“Thanks.”

She peers at the stir fry, heats it up in the microwave, adds chicken broth and four different spices, and eats it.

Margaret takes a break from homework during this process and tries to get Madeline to play tug-of-war with the stuffed alligator.

Madeline approves, in a wiggly sort of way! And packs a surprising amount of jaw strength into her petite frame.

Then she will make Margaret almost overbalance! What a good dog! The best dog, even! (What makes her the best? Why, the best dog is the dog that is in front of you right now.)

Madeline is indeed the best dog in the whole world and she is very happy to have that indisputable fact recognized! Wag, wag, wag.

The stuffed alligator loses a leg. Madeline merrily runs off with it, scattering fluff higher and thither and barking.

(Jaime definitely isn’t smiling faintly at her food.)

"Boy, I'd hate to be you," Margaret remarks to the three-legged alligator, then goes back to her homework, starscaping the dog hair off her dress.

“I pity him.”

The rest of the day might pass unremarkably, if Margaret refrains from prying.

She will only pry into the secrets of chemistry.

For a while. At one point, she looks over and says, "If you want me to mind my own business I will, but if you want to talk about whatever happened, I'm happy to listen."

“My girlfriend has unusual tastes.”

"And this led to you getting stabbed somehow? . . . She didn't stab you, did she?"

“- I’m not clear where on a scale from ‘you’ve never heard of BDSM, and I have to explain the basic concept’ to ‘you have heard of it, and I have to explain how my relationship isn’t really safe, sane, or consensual, but I’m fine with it’ to ‘you don’t actually want an explanation’ I should be aiming, could I have a hint.”

"I'm--familiar with the concept? I think it involves, um, tying people up and stuff. Unsafe and not sane sounds pretty unpleasant, do you want, like, help?"

Jaime considers a number of potential responses. None of them are affirmative; most of them are bitingly acerbic.

“No.”

"Okay. The important thing is that you're happy." She doesn't seem very happy, though.

Margaret has no real way to tell whether she’s just sort of like this all the time, alas!

She doesn’t verbally respond, takes out a large canvas - already layered with a deep purple background color - and miscellaneous supplies, and starts painting something abstract and unnervingly metallic.

"Unnervingly metallic" would also describe some people's opinion of Margaret. She watches for a few minutes, then goes back to homework.

The next morning, Margaret catches Jaime on her way out the door. "Hey, is it alright if my board games group meets here tonight? Naomi's going to be on campus all evening so she doesn't care."

Jaime seems to have actually slept the previous night through, in her bed! Hallelujah. 

 “Are they going to smoke, drink, or have sex?”

"A couple of them might have a beer, but nobody's going to get noticeably drunk? They definitely will not smoke or have sex, and if they get potato chips all over the carpet I will vacuum."

“That works. Have fun.”

"Cool. You're welcome to join in if you feel like it, by the way."

“I’m good.”

Her and Madeline aren’t there, later on in the day, but a large bowl of extremely-delicious probably-homemade bean dip is in the refrigerator, and a large bag of tortilla chips is on the counter. The bean dip is labeled ‘you can use this at the DnD game and in general, it’s vegan ~ Jaime’.

The appetites of gamers expand to match the amount of delicious food available. At the end of the night the bean dip bowl has been emptied and washed, and there's a note on the fridge saying "Jaime--your cooking is fantastic and you have been voted Best Roommate in absentia. Margaret".

Jaime quietly appreciates this.

Time passes. She continues being at the apartment only sporadically, and being generally evasive about anything more personal than ‘can you pass the salt’.

Margaret continues being around slightly more often than that. She's open about her own life to the extent she doesn't seem to be boring Jaime, and frequently asks about her day but accepts the usual terse answers.