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Post by Megan on Jul 5, 2015 23:15:10 GMT -5
There was enough to make a salad for lunch, and that was as good a distraction from the morning's events as anything. Except for the puffiness around her eyes, which makeup mostly concealed, Megan was fairly sure she looked okay- maybe even better than that; the halter dress she was wearing at the moment did really lovely things for her figure.
On the other hand, there was the lingering fear that eating a salad would look desperate, but it was hard to worry about that in the face of strawberry vinaigrette.
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Post by Dr. Connors on Jul 5, 2015 23:33:07 GMT -5
Curt was beginning to wonder if it was too early in the day for a drink. They were time zones away from home, after all, and this was hardly the kind of work environment where it would have been conspicuous -- but if Adrian made an appearance it wouldn't do to be anything less than witheringly sober. He would know, for one. He had to have known that the situation was too fraught to make it through sober, not in this heat. Adrian had been a gracious host, in that respect, and fuck it. Nina's absence ached like a wound. Waking up without her was worse than never having her there at all.
Curt raised his glass in greeting upon approach, though he felt too bedraggled and too sickly to make eye contact with anything in a dress. Seven hours, give or take. It was practically still last night. All he needed was ice.
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Post by Megan on Jul 5, 2015 23:36:52 GMT -5
Megan looked up. Oh, good, someone else was having a terrible morning too. This was curiously comforting.
"Jesus, are you okay?"
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Post by Dr. Connors on Jul 5, 2015 23:42:15 GMT -5
Curt set down his glass to swing open the refrigerator door.
"I'm perfectly alright," he said, in the somewhat brusque tone of someone who hadn't looked like the picture of good health for twenty-odd years. He couldn't remember if he'd even combed his hair. "Do you mind if I join you?"
There was a conspicuous absence of even a gesture at anything else food-shaped.
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Post by Megan on Jul 5, 2015 23:46:40 GMT -5
"I can make you some, if you want," she volunteered.
She glanced over her shoulder at him and winced a little.
"I... I don't mean to be rude, but I can put on a pot of coffee or something instead, if that'll help."
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Post by Dr. Connors on Jul 5, 2015 23:57:22 GMT -5
"It won't, but thank you." Bless her for even trying. Some part of him wanted to demand whatever new information she might have -- if she'd heard from Nina or even her father, what she knew about the situation -- but this was absurd, this was completely disproportionate. And whatever the woman might be getting paid, it couldn't be enough. "I suppose I should eat something substantial, but I'm still waiting for my appetite to catch up with me."
The way his face creased indicated this was meant to be a very dry joke.
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Post by Megan on Jul 6, 2015 0:01:28 GMT -5
This was going straight from comforting to the most uncomfortable. Megan was starting to feel incredibly childish and petty. One loss of her own temper, and look what she'd done, and meanwhile- well.
"Okay," she said, a little too briskly. "I'm not gonna force anything."
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Post by Dr. Connors on Jul 6, 2015 0:06:16 GMT -5
Curt smiled, in the form of a perfunctory tightness at the corners of his mouth.
"Is there anything I can get you?"
A vodka tonic with about half the tonic, for instance. He took a businesslike pull on that before sitting down.
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Post by Megan on Jul 6, 2015 0:08:03 GMT -5
"No thanks. I can't drink, unless I want to feel like I'm on fire for the next three days. I'm a real thrill at parties."
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Post by Dr. Connors on Jul 6, 2015 0:19:55 GMT -5
Unbidden, he recalled what it had been like drinking hard liquor during chemotherapy, during the worst days with a raw and bleeding mouth -- which was to say, a disastrous mistake. Whatever Megan's systematic troubles might be, she was still very young. Drinking at lunch should have been beyond her scope.
"Ah, yes. There's soda, if you'd like it." That too had to be a feature for the benefit of guests. No doubt Adrian abstained.
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Post by Megan on Jul 6, 2015 0:27:38 GMT -5
"I can't really do that either- I get the worst headaches, and the carbonation tends to hurt my throat."
She stopped.
"...I'm Megan, by the way. I'm Dr. Banner's beautiful assistant. You're here with Nina, right?"
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Post by Dr. Connors on Jul 6, 2015 0:31:18 GMT -5
"Yes, though she herself seems to have vanished." Curt's laugh was remarkably jagged; he rose again, a little gawkily, to extend his hand to her. "Curtis Connors. With Oscorp."
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Post by Megan on Jul 6, 2015 0:36:36 GMT -5
Thank God he initiated it; it saved her having to switch hands in realization and spared them both a lot of mutual humiliation, even if this still left her something to qualify as she shook it.
"Right- sorry, my left hand's a little gimpy- I saw you with her in one of those little free subway papers they give out on weekday mornings. 'Stunningly handsome'."
She grinned.
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Post by Dr. Connors on Jul 6, 2015 0:49:56 GMT -5
Curt actually did laugh at that without sounding godawful. His eyes were still lowered, but the flash of animated good humor that crossed his features was not unappealing. "Good Lord, really -- I'm becoming infamous."
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Post by Megan on Jul 6, 2015 0:52:55 GMT -5
"And if she's left... well, that's my fault," she admitted. "I- when you see her again, please tell her I don't hate her. I feel awful."
She went back to finishing making her salad.
"It was only the one picture, if you were worried. I thought it was cute."
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