Alternative

October 10, 2008 at 9:43AM

Wake up to a text from Beth.

Do you want to see a movie or something today?

I sit up in bed and start typing a reply. Then I pause. Might be better to wait a little bit. Looks better if it takes longer to get back to her: like I'm busy, like she isn't the only person I'm texting.

Later. After shower and cereal, another text from her.

There's a 3pm screening of this great black and white British film from 1945 at this repertory theatre near my place.

I smile when I see this.

That sounds good. Meet you there at 2:45pm?

She starts typing a reply instantly.

Great!

I'm about to start getting ready, when I get another text. This one is from Alex.

Hey bro, great show last night. Forgot to ask you, was Beth okay before the show? I saw that you guys were hugging, was she freaking out or some shit?

More or less. No need for me to go into more detail.

I type a reply:

Hey dude, had a lot of fun last night too. Yeah, Beth was freaking out about the performance and just said she needed a hug from someone, and I happened to be there. I thought we all did great though.

I can see that he's writing back already.

Thought so. She's mentioned her anxiety to me too...

I don't know how to respond to this, so I just leave it.

He starts typing another text.

And agreed bro! We killed it!!

Good endnote for the text conversation. I don't want to have to lie to him if he asks me what I'm doing today.

Beth and I meet up at this small art house cinema that looks like it might have been around when this movie first came out.

She's sitting on a bench by the theatre, dressed all in black and reading something on her phone. I'm not sure if it'd be okay to kiss her here. I kind of assume this is a date but we hadn't talked about anything after that first kiss.

She pulls out a book.

"I finished it, so you're welcome to borrow it, if you still want to..."

She hands it to me, and I look at the cover: A Brief History of Time.

"Oh, cool," I say.

I'm not sure when I'll get around to reading it, or if I'll even be able to understand it.

"Should we head in?"

"Yup. Let's do it."

We line up at the concession stand inside. She gets a large popcorn and a virgin cocktail.

The movie is about these two really proper, settled-in-their-lives people who happen to meet in this little café at the train station they pass through every day. They're both happily, or at least comfortably, married to other people but there's an immediate connection between the two of them, and they can't help but want to continue seeing each other. Slowly, a romance develops. There's a scene in the movie where the female character is sitting across from the male character in the train station café, and she's listening to him speak, and her eyes change as she looks at him. She doesn't just glance at him; she really looks at him. And this really bright smile comes over her face, like she's full of feeling. And then she says something like: "I can see exactly what you must have been like as a little boy."