A Perfect Match Ch. 03

Part Six: Saturday Morning

Meryn usually slept late on Saturdays, but not this late. Part of it was probably the wine from the night before, and part of it was clearly her tossing and turning once in bed as she tried to make some sense of what had gone on at Natasha's. She definitely was upset with herself for arranging to meet with Jeremy today, but it had been a spur of the moment, angry reaction to Natasha's inexplicable viciousness towards him. Well, she would meet with him, be pleasant, but put an end to this thing as nicely as she could.

It was with a groan when she woke and realized it was already 10:15. She was supposed to meet him at eleven, and she didn't like being late for anything. She rolled out of bed, quickly showered, dried her hair, deciding not to comb or brush it, but only to pull it back with a band. She quickly slipped on a sweatshirt, a pair of jeans and sneakers, and decided against any makeup. She wasn't trying to impress anybody anyway, was she? Despite these best efforts it was ten after eleven before she left her apartment.

The coffee shop was only a block from her place and she secretly hoped that her now being fifteen minutes late may have led Jeremy to believe she wasn't coming, and leave. These hopes were dashed when as soon as she entered the shop she saw him sitting by himself at a corner table.

Jeremy saw her at the same time, smiled broadly, and got up immediately to come over to greet her.

"I'm so glad you decided to come today, Miss Meryn." He said as he led her back to the table.

"I said I was going to come didn't I?" she answered sharply. As he pulled a chair out for her to sit, she spoke more mildly. "That wasn't fair of me, Jeremy. Please forgive me for being late."

"There's never any need to apologize to me for anything, Miss Meryn."

She glanced around anxiously. "Look Jeremy, we're in a public place, just Meryn, please."

"Of course...Meryn."

At that point the waitress came over to take their order. Meryn ordered a yogurt with fresh strawberries and a café latte. The waitress looked to Jeremy, who looked down, and then tentatively at Meryn. In a perceptive flash she realized that he was actually waiting for her permission to have something.

"Jeremy, please get something. I don't like to eat alone."

Jeremy beamed again as he ordered a bear claw honey bun and a café latte.

Meryn decided to begin their conversation with a safe topic by asking him about himself. He told her he was a junior high school English teacher, hence his nice way with words she thought. As he described his job it was easy for her to see how much he loved it. After several minutes of detailing for her how he went about trying to get young teenagers to be as passionate about literature as he was, he sheepishly apologized for dominating the conversation, and asked Meryn about herself.

Meryn had no great desire to go into any great detail about her life, but after telling him about her job as an investment analyst, his apparent real interest spurred her to go on in greater depth about things at her job. She found him an attentive listener, and his occasional perceptive questions stimulated her to discuss things that she hardly ever talked about with anyone except at work. Usually there however, people were only interested in her facts, not her opinions, which she now voiced freely to this stranger who, surprisingly, seemed very interested.

After they ordered their second café lattes, and Jeremy his second bear claw, she began telling him about her personal interests, and family. She learned that, like herself, he only had his mother left. Unlike her, he was an only child, while she had two older sisters, both married and now living hours away. She enthused that she envied them their children, and how she loved being with her two nieces and nephew, but how she wasn't ready for anything like that herself.

Meryn marveled to herself at how easy Jeremy was to talk to, and then even surprised herself even more by bringing up her recent problems with Rick. After going through the entire process leading up to the breakup, she really appreciated that Jeremy didn't try to placate with empty platitudes, but only opined that this Rick must be one stupid idiot to have lost so much for so little.

After what she thought was about thirty minutes, Meryn realized it was already 12:30, and she hadn't even brought up the reason for the meeting. She had to admit that she found Jeremy to be a very nice person, but she knew what he was looking for, and she also knew that she had no interest in being involved with it. So, taking a deep breath, she resolved to get this over with once and for all.

"Jeremy," she started in a tone that indicated a change in their conversational direction, "About last night."

"Meryn, please let me apologize for my behavior last night."

Now she was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Well I know you must have thought it was very rude of me to seem so unenthusiastic about wanting to serve you. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It's just that at that moment last night I..." he fell silent.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Jeremy. It was Natasha's behavior that was atrocious."

