"What are you two doing here?" Maisie seethed as she approached Talia and George's table. Her two friends were laughing uncontrollably, and took several seconds to pull themselves together.
"We're your backup," Talia said. "You know, in case this date ditched you, too."
"Wow. I can't believe you told George about that."
"I needed reinforcements. I didn't want to sit here and eat alone. That would be embarrassing."
Maisie shook her head. "I can't believe you right now. Have you been listening to our date this whole time?"
George broke out in laughter again, but Talia managed to hold herself together. "It's hard NOT to listen to it, Mags!"
"I swear to God..."
Her coworker finally contained his glee. "We wanted to be here in case you needed help, that's all."
"I DO need help." She lowered her voice. "You can hear him, right? He won't shut up. He's like the goddamn Energizer Bunny, he just keeps going and going. Didn't you get my 9-1-1 text, T?"
She grinned. "Of course, but I was laughing so hard, I couldn't call you immediately. What if he'd heard me on the other end. That would have been a bad situation all the way around."
"I can't believe your vetting didn't smoke this guy out. How could you not know he was completely insufferable?"
George cleared his throat and nodded his head, indicating something behind Maisie. She turned to find Neal standing right beside her, mouth wide open once again.
"Oh my God. I'm sorry, Neal, I-"
"Insufferable, huh? Well, excuse me. I'm so sorry I've been so horrible to be around. Perhaps if you'd bothered to answer any of my questions, or if you'd had a drink with me, like I suggested, you wouldn't have found the evening so miserable. No wonder you're single and forced to beg the entire internet to set you up with people. I take it the meal is on you. The edamame was terrible and my scotch was watered down, but you didn't hear me complaining, did you? No, because I'm a nice person and I give people the benefit of the doubt. I take time to get to know them before I decide they are insufferable. Have a lousy life." He marched past her and out the door, muttering to himself the entire way.
As soon as he cleared the restaurant, George and Talia broke into raucous laughter once again. Once Maisie was able to get over the shock, she started laughing, too. It was ridiculous. HE was ridiculous. She actually didn't mind getting stuck with the bill if that meant she didn't have to spend one more second listening to him admire the sound of his own voice.
"Have a seat, friend." George patted the empty chair beside him, and Maisie accepted it. Her waiter saw the change as he passed by with a tray of food for another table, and on his way back to the kitchen, he brought over her water.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'm sorry you got stuck with the roadrunner."
"Not stuck anymore, and I'm ready to order if these guys are."
George and Talia nodded and the three enjoyed a delicious sushi dinner, Maisie hoping that her date the following evening would at least make it to the entrées.