Near Love Stories
by J. B. Hogan

"She smiles, she laughs. What's next, fun? That would be a rare treat." Maggie's mood clouded. "Oh, crap," Charles backtracked, "I didn't mean anything…." Maggie shook her head. "God, Maggie, we've got to get past this."

"We will get past this," she said bluntly.

"Yeah," Charles said grimly, "but past it together?"

Maggie started to respond, then sat back on her side of the booth with a sigh. Charles didn't look at her. When their meals came they ate the food slowly, silently, without pleasure.

*    *    *

Charles handed a glass of cola across the bed to Maggie. They were comfortably propped up on large pillows, feeling a warm wind stir through the room from the open Miami windows and watching a Spanish-language rerun of "Bonanza."

"This part here is great," Charles explained, "Little Joe and Candy are going to fight over that woman. I've seen this episode about ten times."

"How foolish," Maggie commented.

"Well, TV is not too hot down here," Charles misunderstood.

"No, no," Maggie said, "I mean to fight for the woman. It makes her become some piece of property that goes to the victor."

"Well, that's the way it was," Charles said, trying to steer clear of an overworked topic between them.

"Is," Maggie corrected. "She has nothing to say in the matter. They decide her fate."

"Maggie," Charles said, "it's just a show. TV. And an old show at that."

"For women it's still the same."

"Pass me the coke, will you."

Maggie handed him the glass. He took a drink and set the glass on the bedstand. He dug a cigarette out of a half pack lying on the stand and lit it. Inhaling deeply, he slowly let the smoke out his nose.

"You should stop that, you know," Maggie remarked. "It's bad for you. And it stinks up the air." Charles didn't respond. "Look at those imbeciles," Maggie went on, looking away from Charles back to the TV. The TV characters were engaged in a rollicking fistfight while a demure young woman stood to the side, helplessly waving her arms. "You men are all alike. You're just like those two. You never consider giving us a choice. Not even today. Do you?"

"Maggie," Charles sighed, "why do you do this so much any more? It's just a show for Christ's sake. That's not the way it is nowadays, and you know it. Especially not with me and you."

"Humph," Maggie grunted.

"OK," he said, turning away from the program to face her, "come on. We've been over the real problem a bunch of times before. This sideways stuff is crazy."

He looked at her pretty face and saw the concern there. She was caught between destinies - his and hers. He knew that. It didn't make things any easier.

"Morena," he said. "I love you. I don't want to use you, or just take from you. I want to share my life with you - our life."

She regarded him as if she were trying to read into his eyes or find something about herself in the reflection she found there.

"I know you do, Charles," she said, "and I love you too. It's just that…."

*    *    *

They met late outside the UBT admin building when the heat of the day was nearly gone, when the tranquil light of the coming sunset bathed the campus in a soft yellow glow. Walking slowly across the lush old campus, Charles and Maggie spoke quietly and calmly.