The Woman Trap

Bill: Could you ever love me?

Olivia: Next question.

Bill: I am being serious.

Olivia: As am I.

Bill: (Kisses her.)

Olivia: Does a kiss mean anything?

Bill: It means something different to every person, I assume.

Olivia: What does it mean to you?

Bill: Nothing really. I just like feeling your lips against mine.

Olivia: Does it give you pleasure?

Bill: No but it brings a smile to my face for three seconds.

Olivia: Tell me what you love about me.

Bill: The way you’re mean and crude, and you’ve never liked anything about me. I’ve always had a way of loving women that loathe me while I loathe women that love me because I have no wish to be happy, but to be perpetually after perfect b*****s since it gives me a purpose rather than just being handed love.

Olivia: But you know I will never love you.

Bill: Yes but since that is true it gives me something to yearn for until the day I die. If a girl falls in love with me and I fall in love with her then we have to get married, and spend years living with each other, having children, arguments, knowing each other too well, and being pretty much miserable. With you I am simply ignored and unimportant. You just tell me I am worthless and ugly, and you never touch me. I have to do all the initation while you just sit there, looking bored and miserable. I am bored and miserable as well but at least I am searching for happiness, knowing I’ll never have it while you know you know you’ll never have happiness and you don’t go looking for it.

Olivia: I don’t waste my time as you do.

Bill: We always waste our time whether we think we do or not. You hate me and every other man and women, probably even children you deal with on a daily basis, but you spend time around them. You allow them to have sex with you, to kiss you, to hug you, to touch you incessantly and obsessively. You also allow them to cry in your presence, to laugh, joke, quote poems and songs. You also pick up the phone and listen to them talk about how much they hate themselves, their families, their friends, they probably even talk about how much they hate you.

Olivia: Yes they do.

Bill: Do you love anything?

Olivia: No.

Bill: Why not?

Olivia: It doesn’t matter. I choose not to say. It doesn’t matter. Do you have a cigarette?

Bill: I don’t smoke.

Olivia: Do you have a cigarette?

Bill: Yes. (Pulls a cigarette out of his pocket. Hands it to her.) Enjoy.

Olivia: Do you remember my son?

Bill: We’ve only known each other for two hours.

Olivia: I hated him.

Bill: I hate my children too.

Olivia: God created children to give us something to hate.

Bill: I think that’s why He created all people.

Olivia: I want to go out for dinner. Do you have any money?

Bill: No. I’m homeless.

Olivia: That’s disappointing.

Bill: I was joking. I don’t really hate my children. I love them.

Olivia: You should never love anyone or anything.

Bill: I think we should love everyone and everything.

Olivia: You’ll only get hurt and disappointed.

Bill: Would you like to live with me?

Olivia: I’m going to go out for dinner. (Exits)

Bill: I wish someone loved me.

Beautiful Woman: Hello.

Bill: Hello. I love you.

Reviews

[jenniewren (J.W. Bouwma..]

oh wow! what a great find.. *smiles*

you tell such an important story here, in such a short dialogue. the conversation rings as true, and the wit reminds me of why i love the older movies - they understood (maybe because they were still transitioning from radio, where there were no image cheats to use?) the importance of repartee, of saying much using few words. also a reason why i love oscar wilde - slightly sarcastic, yet there's an undercurrent of optimism inside the cynicism.. perhaps the protagonist hides his eternal hope with the veneer of snarky self-awareness?

witty witty write, which i know i'll be visiting again to re-read.