Andrew

A Moroccan Cigarette Case - A play in One Act

A CAR HAS JUST PULLED UP OUTSIDE A NEW INNER CITY APARTMENT COMPLEX, THERE ARE TWO PEOPLE INSIDE IT, A MAN, (IN THE DRIVING SEAT), AND A WOMAN IN THE PASSENGER SEAT. BOTH THE MAN AND THE WOMAN ARE IN THEIR LATE TWENTIES. HE IS IN A PLAIN UNBRANDED BLACK T-SHIRT, PATCHED JEANS, SHE IS ALSO IN BLACK CLOTHING. THE WOMAN IS JUST FINISHING A BRIEF PHONE CALL.
SALLY: “Every bloody time.”
SHE REACHES IN HER BAG FOR A PACK OF CIGARETTES.
MICHAEL: “God it’s hot. More than a year and I still can’t get over this heat.
SALLY LIGHTS HER CIGARETTE
MICHAEL: “I thought you were quitting?”
SALLY: “There’s no such thing as quitting, just longer pauses between relapses.”
MICHAEL: “He’s running late?”
SALLY: “He was meeting me here. What am I supposed to do now?”
MICHAEL: “You could maybe come up for awhile, I’m sure Todd won’t mind. I don’t know about Ian though, he can be a little…”
SALLY: “What the hell, me and a load of gay guys.”
MICHAEL: “Charming, anyway, I thought you were only interested in Steve?”
SALLY: “That’s not what I meant and I am, ‘only interested’ when he bothers to show up……what!”
MICHAEL: “Steve’s always doing this. It’s like your time’s not important compared to his.”
SALLY: “You’re a good friend Michael.”
MICHAEL: “Meaning shut up and don’t judge?”
SALLY: “Well…”
MICHAEL: “Even when I’m right?”
SALLY: “Especially when you’re right.”
PAUSE, THEY BOTH SIT FOR A MOMENT SAYING NOTHING.
MICHAEL, (SIGHING): “What are friends for, c’mon.”
THEY GET OUT OF THE CAR, LOCK IT UP AND BUZZ THE APARTMENT INTERCOM
SALLY: “So what’s the story with this party?”
MICHAEL: “Todd.”
SALLY: “The pretty boy you met on that freelance job? What about him?”
MICHAEL: “Me and him are, y’know, having sex at the moment and I’m having a hard time quitting.”
SALLY: “Then don’t.”
MICHAEL: “Well, it’s his boyfriend Ian’s party.”
SALLY: “WHAT!”
MICHAEL: “They have an open relationship. I just don’t know exactly what that means or what the etiquette for this is.”
THE INTERCOM FINALLY RESPONDS TO MICHAEL’s BUZZING, A VOICE SAYS, ‘TOP FLOOR’, SALLY PUTS HER CIGARETTE OUT AS THEY GO IN
SALLY: “You live in a fucked up world, you know that?”
MICHAEL: “We all live in a fucked up world, I just admit it more readily than you do, anyway, this is Sydney, sex is a gay handshake.”
SALLY: “Go ahead, blame Geography.”
MICHAEL: “You’re being disapproving.”
SALLY: “That’s because I disapprove.”
MICHAEL: “You’re a prude.”
SALLY, (JABBING HIM IN THE RIBS): “Slut.”
THE LIFT ARRIVES
THE APARTMENT IS ANYTHING BUT HUMBLE, MODERN, DESIGNER, ALL SURFACES AND SLEEK, PEPPERED WITH ART OBJECTS. THERE ARE FIVE PEOPLE ALREADY THERE, MICHAEL WAVES AT A YOUNG ATTRACTIVE MAN WHO WINKS SAUCILY BACK AT HIM. SALLY IS THE ONLY WOMAN AT THE PARTY. AN EARLY MIDDLE AGED MAN COMES OVER AND EFFUSIVELY GREETS MICHAEL, WHEN MICHAELINTRODUCES SALLY HIS GREETING OF HER IS MUCH MORE CURSORY THAN THE ONE MICHAEL RECIEVES.
IAN: “Welcome to my humble abode, both of you. Todd dear, your birthday present’s here.”
MICHAEL LOOKS CONFUSED, SALLY COVERS THE PAUSE AS THEY SIT ON A LARGE BLACK LEATHER COUCH
SALLY: “Ian, your apartment is amazing, may I?”