"Oh no. Miss Natasha had every right. I just wasn't expecting it." Again a flash of hurt across his face, this time quickly replaced by one of his special smiles. "But I really do want you to know, Meryn, that I would really like the opportunity to do things for you. It could be any type of thing you're comfortable with. Not because of last night with Miss Natasha, but because I really want to. For you."

God, this was going to be harder than she thought. She was really going to have to hurt him again, but he had left her no choice. She suddenly realized that she didn't want to do it here in public. It just wouldn't be fair or nice for him, but it had to be done soon. Today. She couldn't let this drag on any longer. So she grabbed at the only solution readily available to her and said, "Jeremy, I'm not comfortable with this conversation here. My apartment is only a block away. Let's finish it there."

"Whatever you like, Meryn."

He called for the check. When he went to pay for it, Meryn objected, insisting that they split it. "This isn't a date you know." she snorted.

"I understand that perfectly, Meryn. But please let me take care of this."

It was only a breakfast bill. It wasn't worth arguing about, so she let it go, and was rewarded again with one of his smiles.

As they entered the front door of her apartment, Meryn suddenly had a horrid thought, and she whirled around to face Jeremy as he closed the door.

"Don't even THINK about taking off your clothes." She snapped.

"No, of course not Miss Meryn."

Back to the Miss stuff again, she thought. Oh well, this will be over soon so why bother. She turned around and walked into her livingroom, and instantly saw it with new eyes. Though not by nature a sloppy person, nothing like Natasha, since her breakup with Rick she had not had the energy or inclination to do any cleaning. And the thing of it was that she hadn't even noticed. Now for the first time since then she had a 'guest' in the apartment, and she was horrified at what a mess it was. Papers and books were strewn all over the place, pillows and chairs were askew, several pairs of shoes were scattered around the floor that obviously hadn't been swept or vacuumed in quite a while. She knew that the kitchen and bedroom were even worse, and forget about the bathroom. She was totally embarrassed, and this made her more angry and determined to say what she had to say to him, and get this over with.

"You have a very nice place here, Miss Meryn." He said as she turned back to him.

"Yeah, well it suits me fine." She retorted. More calmly, "Look Jeremy, you seem like a nice enough person, and I enjoyed our talk this morning very much, but you have to understand, I want you to see, that I don't need any help around here."

Jeremy didn't immediately reply. Instead he slowly surveyed the livingroom, and Meryn couldn't help but follow his gaze. When he finished and looked back to her, she couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing, and wasn't the least put off when he joined in.

When she was finally able to compose herself again, she continued more lightly, "Okay, I guess I didn't mean what you actually see around here. And anyway," she casually gestured toward the room, "this is all really just a temporary aberration."

Jeremy nodded. "I would consider it a very special favor, Miss Meryn,if you allowed me to help you take care of this...aberration. Temporarily of course."

Meryn was exasperated. What was she going to do with this guy? She slowly looked around the room, and then thought to herself, Why not? The place really was a mess. If this guy was so determined to try to clean it up for her, Why not? She'd let him have at it for a couple of hours, then tell him what an inadequate job he had done, and that this clearly wasn't going to work out, and then get rid of him. At least then she would have an excuse, and it wouldn't be so personal. She'd feel a little less guilty.

"Alright, alright Jeremy. If you're so fired up to tidy up this place for me, you have my blessing." He brightened visibly. "But I want you to fully understand, that despite appearances around here, I'm really quite finicky. So if your efforts don't quite meet my expectations, then we have to agree that that will be that. Are we clear on that Jeremy?"

"Whatever you say Miss Meryn. Than you very much."

"Good. Okay, it's 1:15. I've got a bunch of errands to do this afternoon so I'll leave you to your venture. I'll be back around five. Knock yourself out."

"I will Miss Meryn. Thank you again."

