2: First Date
Quarks of the Heart: A Meg Atomic Serial
Previously on Quarks of the Heart, Meg Atomic’s fateful encounter with the Malevolent Med-Student resulted in an even more fateful invitation for coffee. What happens next?
It had been a while since Meg Atomic had been on a date. When your father is Captain Happily Married and you have powers yourself, the boyfriends tend to get scared off. Andy Whitmore had gotten scared. He hadn’t even gotten to the point where he’d been freaked out by her own preternatural ability to calculate probabilities and cause explosions (particularly the last bit); he’d seen what her dad could do and promptly bailed.
Tyler had bailed when he’d seen what she could do. Kyle had started out well; he’d arrived on time, impressed her father, hadn’t even blinked an eye when she’d explained about her powers. Then he’d reached into the back seat of his car to fish out the movie tickets they’d bought ahead of time, only to find that a purple Frisbee had wound up back there. The Frisbee, of course, was Meg’s shapeshifting little sister Tamsin, and so instead of the nice romcom Meg had been dying to see and had actually gotten Kyle interested in, they ended up watching a replay of a Taylor Swift concert. Kyle excused himself to get some popcorn a third of the way in. He did not return. Meg and Tamsin didn’t speak for a month after that.
All this is why Meg was at that moment sitting on the wood and vinyl of the coffee shop chair, holding her coffee in both hands and waiting for the Malevolent Med-Student to arrive. She’d told him in advance where she planned to sit so he’d know it was her, thus avoiding the awkwardness of figuring out who was who. She’d already worked out several possibilities of what might happen. If he arrived in his usual full supervillain kit, white coat and everything, he’d obviously be recognized, which would cause a scene, which would be a problem. If he brought Candystriper, that would also be a problem. Either of those problems she could deal with: she was Meg Atomic, after all. If he didn’t show at all, that was also not a problem. She had brought her phone; she could scroll the ‘net for a bit until she’d finished her coffee and then walk out as inconspicuously as possible.
There was a fourth scenario. She wasn’t sure how to work that. Suppose he did show, in civilian clothes, and he was decent enough and didn’t bail like Kyle or Andy or the others? What then? How would her parents react? The other capes? The public?
She didn’t know. She had no data for this. Then the bell above the coffee shop door jingled, and there he was. Business casual, not overkill. Polo. Dress shoes. Khakis. No sign of Candystriper. A tiny stethoscope on the polo.
He looked around. Saw her. Hesitated, then walked over and sat down across from her. Smiled.
“Hi,” the Malevolent Med-Student said in a surprisingly mild voice. “I’m Keith. Keith, ah, Edward Malcolm, actually, but well, you probably know me better as the Malev-, well, you know.” He coughed awkwardly.
“Margaret,” she said. “In the cape I go by Meg.”
“Nice to meet you, Margaret,” he said. “Would you like another?” He gestured at the cup she held.
“Oh, yes, please, thank you. I usually get it black, two shots of espresso.”
“Right,” he said, nodding in a not-impolite way and rising to make the order.
When he returned, they talked about everything but the cape business, as if by mutual agreement. They talked about sports. Quickly realizing they both had little interest in this, they moved to pop culture. There was a moment of awkwardness until Meg asked whether he’d seen the Blackwater Saga: Part Three movie.
Keith had. Both of them had thoughts, and they found they agreed. They engaged in mutual recriminations about how the book was so much better. This lasted through Meg’s coffee and Keith’s own craft soda.
“Well,” he said at last, after they’d thoroughly exhausted that topic.
“Well,” Meg repeated.
He hesitated. Meg’s mind began to work. Hesitation. Most probably he’s going to bail. Oh well. Chalk it up to-
“Could we meet again?” Keith said. “Next week? Same time?”
Meg’s probabilities scratched to a halt. “Sure,” she said. “Same place?”
Keith agreed. “There’s a concert in Marconi Park next week as well. The City Philmarmonic, I think. We could go there after that.”
“We should,” she said. “That sounds fun.”
For once, Meg decided to ignore the probabilities.
For more episodes of Quarks of the Heart, check out the serial index page below. Thanks for reading!
Best.
I am obsessed with this now, please and thank you.