SHE POINTS AT A BOX ON THE COFFEE TABLE WITH INTRICATE INLAY AND ELABORATE MARKETRY
SALLY: “What is this?”
IAN: “A cigarette case.”
SALLY: “You see Michael, I’m not the only one who smokes.”
IAN: “I don’t actually.”
SALLY: “Oh. Well, it looks exotic.”
IAN: “It’s Moroccan.”
SALLY, (SMILING, SUDDENLY INTERESTED): “What’s it like.”
IAN: “Where?”
SALLY, (PUZZLED): “Morocco?”
IAN: “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been.”
SALLY, (IRRITATED): “So, you don’t smoke and you’ve never been to Morocco?”
IAN, (AMUSED): “It’s not here because it’s useful or meaningful dear, it’s here because it’s beautiful.”
SHE LOOKS POINTEDLY OVER TO TOOD AS HE APPROACHES THEM WITH DRINKS.
IAN, (SEEING WHAT SHE’S ASUMING, STILL AMUSED): “Todd honey, could we have a top up over here, Michael’s token heterosexual’s getting a little parched?”
SALLY: (REALLY IRRITATED NOW): “Look, no offence Ian, but I don’t like being called ‘token’, or ‘dear’.”
IAN: “Good for you, but when you get to my age, you realise that dear old Oscar was right, however it happens, there’s only one thing worse than being called and that’s not being called at all.”
HE POINTS AT HER MOBILE
IAN: “How’s yours ringing lately?”
SALLY: “That’s not the proper quote, it was something to do with being talked about, wasn’t it?”
IAN, (FINALLY ANNOYED): “I know.”
SALLY, (REALIZING HE WAS BEING IRONIC): “Oh.”
TODD ARRIVES WITH THREE GLASSES
IAN: “For God’s sake Todd, have I taught you nothing? There’s no ice in these drinks and in this heat too.”
IAN TAKES THEIR DRINKS AND LEAVES THEIR SIDE AS TODD SITS DOWN NEXT TO MICHAEL
MICHAEL, (WHISPERING): “Todd, what did he mean, ‘birthday present, it’s his birthday, not yours, right?”
TODD: “Oh ignore him, he was hoping you were from me to him, he’s just fishing for a ‘plan B’. Gavin’s let us down and isn’t coming over so he’s spent the last three hours on gaydar trying to sort us out a threesome for later.”
MICHAEL: “I just don’t fancy him.”
SALLY: “Being a ‘plan B’ is what you shouldn’t fancy, I swear Michael, your priorities.”
TODD (SHRUGGING): “Whatever.”
SALLY, (UNSURE WEATHER HE WAS TALKING TO HER OR MICHAEL): “So, um, what do you do Todd?”
TODD: “I.T. manager, bores the shit out of me, but I seem to be good at it.”
SALLY: “Do something else if it bores you.”
TODD: “It pays, very well and the money doesn’t bore me. I’m too materialistic to consider giving it up. I want my thirty foot yacht one day”
TURNING TO MICHAEL
TODD: “Hey, did I tell you, I got that promotion, I earn nearly as much as Ian does now, which winds him up no end.”
IAN, PASSING BY THEM, RETURNS THEIR DRINKS (WITH ICE IN THEM). THE BELL RINGS, TODD EXCUSES HIMSELF AND LEAVES THEM TO ANSWER IT
SALLY, (AFTER IAN’S MOVED AWAY): “I feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty woman, ‘these are your friends’? How the hell did you meet them?”
MICHAEL: “I told you, that freelance job I did a month ago, Todd works in their studio and he flirted, I called his bluff, I assumed he didn’t have a boyfriend at the time.”
SALLY: “Well, that was then, we’re here now because?”
MICHAEL: “Look, the way he lives might be a little off most people’s radar, but he doesn’t lie about it or pretend to be living in a way he’s not. What you see is what you get, I’ve never met anybody that up front.”
SALLY: “Ends matter as much as means you know.”
MICHAEL: “Don’t’ be so…”
SALLY: “What, ‘disapproving’?”
MICHAEL: “It’s their choice. I’m still getting my head around Sydney. People couldn’t live like this back where I’m from. I’ve never had a threesome.”
SALLY: “Oh God, you think this is cool?”
SALLY’S PHONE RINGS
SALLY: “Steve! 7A, It’s apartment, 7A, but I’ll come down. What? Well, it’s not my party, I’d feel bad doing that. Steve?”
