(Untitled)

[ever_noteful]

Meg is curled up in a chair near the fireplace, her feet tucked up underneath her, staring at her engagement ring again.

She supposes she'll get tired of looking at it one of these days.

But she hasn't yet.

And she doesn't think she will any time soon, either.

Comments

[magneticxman]

Lorna sees the dreamy look, and the ring, which makes her smile quite a bit in turn. She takes a seat on an adjacent couch. "You look pretty happy."

[ever_noteful]

Meg looks up, still smiling.

"That's probably because I am," she says.

"Meg Ford," she adds.

[magneticxman]

"Lorna Dane. Your ring is quite pretty." She gives the other woman a bright smile. "How long have you been engaged?"

[ever_noteful]

"It's very nice to meet you, Lorna.

"And thank you. I'm ridiculously fond of it, I'm afraid.

"In two days, I'll have been engaged for a month. But I've only had the ring for about two and half weeks."

[magneticxman]

"That's sweet. Who's the lucky person?"

After living close to San Francisco, Lorna has learned not to assume that Meg's got a future husband.

[ever_noteful]

"His name is Alain Gagné. He doesn't come here, I'm afraid. I wish he could, but it doesn't seem to work that way.

"He's probably the most wonderful person I have ever known, and I am going to marry him."

The engagement is still new enough that it makes her smile even more just to be able to say that outloud.

[magneticxman]

Lorna giggles, but mostly it's because she still feels that way herself, about Alex. "It's too bad that he can't come here. How did you two meet?"

[ever_noteful]

Oh, Lorna. You've gotten Meg onto one of her very favorite topics in the multiverse.

"At a play. Tartuffe. His brother was one of the actors, and Alain had promised he would be there -- I learned later that he had missed his brother's previous show entirely -- but he'd wound up with a ticket for the wrong night.

"And it was the last performance and he was fighting with the box office and I had an extra ticket because my roommate Carrie was sick and couldn't go, so I gave it to him. And, of course, that meant I was sitting with him.

"That was two years ago, next month."

[magneticxman]

It's always good to hear people talk about things they love.

Especially when those things are people.

"Wow, so is he as sweet as you obviously are?"

[ever_noteful]

"He's very, very sweet.

"And we're very, very suited to one another."

She looks down at the ring and then back to Lorna.

"And I'm talking your ear off, aren't I?"

[magneticxman]

This draws a giggle out of Lorna, though that's not terribly difficult to do.

"Nope. I think it's sweet. I'm a newlywed, myself, so I definitely understand the excitement."

[ever_noteful]

"Oh, congratualtions," Meg says.

"To whom?"

Your turn to gush, Lorna.

[magneticxman]

"Alex Summers. It's been such a rocky road for us, but I'm so glad we finally got our act together. We're also expecting, though we didn't know that when we got married. It's been. . . a month, maybe?"

The words come out in a steady stream, because Lorna is quite eager to share her happiness as well.

[ever_noteful]

"Double congratuations, then," Meg says.

"That's wonderful, all of it.

"What's he like?"

[magneticxman]

"Very. . . complex. He's a good man, though not always a sweet one. He's a leader, so a lot of his emotions are compartmentalized. . . I could write a dissertation on Alex's personality. He's the most stable thing in my life, and has rarely been anything but wonderful to me."

Except for when he was pretending to be evil, but that's so long ago Lorna pretends not to remember it.

[ever_noteful]

Well, at least he was only pretending . . . ?

"Good and stable are very important," Meg says. "And I suspect that most people's personalities could be dissertations, if the writer really knew them. So it's good that you do, right?"