The Contract (Pt 3)

The answer to freelance dating.

INT. LIVING ROOM. LATE AFTERNOON.

Anna enters the living room from her bedroom. She moves quickly to her desk and turns on her monitor. She begins typing feverishly.


SAM
Clearly, I’m not going to get through to you. I’ll call you later when you can understand rational thought again.


Sam leaves, and Anna types away on her computer, barely acknowledging her Sam’s departure.


INT. LIVING ROOM. EVENING.

Anna looks up from what she’s been writing for the last few hours and notices that it’s dark. She looks back down at her papers she just printed out and smiles.

Camera Zooms in onto the papers and it appears to be a very legal looking document.


EXT – NOON – CORNER CAFÉ

Anna sits at a table by herself looking over an official looking document. After a few moments, Sam enters the café and joins Anna at the table.


SAM
So, have you come back to your senses?

ANNA
(Looks up)
No.


Anna holds up the document and Sam shakes her head exasperated, but smiles and sits down.


SAM
Okay, let’s see it.


Anna hands Sam the document. Sam takes it and starts reading. Smiling and letting out intermittent snorts of laughter. When she finishes, she sets it down and looks up at Anna.


ANNA
Look…Think about it. It’s not that ridiculous. I’m just changing the rules of dating.

SAM
Actually, it’s more like making new rules.

ANNA
Yeah, my rules!

SAM
But, Anna… Honestly, listen to me… Please don’t take this personally, but doesn’t this seem kind of desperate? You don’t have trouble attracting guys…

ANNA
No, it’s just keeping them that’s the trick!

SAM
Well, I just don’t understand why you think you need to go to this extreme to find someone to marry you. Anna, you just have to be patient.

ANNA
If I’m any more patient, I’ll BE a patient in nursing home before I get married! Besides, you just don’t understand. You don’t know what it feels like to have your heart broken, and your dreams shattered. You’ve never had to experience that kind of pain. To me so happy, and planning your future with this guy, naming your kids, dreaming about the perfect wedding gown, decorating your first house together, imagining what you are going to look like when you’re 80 years old and if you’ll still be as madly in love as you are at this very moment…only to have it all taken away, with out warning and with out a cushion to soften the blow. It hurts. More than anything I’ve ever experienced. I don’t want to go through that again. I want to know for certain that this relationship is going somewhere. I don’t want to waste my time if it’s not going to produce the desired end result. I’m just tired of being disappointed. I know the whole thing sounds so clinical, but it’s time to start thinking about this more logically, and practically. It’s simple really. I figure it takes less than six months to decide whether or not you want to spend the rest of your life with a person. After the six-month mark, there should be an evaluation of the relationship to see whether both parties wish to pursue things farther. If one or both can’t see marriage in the immediate future, then it’s time to part ways and start back at square one.

HANDSOME MAN
I’m sorry. I don’t mean to intrude…

ANNA
And yet…you do.

HANDSOME MAN
But, I couldn’t help but over hear your conversation. You talk as if marriage is more like a business transaction, rather than a loving, nurturing relationship?

ANNA
I’m getting to old to be a hopeless romantic. I spent my 20’s waiting for Mr. Right to ride in on his White Horse and sweep me off my feet, and I was convinced that that was the only way it could be. And as you can see…the b*****d stood me up. Besides, I’ve come to learn that men are just not as romantic as women would like to believe. No offence.

HANDSOME MAN
None taken. However, I fear you are stereotyping all of us men. Maybe you’ve just had the unfortunate luck of dating the wrong guys? …No offense.

ANNA
None taken. But if I may ask…are you married?

HANDSOME MAN
No.

ANNA
And may I also ask, why not?

HANDSOME MAN
You may ask…but that doesn’t exactly mean I’m going to answer. Again, sorry for the intrusion, and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. It’s a beautiful day.


Handsome Man throws a tip down on his table and leaves the café. The women watch him, as he walks down the sidewalk and turns the corner out of site.


SAM
That was…

ANNA
Interesting…

SAM
Yeah…very.  Anyway, Anna, listen.

ANNA
(Distracted)
What does he know? ‘Maybe you’re dating the wrong guys’! Heh! OBVIOUSLY, I’ve been dating the wrong guys!  But that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

SAM
Huh?

ANNA
I’ve never taken this much control in my relationships before. I’ve always just dated who ever came along.  Well, NO MORE! It’ll be just like interviewing for a job! There will be a screening process, a 90-day trial period, evaluations and a contract renewal based on performance.

