Activity

(The proprietress of the bar turns out a light. The record stops playing. They're in semi-darkness. The late but eluctable hour when the cafes close is fast approaching. They both close their eyes, as if seized by a feeling of modesty. The well-ordered world has thrown them out, for their adventure…

SHE (softly, as if in an aside): What is your wife like?

HE (purposefully): Beautiful. I'm a man who's happy with his wife.

(Pause.)

SHE: So am I. I'm a woman who's happy with her husband.

(This exchange charged with real emotion, which the ensuing moment covers.)

HE: You were bored in a way that makes men want to know a woman.

Whenever you felt uncomfortable, you let your discomfort rain down on me in the form of aggression and recriminations, you poured it over me rather than hold back, as if every uncomfortable feeling which my behaviour produced in you was my fault and my problem, never yours. And I let it happen, tha…