The Question
“Jason, good evening,” Peggy welcomes Dr. Wilkes at the door to her small Los Angeles apartment. “Straight through that open door on the left to the living room.” She points the way as she says so and steps aside so that he can follow her direction.
When he does, she closes the door and follows shortly after him.
Entering the living room and watching Jason sit down next to Daniel on the couch, a knot forms in Peggy’s stomach at the same time as a warm feeling spreads through her chest. It has been a while since she has seen the two men she has romantic feelings for in the same room together… and if tonight doesn’t go as planned, it might be the last time.
“What kind of intervention is this?” Daniel asks, leaning forward, his elbows on his thighs.
Both of them look so tense, so full of fearful anticipation and confusion.
Peggy sits down opposite the two of them on a chair she brought in from the kitchen an hour before in preparation, looks down on the carpeted floor between them and takes a deep breath, needing a second to find her words.
“I have been with you, Daniel, for two months now,” she starts, forcing herself to look up at the man she is addressing, his scared puppy-dog eyes looking back at her making her question her planned actions for tonight for half a second until her eyes flicker over to Jason who has a similar confused expression painted on his face. “And while I cannot imagine not being with you ever again,” she continues, looking back at Daniel, “I have also not been able to ignore the fact that my feelings for you, Jason, have not gone away.”
Within less than two seconds, the shock on Jason’s face mixes first with relief, then confusion, a flicker of joy and then worry as he looks over to Daniel instead.
“And so,” Peggy goes on, “I have decided to face this like an adult.”
Again, both men are just looking at her in confusion, Daniel’s eyes letting through a spark of masked betrayal and Jason’s body tense with guilt.
Peggy shuffles on her chair before she starts her explanation. “I have asked myself why it shouldn’t be allowed for me to date the both of you.” She does not let herself look at either of them at the reveal, instead opting to stare at the couch’s backrest between them. “If I’m being completely honest – to myself and to both of you – if you, Daniel had been sucked into the rift, I would most likely have ended up dating you, Jason,” – she still does not look at them, only slightly nodding her head into their direction when mentioning their names. “And if you, Jason, had been taken by the Zero-Matter, I would have ended up with Daniel and we would have been happy and I would not have had to question myself this way.”
Realizing how this last bit must have sounded to her boyfriend, Peggy pulls herself together and looks him in the eyes. As expected, his expression is almost blank as he has pulled himself behind a mask in order to take in this information.
“This is not to say that I am not happy with you, I am!” Peggy tries to assure him. “As I said in the beginning, I cannot and do not want to imagine my life without you! But, luckily,” she looks back over at Jason at this, “both of you survived throughout all this turmoil so now I am in somewhat of a difficult situation…” She chuckles, trying to lighten the mood but the weight of this moment’s importance is hanging too heavily over the three of them.
“This situation, I believe, can be solved, however, if both of you are in agreement, of course... if both of you would be willing to,” – she takes a deep breath as tears spring into her eyes – “share your time with me in order to make me happy... and I hope, no, I believe that, if you agree, you will be able to find happiness for yourselves as well.”
Both men remain silent for what, to Peggy, feels like hours. Her voice breaks as, looking back and forth between them, she whispers, “What do you say?”