SAM
I’ve officially declared you nuts!

ANNA
I’m okay with that.

SAM
So, where do we start?

ANNA
How about with…(looks over menu)the Waldorf Salad.  It’s fabulous here!


Waiter comes over and takes Anna and Sam’s orders.


SAM
So, how are things at work?

ANNA
Our clients were HORRIBLE this week! They don’t seem to remember why they hired us. One client wants to do all the things that are wrong for their business, and another forgets that I’m the copywriter. I swear, sometimes I wonder why they even hire ad agencies. They still think they’re always right. …if that’s the case then what the hell do they pay us for?

SAM
It’s the nature of the beast, I suppose. All clients are the same, really. If they don’t take your advice, right off the bat they beat around the bush, and make you change the idea from top to bottom before agreeing that it was right on the money the first time around!

ANNA
Tell me about it!

SAM
Does that spacey receptionist still work there?

ANNA
Yeah. Selena’s a wing nut all right.  I went to lunch with her last week and she proceeded to tell me all about the last time she was abducted by aliens.

SAM
You’re kidding.

ANNA
No. And neither was she.  I laughed at first and told her she was crazy. You should have seen the look she gave me. You could have sworn someone had just died.

SAM
Wow!

ANNA
Wait…it gets better. Then she starts to tell me all about how the aliens reprogrammed her to be a nymphomaniac.

SAM
What?!

ANNA
Yeah! She says they implanted a monitoring device in her brain to measure activity during sex. She even took my hand and pressed it to a spot on her head.

SAM
Yuck!  Did you feeling anything?


ANNA
Felt like an ordinary bump to me. Anyway, I guess she thought since she shared this secret with me that I was now her confidant because the next day after we had lunch, she comes skipping into my office and proceeds to tell me all the details about her most recent sexual study.  I was like, “WHOA, Selena…shouldn’t you be transmitting all this info back to the mother ship?” 

SAM
Did you really say that?

ANNA
I did.  Filter must have been turned off.  She got a little offended, and hasn’t spoken to me since.
SAM
Amazing.  You work with the strangest people!

ANNA
You’re telling me! Enough about my job…how’s yours going?

SAM
Can’t complain.  The kids are a handful, but they’re just so funny.  I can’t get enough of them.


Their food arrives and the waiter eyes Anna flirtatiously, then walks away.


SAM
He’s kind of cute.


ANNA
Sam, he’s a waiter! I do have standards you know.

SAM
What’s wrong with being a waiter? You were a waitress all through college?  How many dates did you get out of that?

ANNA
That’s not the point.  I was in College.

SAM
Which means what, exactly?

ANNA
For starters, he’s probably too young.  21 or 22, and just getting ready to graduate college. I don’t need that kind of drama, so don’t even go there.  I know that look.  And two, if he’s older, then what the hell is he doing with his life that he’s a waiter at 32?

SAM
Maybe he’s an aspiring actor?

ANNA
Right. Like I need one of those on my plate. Don’t you remember Mark, the Magician?

SAM
Oh, right! The pot-smoking magician. He was fun!

ANNA
He was a loser! He wanted to be an actor, and worked part time as a magician in a joke shop.  Know where else he worked?  …Davis and Maine—as a waiter!

Sam, I need a guy who’s got a career, not still waiting for one to start.  I want a guy who’s independent, not still living in his mother’s basement.  I want a guy who’s emotionally available, and not afraid to give his heart to me.


SAM
But, he IS cute!

ANNA
Oh, get off it!

SAM
So how is this going to work, exactly?

ANNA
Well, I figure when I find someone with some potential, I’ll set up a date…more like a fact finding mission. If I deem them acceptable, then we’ll proceed to a second date. At the end of the second date, if all goes well, then I will present the contract.

SAM
And if they refuse to sign it?

ANNA
Then I move on.

SAM
Well, you do seem to have thought this through.

ANNA
That, I have.

Reviews

[zak]

This is cute (-:

After I get through the chick flicky - ness of the screen play its good. I would tell you to cut down more on the dialogue, because it is a screenplay, and increase action.

I just finished this book last week by syd field. Its called screenplay. Its pretty legit. It says something though about keeping all dialogue shorter than a few minutes, because it gets too boring.

Check it out though.

Keep on keepin on, andl et me know when you get more stuff !