Pen to the Paper 11

"Hey, are you still mad?"

"No, I'm fine," Maya said, leaving the office. Closing the door, she added, "Past is in the past."

After sitting in silence for a couple seconds, Nick said, "She's still mad."

"Yep. It's been more than a month, I have apologized ten times a day, and she still hasn't forgiven me for the U_R_Lame joke. Y’know, she stood me up the next day. I spent all day cooking some b-e-a-utiful steaks for dinner and she just didn't show up. Heck, I even bought a nice white table cloth and some candles, put some roses in some mismatched vases… most romantic thing I've ever done!"

"It was a pretty stupid--and immature, may I add--joke. I'd be mad too."

"But for a month, Nick?"

"Nah. You and I are the same: I'd only be mad for five minutes."

"I wouldn't be mad though," I replied.

"You wrote the joke."

"That's fair."

Nick looked at my notes. "Do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Cut that joke about women from your act."

I took the note card from his hands and read the joke. "Cripes. I wrote that?"

"Yeah. Kind of something you would do without thinking because of your current Maya-issue. Joke about an issue you're having because you can't seem to figure out how to fix it."

I looked Nick in the eyes and said, "Man, I'm trying to prepare for a comedic act. Quit getting all serious on me."

"Aaaaand you're back."

"How much time do I have before I go on stage?"

"Forty-five seconds."

"Dang it! I'm worse than Ma!" I said, dashing onto stage.

"Calebs, am I right?" Pete said to himself.

"Hello ladies and gents," I said behind the curtain into the microphone. "Guess who's late? Me. By a week. Oops! Guess time just slipped away from me," I said, stumbling onto stage and "accidentally" dropping a prop pocket watch.

The crowd was silent. "Man, I thought that was funny. Showed Maya and she told me… MAYA!"

A few seconds later, Maya stepped onto a stage. "What's up, doc?"

"Did you lie to me about my joke?"

"Yeah. You can call us even now. That was the worst joke I've read in a long time."

I sighed and walked to the front of the stage. Sitting on the edge of it and looking out at the crowd, I said with a sigh, "Well, sorry about that disappointing introduction. First, I'm a week late, then that joke… Anyways, Pen to the Paper is back!"