SHE REMOVES THE MOBILE FROM HER EAR AND LOOKS AT IT, IT’S GONE DEAD. THE APARTMENT BUZZER GOES. SALLY GETS UP AND CROSSES TO LET STEVE IN AND WAITS BY THE APARTMENT DOOR FOR HIM TO COME UP IN THE LIFT.

MEANWHILE IAN HAS COME BACK AND SAT HIMSELF NEXT TO MICHAEL WHO IS ALONE ON THE SOFA.
IAN: “We have rules you know.”
MICAHEL: “Pardon?”
IAN: “Me and Todd, or should that be ‘Todd and I’, grammar never was my strong point?”
MICHAEL: “Um?”
IAN: “One of them is we don’t play around with other people here, in our home.”
MICHAEL: “Ian.”
IAN: “Oh don’t worry. I’m not blaming you. It’s the assumption I wouldn’t care that grates. He didn’t even bother trying to pretend he’d taken you anywhere else and I bet he didn’t mention to you that he was breaking one of our little rules? It’s very apt that phrase, little rules, they shrink further with ever month.”
MICHAEL: “I’m sorry.”
IAN: “What have you got to be sorry about?”
IAN PUTS HIS HAND ON MICHAEL’S SHOULDER
MICHAEL: “I don’t fancy you.”
IAN REMOVES HIS HAND
IAN: “Well, that’s that out of the way. What do you fancy then? What brought you to ‘sin city’? Searching for someone to love and be loved by? Maybe a job you don’t hate?”
IAN: “You sound mocking?”
MICHAEL: “Not at all, as aspirations go, those are modest, but worthy.”
MICHAEL: “You talk…”
IAN: “Bollocks?”
MICHAEL: “Elaborately.”
IAN: “Forgive an old thespian his quirks.”
MICAHEL: “I thought you ran a theatre, you’re an actor?”
IAN: “I found out I was better at providing a good stage than I was at being on one, surprisingly good actually, would you like some more canapés?”
MICHAEL: “Well, you do well.”
IAN, (GESTURING AT THE APARTMENT): “All this? Filthy lucre, mere matter, the stuff of physics, it’s our spirits that count in the end. Confuse not the cart of life, for the horse.So, what do you want?”
MICHAEL: “Not sure yet, still looking around.”
IAN: “Oh dear.”
MICHAEL: “What?”
IAN: “The worst of answers, time will pass, opportunity fades, swiftly for those who refuse to compete. Others who are sure will beat you, to whatever it is you think you want. Take Giovanni over there, I’ve seen you looking. Giovanni realized when he first came to Sydney that he came here for sex, lots of it. Don’t look at me like that, like you’re above the urge. Let’s face it, it’s what most men of your age and our persuasion come to cities like this for. The jobs they end up working in are often ones you could do anywhere. But not Giovanni’s, he’s earned a small fortune working for the Falcon porn label. Oh I know, I know, the blossom in his cheek is about to turn to chalk, but Giovanni knows that too. Now he wants, other things, but he did what he set out to, he went through, not around. Can you say the same?”
MICHAEL: “So I’m in existential crisis because I don’t want a threesome with you and Todd? Not everything’s about sex.”
IAN, (LOOKING ACROSS THE ROOM TO TODD): “Oh I do so hope you’re right.”

SALLY HAS COME BACK TO THE COUCH AND SITS DOWN WITH HER ARMS FOLDED
MICHAEL: “Where’s Steve, I thought I saw you let him in?”
SALLY (PISSED OFF): “Kitchen, drinks!”
MICHAEL: “Oh dear.”
SALLY: “Oh, fuck it!”
SHE STANDS BACK UP AND HEADS FOR THE KITCHEN

IN THE KITCHEN
CARL: “You should come to Arq with us.”
STEVE, (LAUGHING): “Look, you may know your porches, but you don’t’ know how to pull chicks. What good’s Arq gonna do me mate?”
CARL: “You kidding, Ian’s brother used to go with us all the time and he’d never leave without at least two offers. It’s the best place in town for a pussy hunt. it’s peppered with straight chicks who get wound up by hot topless gay guys who don’t care they even exist and who they can’t get their hands on. And there you are, right in the thick of all that agitated oestrogen, no competition saying ‘come and get it, I’m all man.”
GIOVANNI: “As opposed to all the other gay men in the crowd who aren’t?”
