what a mess it was. Papers and books were strewn all over the place, pillows and chairs were askew, several pairs of shoes were scattered around the floor that obviously hadn’t been swept or vacuumed in quite a while. She knew that the kitchen and bedroom were even worse, and forget about the bathroom. She was totally embarrassed, and this made her more angry and determined to say what she had to say to him, and get this over with.
“You have a very nice place here, Miss Meryn.” He said as she turned back to him.
“Yeah, well it suits me fine.” She retorted. More calmly, “Look Jeremy, you seem like a nice enough person, and I enjoyed our talk this morning very much, but you have to understand, I want you to see, that I don’t need any help around here.”
Jeremy didn’t immediately reply. Instead he slowly surveyed the livingroom, and Meryn couldn’t help but follow his gaze. When he finished and looked back to her, she couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing, and wasn’t the least put off when he joined in.
When she was finally able to compose herself again, she continued more lightly, “Okay, I guess I didn’t mean what you actually see around here. And anyway,” she casually gestured toward the room, “this is all really just a temporary aberration.”
Jeremy nodded. “I would consider it a very special favor, Miss Meryn, if you allowed me to help you take care of this...aberration. Temporarily of course.”
Meryn was exasperated. What was she going to do with this guy? She slowly looked around the room, and then thought to herself, Why not? The place really was a mess. If this guy was so determined to try to clean it up for her, Why not? She’d let him have at it for a couple of hours, then tell him what an inadequate job he had done, and that this clearly wasn’t going to work out, and then get rid of him. At least then she would have an excuse, and it wouldn’t be so personal. She’d feel a little less guilty.
“Alright, alright Jeremy. If you’re so fired up to tidy up this place for me, you have my blessing.” He brightened visibly. “But I want you to fully understand, that despite appearances around here, I’m really quite finicky. So if your effort don’t quite meet my expectations, then we have to agree that that will be that. Are we clear on that Jeremy?”
“Whatever you say Miss Meryn. Than you very much.”
“Good. Okay, it’s 1:15. I’ve got a bunch of errands to do this afternoon so I’ll leave you to your venture. I’ll be back around five. Knock yourself out.”
“I will Miss Meryn. Thank you again.”
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