Scene

“Let me tell you something.  I give everybody the benefit of the doubt.  Just once.  Then that’s it.”

He turned his head slightly and spat on the floor.  He wasn’t in the habit of doing that, but something disgusted him.  Something tasted bad in his mouth.

“If you want to screw me around, go ahead.  I don’t really care, because by the time you’ve finished I won’t have the slightest interest in you ever again.  When I make my mind up there's no going back.”

She stared at him.  Her face was still and calm.  He found her hard to read.  Not from some twisted interest in psychology – wanting to get inside her head – he just liked to know where he was being led.

“OK.” he said, “I’m going.  I’ve got things I need to do.  I can’t hang around here playing games.”

“Wait a minute!”  She caught his sleeve and for a moment they were frozen in the tungsten glow of the street lamp.

He let his arm hang and looked down at her hand.  She let go.

“Don’t be so quick to judge me.”

He looked back into her eyes.  He’d seen something in them once that made him think she was different.  Someone he could trust.  Someone good – who respected other human beings.  He didn’t know why but, for as long as he could remember, nothing meant more to him than the trust of another person, and nothing hurt him more than having his trust broken.  It gave him a reputation for being cold, but he was known, in turn, for his loyalty.

“Are you trying to tell me you haven’t been screwing me around?”

“Honestly.  Really.  I wouldn’t do that to you.”  Her eyes had begun to fill with the passion and energy that he’d found so hard to ignore all those years ago.  She brought a presence into any room she entered.

He felt his simple view of the world becoming complex and difficult to handle again.

“What do you want from me?” he asked.

“I don’t know.  Just someone who understands.  Someone who cares.  Who doesn’t judge me.  Who doesn’t treat me like dirt.”

“So why treat me like dirt?”  He’d turned back to face her, looking deeply into her eyes but with a distracted, distant quality.  He was doubting himself.

She touched his arm again.  “I would never do that.  Please.  Believe me.”

“I wish I could.  More than anything else, I wish I could.”

His mouth hardened into a single thin line.

“I’m sorry.”

He turned and walked quickly away the way he’d come.

She stood completely still under the lamp, looking down at her feet.

Somewhere in the distance, a train siren echoed down the empty streets.