CARL: “Oh here we go, look I didn’t mean…”
GIOVANNI: “Yes you did, that’s exactly the kind of internalised self hatred…”
CARL: “You should talk to his girlfriend, you’d get on great. Ian said she’s politically correct too.”
STEVE: “You know, man, that’s crazy, but it makes sense.”
CARL: “If you want, I’ll let you drive us there in my porche?”
CARL AND GIOVANNI NOD OVER STEVE’S SHOULDER, INDICATING A ‘BEHIND YOU’ LOOK.
STEVE: “Yeah? That sounds great… oh hi Sally.”
SALLY: “Don’t ‘hi’ me. ‘Pussy hunt’, ‘that sounds great’, what the hell….”

APARTMENT BALCONY, FIVE MINUTES LATER AFTER SALLY’S CLEARED THE KITCHEN BY FALLING OUT WITH STEVE
MICHAEL IS ON THE BALCONY, WITH ANOTHER GUY, THE STRANGER IS SMOKING.
SALLY, (GESTURING AT PETER’S CIGARETTE): “Thank God, I’m not the only one yet, can I?”
PETER, (OFFERING HER A CIGARETTE): “Sure.”
MICHAEL: “You look pissed off?”
SALLY, (TERSE): “I’m fine.”
GIOVANNI COMES OUT OF THE MAIN PARTY AREA TO JOIN THEM
MICHAEL, (TO GIOVANNI, EAGER): “Hi, I’m Michael.”
GIOVANNI: “Yeah, we’ve met before.”
MICAHEL, (BLUSHING): “You work at the Wharfe Theatre, front of desk, I’ve seen you there.”
GIOVANNI: “That’s not the only place you’ve seen me.”
MICHAEL, (PUZZLED): “I beg your pardon.”
GIOVANNI: “You fucked me in Centennial Park, around midnight, about a year ago.”
SALLY, (SPLUTTERING HER DRINK): “Oh my God!”
GIOVANNI, (MORE AMUSED THAN ANYTHING ELSE): “You don’t remember do you?”
MICHAEL, (NOTHING TO LOSE NOW): “If you know it was, ‘around midnight’, you obviously do.”
GIOVANNI: “You want to do it again?”
MICHAEL: “Yeah.”
GIOVANNI: “We’ll see.”
HE TOSSES MICHAEL A CARD AND LEAVES THE BALCONY
SALLY: “Is there one of those ‘beat’ places you’ve told me about in the park?”
MICHAEL, (BLUSHING, BUT NOT BACKING DOWN): “You know far too much about the Sydney scene, you know that.”
SALLY: “Less than you by the sounds of it. You’d only just got to Sydney a year ago and you’ve been doing beats all this time?”
MICHAEL: “Only when I’m single.”
SALLY: “So more or less all year then?”
PETER, (PLAYFULLY TONE, HE’S BEEN WATCHING SALLY FOR AWHILE): “You object?”
SALLY: “To the fact he’s been doing beats?”
PETER: “To victimless consenting behaviour between adults?”
SALLY: “Oh please!”
PETER: “I’m really asking.”
SALLY: “Well leaving aside it’s potentially dangerous and illegal...”
PETER: “Statistically speaking, it’s not dangerous. Individuals are more at risk from people they know than they are from strangers.”
SALLY: “It’s illegal.”
PETER, OFFERING HER A CIGARETTE: “It won’t be long before these are illegal too, I bet that won’t stop you smoking unless you want to? And don’t tell me you’ve never tried an E?”
SALLY, (TAKING HIS CIGARETTE): “Don’t tell me, beats are ‘just sex’, right?”
PETER: “Most women underestimate the pressure men feel to have sex.”
SALLY: “Michael wants intimacy, at least more than just getting laid, he’s told me he wants, intimacy.”
MICHAEL: “You two do know I’m still here, right…”
PETER: “What I admire about my brother’s world is that it doesn’t have to be either or, his life has he’s taught me that there’s no shame in pleasure, for him anyway. Maybe men just tend to understand each other better in that regard?”
SALLY: “That’s the most sexist thing, I’ve ever heard, I just couldn’t let someone objectify me like that.”
AKWARD SILENCE, THEN
SALLY, (GESTURING WITH HER CIGARETTE): “I’m supposed to be quitting.”
PETER: “There’s no such thing, just bigger gaps between fuck ups.”
