INT. KITCHEN - EVENING
Simon and Caroline, a couple in their early forties have
finished a meal and are sat at the kitchen table.
CAROLINE
So you want to talk? Why can't we
go in the lounge?
SIMON
Because the TV is always on and
it's impossible to speak
properly.
CAROLINE
Okay - what do you want to talk
about?
SIMON
(a beat, while he
examines his wine)
It.
CAROLINE
What do you mean, 'it'?
SIMON
You know! Him!
CAROLINE
Who?
SIMON
That bloke you met on holiday.
The French one.
(mockingly)
The one who "changed your life
forever."
CAROLINE
Simon, that was twenty years ago
and it's all forgotten. God, I
wish I hadn't told you.
SIMON
I don't see how you can say that
someone who changed your life
forever is all forgotten. You
must have been thinking about him
to bring him up again.
CAROLINE
I only brought him up again
because you said you couldn't
understand how your sister could
leave her home, her family, and
her job to go off with some bloke
she met on the Internet.
I just said that I can understand
that because a stranger can
change your life.
SIMON
You were in love with him then?
CAROLINE
I don't know if it was love,
but...
SIMON
(interrupting)
But it must have been, if he
changed your life forever.
CAROLINE
But it was at that time of my
life when everything was waking
up and beginning: I was young,
working in Greece - I suppose I
was ready to be, you know...
swept away - I was open to
everything.
SIMON
What did he look like, this,
whatsisname?
CAROLINE
Jean-Pierre.
SIMON
(mockingly)
Jean-Pierre? Is that a joke?
That's the kind of name they give
to stereotypical Frenchmen in
cartoons. Jean-Pierre.
CAROLINE
I'm not going to talk about this
if you're going to take the piss.
SIMON
I'm not taking the piss. What did
he look like?
CAROLINE
He was tall, quite thin, he had
long blond hair, sea-blue eyes,
and a scar on his cheek, and...
SIMON
(interrupting)
A scar? What from?
CAROLINE
I don't know, a fight I think -
he'd been in prison.
SIMON
Jesus - Mister lover boy was a
gangster.
CAROLINE
He just got into some trouble,
that's all, but he sorted his
life out. He went on to become
very successful.
SIMON
How do you know?
CAROLINE
I see him on TV sometimes, on
that French cable channel. He's
an art dealer.
SIMON
Oh, one of those art phonies who
like to tell everyone else what
they should like.
A beat. Caroline looks at him pitifully.
SIMON (cont'd)
(pensively)
So how did he change you?
CAROLINE
If you really want to know, he
made me feel alive. He made me
know what it feels like to be
wanted. And he taught me all
about sex!
A beat.
SIMON
(seriously)
I want you. You know that.
CAROLINE
(comfortingly)
Yes - I know that. It's different
with us.
SIMON
You're happy, though?
CAROLINE
Yes. But, it's a different kind
of happiness.
We're settled down: we go to
work, we do the supermarket, we
watch TV. It's just different.
SIMON
It's just that sometimes, I think
I'm not good enough for you -
that you want something more.
CAROLINE
Don't be stupid, Simon. I love
you, you know that. It's just
that when you're young, you're
impressionable and everything
seems so much more... vivid and
real.
SIMON
Yeah, I know what you mean. I
still miss going to footy
matches.
CAROLINE
Well, there you go then. Can we
forget about him, now?
SIMON
Yeah, okay.
(a beat)
What's on TV tonight. Oh it's
Monday - the Holiday Programme!
CAROLINE
Great! Let's take the wine and go
and watch it.
SIMON
Yeah, that'll be nice. Get our
feet up.
(a beat)
So what did you actually do in
bed that was so fantastic?
CAROLINE
Simon!