it was megan's turn to host the dinner. she had invited the usual suspects over for this long overdue gathering; gerrard, sophia, rosie, jace, mitch, and isaac.
after a long day of grocery and liquor shopping, she was now ready to walk into the war zone.
with the apron around her slim waist and a spatula in hand, megan was whooping around the kitchen, cooking up dishes after dishes while the pans build up in the sink. at last, the dishes were in place and the lamb and pie were roasting nicely in the oven.
isaac and sophia was suppose to arrive first to help her with setting up the table while she gets ready. and they were both late.
finally, sophia shows up with a bottle of megan's favourite red wine, with isaac following behind. while they got to work, megan takes off her apron and quickly runs to her room for a quick shower. when she came down, isaac hands her a glass of wine and she took a sip.
the party arrived just on time. gerrard offered his skills of slicing the lamb, served with potatoes, spinach on the side and lemon sauce to kick.
rosie was just about to make a toast to the new couple, jace and mitch, when jace shook his head to avoid embarassing mitch. while mitch stepped away for a while, jace explained that he is still extremely shy about just coming out from the closet and we should respect his privacy for the time being.
she shrugged and said, "jace, honey, i hope you are sure about this one. you've had a string of heartbreaks already."
dinner was finished with no leftovers and desert to be served over a game of poker in the living room. while rosie and sophia helped megan stacked the dishes in the washer, megan served everyone with their choice of alcohol and mixers, while jace started shuffling the cards.
just then, isaac's phone rang and it was an international number calling in. he looks at megan, and she just nodded. isaac excused himself and stepped out to the balcony.
when he walked back in, his face was pale and a tear starter rolling down. megan quickly got up and took him to her room.
"ginny's gone... she's gone..." isaac's look was faraway, megan put her arms around him and rested his head on her shoulders.
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later that night when everyone's left, megan lay down beside isaac and stroked his forehead. he fell into a fitful sleep, his back towards her.
ginny was his ex-fiance and was diagnosed with lung cancer. she broke off the engagement and told isaac not to see her. she didn't tell him that she had cancer, and the doctor told her she had no more than 5 months left. it been a year, and she finally succumbed.
megan wondered whether isaac was going to regret following her wishes to not see her and move on, if he was going to blame himself for not being there for her when she needed him most.
"he should go home for the funeral," she thought.
isaac began mumbling and was shaking. megan hugged him from behind, whispering, "shhh, its ok, sweetheart, it's ok. i'm here, and i'm not leaving." he calmed down a bit after, and slowly stopped shaking.
megan didn't know what to do, or say to comfort him, except to hold him and tell him that everything will be alright.
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