SALLY LOOKS AT HIM AGAIN, MORE INTENTLEY
PETER: “Well, I have a dilemma now.”
SALLY SAYS NOTHING
MICHAEL: “Which is?”
PETER: “Sally here is just as much an object as are. And in her case I think it’s a beautiful and intriguing one, but you’ve just told me you don’t welcome anyone showing they appreciate that part of your reality, so I’m stuck here. Can you help me out?”
SALLY, (CONFUSED/DEFENSIVE): “What did you mean earlier, when you said ‘my brother’s world’?”
PETER: “Smokers aren’t the only ‘dying breed’ in central Sydney, I’m Ian’s brother, the other ‘token heterosexual’ here, hello.”
SALLY (WARILY): “The guy who goes on ‘pussy hunts’ in Arq? Your reputation precedes you.”
PETER, (SMILING): “I’d prefer you make up your own mind about me Sally, especially in a crowd like this. But I’d have thought a girl like you would appreciate a straight man confident enough to be comfortable in an environment like Arq?”
SALLY: “Depends how confident.”
MICHAEL, SMILING, LEAVES THEM TO IT AND GETS ANOTHER DRINK.

BY THE BOATHROOM DOOR, MICHAEL QUEING BESIDE GIOVANNI
GIOVANNI: “Ian was hoping to share you with Todd.”
MICHAEL: “Tough.”
GIOVANNI TURNS TO LOOK AT HIM, SAYS NOTHING, MICHAEL BREAKS EYE CONTACT
MICHAEL: “Ian said you wanted ‘other things’, what things?”
GIOVANNI: “You really want to know?”
PAUSE
GIOVANNI: “Well?”
MICHAEL: “I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”
GIOVANNI: “What are you doing after the party?”
MICHAEL: “Whatever you are?”
GIOVANNI SMILES.
THE TOILET DOOR OPENS, TODD IS STANDING JUST INSIDE IT. HE TAKES ONE LOOK AND GRABS GIOVANNI AND PULLS HIM IN. MICHAEL MOVES FORWARD TO JOIN THEM, BUT TODD SHAKES HIS HEAD AND INDICATES SNIFFING HIS NOSE, (DRUGS?), AS THE DOOR CLOSES TODD AND GIOVANNI KISS.

FIVE MINUTES LATER, THE BALCONY
SALLY: “I don’t think I like your brother’s crowd, they’re mean.”
PETER: “Try not to judge, my brother’s crowd tends to be upfront.”
SALLY: “Michael’s said the same, but he’s British and he’s also always saying that diplomacy exists for a reason.”
(CACKLING FROM INSIDE THE APARTMENT, THEY LOOK OVER TO SEE ONE OF THE GUESTS, MAKING HIS WAY THROUGH THE LOUNGE CROWD WITH AN ENORMOUS BLACK RUBBER DILDO, IAN ROLLING HIS EYES AT THEM).
PETER: “Yeah well, we’re Australian and that doesn’t mean that reasons’ a good one. Look, people are laughing. Not you though. Why did Michael ask if you were alright earlier, you did look ‘tense’?”
SALLY: “I’ve split up with Steve.”
MICHAEL LOOKING OVER TOWARDS THE KITCHEN DOOR WHERE STEVE IS STILL TALKING TO SOMEONE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DIVIDING WALL
MICHAEL: “The guy you let in after you arrived? He’s still here.”
SALLY: “I’ve picked a fight in public, he won’t go straight away to save face.”
PETER: “But we’re all strangers to him.”
SALLY: “Even so, besides, I’m not a stranger, or I thought I wasn’t. And anyway, he’s getting on well with ‘I drive a porche Carl’, they’re planning a ‘pussy hunt’ in Arq.”
PETER: “He really shouldn’t do that.”
SALLY: “Steve can do what the hell he likes now.”
SHE PLAYS WITH HER DRINK A FEW SECONDS
SALLY: “Why not?”
PETER: “Because Carl will feed him drugs, pay for his drinks and get him so off his face he won’t know weather he’s coming or going and then he’ll try and have sex with him. Judging by his track record, he’s got a good chance of succeeding.”
SALLY: “Carl’s straight.”
PETER: “Which makes him irresistible, Carl only goes for straight men.”
SALLY, QUOTING GIOVANNI: “Internalised self-hatred.”
PETER: “WHAT?”
SALLY: “Nothing.”
PETER: “Well, Carl does better than you’d think. Money and drugs can move mountains.”
