Love in E-Flat
by Norman Krasna

THE STORY: Being a young intern, Howard is overworked and underpaid, but fortunately his girlfriend, Amy, has both a job teaching school and an apartment directly under his—which solves the problems of entertainment and transportation (not to mention romance) very handily.

Mutual openness and trust are the keystones of their relationship, at least until Amy stumbles onto the fact that Howard has planted a “bug,” or electronic listening device, in her apartment, and has been monitoring her comings and goings for months.

Feeling betrayed by this evidence of calculated eavesdropping, Amy, in league with her married sister Bea, decides to manufacture some really choice bits of “conversation” for Howard to listen in on, suggesting for one thing that she is probably pregnant and for another that she has decided to take up again with a former, and very wealthy, boyfriend.

Needless to say, Howard is rocked by this “news,” although he can't let on to Amy.

He and his roommate Mitch, a fellow intern, take turns maintaining a constant vigil at their listening post, waiting for further developments.

What they overhear resolves Howard to “do the right thing,” but his decision to propose to Amy is thwarted by her prior announcement that she is planning to marry her ex-fiancé.

But if the exposure of Howard's deception started the whole thing, it is the eventual discovery of Amy's counter-deception which brings all back to balance, making Howard realize how much he has really loved her all along, and all ends as happily as it should.