Part Seven: Saturday Evening

In reality Meryn really didn't have any errands to run, which did not brighten her disposition after she had left her apartment. She hadn't shown Jeremy where any of the cleaning materials were. Let him figure that out. He was on his own. She wondered what she was going to do with her afternoon. She still had to do the final preparations and run through for her big presentation at work on Monday, but she had planned to do that on Sunday, and she just wasn't up for it today. With nothing better to do, she went to a movie, and sat through an interminably long comedy that she hadn't found funny, and this did nothing to improve her mood. On the way home she decided that she really didn't feel like cooking, so she stopped off at the grocery store to pick up a few items including a microwave dinner for supper. She then geared herself up for her final confrontation with Jeremy, where she would thank him for his inadequate efforts, express sorrow that it hadn't worked out, bid him goodbye, and that, thankfully, would be that.

When she opened the door to her apartment at 4:45, she was met with an incredibly mouth-watering smell coming from the kitchen. Following her nose there, she found Jeremy bent over the oven.

"Miss Meryn, I didn't hear you come in." He said when he saw her. "Please forgive me."

"Jeremy. What are you doing?"

"Making dinner. I hope you don't think it presumptuous."

"But there was nothing in the place to make dinner with."

"I know, so I took a quick run to the grocery to pick up some things. Please say you don't mind."

"No." She mused. "It smells delicious." And if he wanted to waste his time shopping and cooking, he couldn't have had much time to clean. That would make it all the more easy to find fault and be done with this.

"It's got about fifteen more minutes to go Miss Meryn. Why don't you relax in the livingroom, and I'll bring you a glass of wine."

"No, no wine today please. I'll just go freshen up a bit. Let me know when it's ready."

With that she walked into the livingroom and was met with her next surprise. Everything there was picked up and put in it's proper place. She saw that the floors had been swept, the rugs vacuumed, and all the furniture dusted and polished. Entering her bedroom she found her bed made, several days worth of clothes previously piled on a chair had either been put away or put in the hamper. A massive accumulation of odds and ends on top of her dresser were now neatly stacked and organized, and as far as she could tell, all accounted for. A foray into her master bathroom found all of the tiles and porcelain of her tub, sink and toilet gleaming, and the jungle inside her medicine cabinet made civilized.

This was unbelievable. How had he been able to do all this, shop and make dinner in less than four hours. As she continued to try to comprehend, Jeremy approached her bedroom door to let her know that dinner was ready. Numb, she followed him to her diningroom, and saw that there was only one table setting. This, she decided, would not be.

"This is not Natasha's place, Jeremy." She turned to him quietly. "I told you earlier that I don't like to eat alone." an absurd statement in that she almost always did. "Please get yourself a place setting so we can eat together."

"Sure Miss Meryn. Anything you say."

After he had set up his place, he brought in platters of food, which he identified as veal rolantini, a broccoli with blue cheese casserole, and a spring mix salad with walnuts, craisons, dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette. He then carefully served her first before himself. All of it tasted every bit as good as it looked and smelled, and she took small amounts of seconds of each item, unusual for her. With her permission, Jeremy had much larger portions of seconds, and even thirds. As he cleared the table he began to apologize for not having the time to make a dessert, but he hoped she would like what he brought instead. He then brought out a strawberry-rhubarb pie from Grandma's. When she asked how he had been able to get that for her, he replied that Grandma's was on of his favorite places too, no great surprise there she thought unkindly, and he had driven out to get the pie for her this morning, hoping that he would have the opportunity to offer it to her.

This was all too much Meryn thought, enjoying her piece of her favorite pie, and watching Jeremy down two pieces. Later, as she sat in the livingroom while Jeremy finished cleaning up, she frantically strove to figure out how she was going to get out of all this. He had made it incredibly hard. There was no way she could say that he had done a lousy job. Anyone would see the lie in that. She decided to try to let him down as easily as possible, compliment him on what he had done, but explain that none of this was what she wanted.

"This is all rather impressive, Jeremy." She said as he came into the livingroom after he was done.

"Thank you Miss Meryn. But I'm really sorry I didn't have the time to get to everything."

"What can you possibly mean?" She was clearly mystified. "The place is immaculate. It hasn't been this clean since the day I moved in."

"Oh there are a number of things I just didn't have the time to get to. Mostly the laundry."