SALLY: “What Steve has is considerably less of a challenge.”
THEY BOTH LAUGH
PETER: “Innuendo? Sally, I think this crowd’s having an effect on you. Here, we need refills and you don’t look like you want to go back in there, I’ll get them.”
PETER STEPS OFF THE BALCONY TO GIVE IAN THEIR GLASSES AND ORDER A REFIL FROM HIM.
SALLY: “Have you ever?”
PETER: “Ever what?”
SALLY: “Been with Carl, or any other man?”
PETER: “No, I’m one hundred per cent straight.”
PAUSE
PETER: “Excuse me, I just need to use the little boy’s room. Don’t go anywhere?”
SHE SHAKES HER HEAD.
PETER: “Promise?”
SALLY NODS ONCE

IAN RETURNS WITH NEW DRINKS AND STAYS OUTSIDE WITH SALLY.
IAN: “So you’re a single woman again?”
SALLY: “Yep, they come and go and what changes?”
IAN: “The freedom to leave, it’s the one thing no can take from us in the end, don’t you think?”
SALLY: “Uh?”
IAN: “I expect Todd will, leave I mean, eventually.”
SALLY: “How long have you been together?”
IAN: “You know, people always ask that, as if duration bore any relation to intensity. I suppose from the outside it looks like an easy yardstick. What’s the matter, you look alarmed.”
SALLY: “You’re…”
IAN: “Hard work?”
SALLY: “Yeah.”
IAN: “So are you honey, didn’t you know, besides, nothing worth having comes easy.”
SALLY: “So you’d be the exception that proves the rule.”
HE LAUGHS AND RAISES HIS ALREADY ALMOST EMPTY GLASS TO TOAST HER
IAN: “Now, that’s more like it.”
SALLY, (SLIGHTLY SARCASTICLY): “Thanks for the verdict.”
SHE TOASTS HIS GLASS WITH HER OWN ALMOST FINISHED VODKA CRANBERRY
PETER RETURN WITH REFILS
IAN: “Ah, here we are.”
HE HANDS OUT DRINKS
IAN LOOKS ODDLY AT HIS GLASS, THEN STARES AT SALLY AND PETER’S WHICH ARE ABOUT TO BE DRUNK FROM
IAN: “Peter, where did you get the ice from?”
MICAHEL: “The freezer.”
IAN: “The one above the fridge?”
MICHAEL: “There was none in there, I used the little freezer next to; HEY.”
IAN SNATCHES THE DRINKS FROM THEM, THEN RUNS OFF THE BALCONY, THROUGH THE LOUNGE TOWARDS THE KITCHEN. HE SHOUTS SOMETHING TO TODD AS HE RUNS THROUGH, PETER AND SALLY DON’T CATCH WHAT IT IS OVER THE MUSIC AND CONVERSATION. THEY FOLLOW IN AND APPROACH TODD AND MICHAEL WHO ARE BACK ON THE COUCH NEAR GIOVANNI
PETER: “What the fuck?”
TODD: “It was frozen lube, not ice.”
SALLY: “Why would you freeze lube?”
PETER: “Sally…”
SALLY, (BLUSHING): “Oh. Peter, I think I need to leave now.”
PETER, (SURPRISED, PLEASED): “Oh, right, yeah, I could go too, if you need a lift?”
SALLY, (LOOKING TOWARDS THE KITCHEN WHERE IAN HAS DISAPPEARED TO): “Maybe, yeah, that might be a good idea. Michael, you need a lift anywhere?”
MICHAEL, (GLANCING AT GIOVANNI WHO IS TURNING THE CIGARETTE CASE OVER IN HIS HANDS): “I’m going to stay.”
SALLY, (LOOKING WARILY AT GIOVANNI): “You sure?”
MICHAEL, (STILL LOOKING AT GIOVANNI): “Not really, but there’s only one way to find out.”
HE STANDS UP AND WHISPERS AS HE KISSES HER GOODBYE ON THE CHEEK
MICAHEL: ‘Even when you’re right’, remember?”
SALLY: “What are friends for?”
SHE BLOWS HIM A KISS AND PUTS HER HAND ON PETER’S SHOULDER AS THEY TURN TO LEAVE, STEVE, STILL BEING TALKED AT BY CARL, IS SUDDENLY WATCHING HER FROM THE KITCHEN AS SHE LEAVES, BUT SALLY DOESN’T NOTICE.