"The laundry!!!" She exclaimed. The laundry. Her laundry. He was actually talking about doing her laundry. A job she hated, even in the best of times, and which she hadn't done in almost a month. She wondered if he knew there was more to it than the overflowing hamper in the bathroom. She had three extra laundry bags full and stuffed in her closet.

"I couldn't find a washer and dryer in the apartment, and I didn't know where the local Laundromat is." He went on.

The laundry. She had to put a stop to this right now. But how? He'd done everything and more than she had asked. She had to find some excuse, something that he wouldn't or couldn't do that would giver her an out. But what? He seemed to be able to do everything.

Looking at him as he 'waddled' over to bring her a cup of tea she had requested, an idea suddenly presented itself. She had to give him a task that he would surely fail at, and she suddenly knew what it was. The idea repulsed her, but she was desperate. She just had to get out of this situation, but it was important to her that he would feel that she had given him a chance, but he hadn't succeeded. She saw no other way without outright rejecting him as Natasha had. That she couldn't bring herself to do. Steeling herself, she quietly but firmly said.

"Jeremy, I want you to go into my bedroom and take your clothes off. Everything but your underpants."

She could see that he was definitely surprised by this. An order was an order however, and he got up and went into the bedroom. After a few minutes she followed him in. Seeing him standing there undressed, she grimaced when she saw that he was again wearing those awful pink panties. This time Jeremy couldn't help but notice her reaction, and as he dropped his head she realized that he had misinterpreted the reason. She started to apologize and explain, but stopped herself. This actually would suit her plan more. She was going to hate herself for doing this, but he had given her no choice.

She brusquely told him to follow her into her bathroom. When he had entered behind her, she pointed to an item on the floor and said "Step on the scale Jeremy."

Jeremy hesitated for a moment, the first time he had done so for anything she had asked, but then he slowly stepped forward and on to the scale. Since she hadn't ordered it, he did not look down. Meryn came over and did so instead.

"Two hundred and ninety seven pounds." She reported. "Jeremy. You're obese."

Jeremy now looked down. "I know Miss Meryn. I've always been this way. I've just never been able to do anything about it."

"Well, if you want to be able to...um...be allowed to come here, you're going to have to do something about it. I don't like fat men, Jeremy. But I'm going to give you a chance." His head came up at this. "I'm going to give you one week to show me you can lose a significant amount of weight. For me Jeremy. Do you understand?

"Oh yes Miss Meryn. I'll try my best, I promise."

"I think you're going to have to do a lot better than that." Way better she thought. "And Jeremy, I'll be the judge of what is a significant amount of weight." This was just in case he was able to lose one or two pounds, which she thought unlikely anyway.

"I understand Miss Meryn, and I really want to thank you."

God, he wasn't making this easy.

"Okay Jeremy, you can step off the scale and get dressed now. One week from today we'll weigh you again and see if this is going to work out. And Jeremy..."

"Yes Miss Meryn?"

She paused.

'"I don't want you wearing those stupid panties any more. I want you to wear your own underpants." On a whim. "What do you wear anyway, boxers or briefs?"

"Which do you like better, Miss Meryn?"

She had never given it much thought, but decided she liked boxers better.

"Briefs." She said. It would make his rolls of fat stand out more, and make it easier for him to see his failure.

"That's what I wear Miss Meryn." And they both smiled.

After Jeremy had dressed and was getting ready to leave, he turned to Meryn and asked. "Miss Meryn, I was wondering..."

Here it comes, she thought, the negotiations about how much she expected him to lose. No way she was going to give him a number like five or six pounds. He just might go all out and starve himself for a week to make it. Unlikely to succeed, but she wasn't taking any chances.

"Yes Jeremy?"

"...if I could come back over tomorrow to finish everything up."

She stopped, and then thought, why not. She might as well get some benefit out of this whole thing.

"Sure Jeremy. Why not. But I like to sleep late on Sundays. So why don't you come over around noon."

"Whatever you say, Miss Meryn."

"And Jeremy..."

"Yes Miss Meryn?"

Another pause.

"The washer and drier are in the basement. I'll give you the key tomorrow"