Dinner, Sex and a Movie(18)

Jake:

I had to make her let go of me.



Emma:

You fled the country. You cut and ran.



Jake:

No, if only I had. I stayed. It was the single biggest mistake of my life.



Emma:

Then how did you do it?



Jake doesn’t answer right away.



Jake:

I made her hate me.



Emma places a hand over Jake’s heart.



Emma (seeing his pain):

I shouldn’t, for my own sake. But I’m going to give you some quarter on this.



Pause.



Emma:

Whatever you did – it worked?



Jake:

It almost killed her, except she fell straight back into Peter’s arms, as I planned.



Emma:

What happened to them?



Jake:

No idea. I have no place in their lives, whether they stayed together or split.



Emma:

So why did you run? To avoid your society?



Jake:

No, they are all pussies. I ran because I was out of my mind in pain.



Emma:

But you had to go to Manhattan first. To return the ring.



Jake:

No, I have the ring. It’s here now.



Emma (surprised):

I’m a nosey, intrusive bitch, and this is a small apartment. Why didn’t I find it?



Jake:

It’s in the only place that matters to me.



Emma (realizing):

It’s in your guitar case. The only thing I showed respect.



Jake:

Yes. It’s been there since the morning I left Andover.



Emma (confused):



Why?



Jake:

I thought I bought the ring for Diana. But I realized I really bought it for the woman I am going to marry. And Diana wasn’t Her. So it had to stay with me. I have it, and a guitar.



Emma:

If you didn’t have to go to New York, why fly out from Newark?



Jake:

I had some trouble with the police in Boston.



Emma:

Outside of Logan?



Jake:

I’m the one who beat the shit out of Jerry in the parking garage.



Emma:

I like that.



Jake:

I liked it too. But Adam wasn’t with him, so I couldn’t finish the job. And I was seen. I had to get out of Massachusetts. I’ve never been back.



Emma:

You took his car.



Jake:

Why not? It was the easiest means to an end. Besides, he got it back.



Emma:

Somehow you have no warrants.



Jake:

I don’t care either way.



Emma:

Amsterdam was probably a bad choice. It might have killed you.



Jake:

It nearly did. But Amsterdam was the only place that could understand me right then.



Emma:

And now here you are.



Jake looks cautiously at Emma, confused by the lack of questioning.



Emma (explaining):

I’ve been to Amsterdam. I can probably guess that part pretty accurately.



Jake:

Being with you, right here, right now, helps. More than you know.



Emma:

I’m not your duct tape, Jake.



Jake:

I didn’t mean you were.



Emma:

I’m me. I need to be loved for me.



Jake:

I do. You are –



Emma silences him with her finger over his lips.



Emma:

You don’t. You love Diana. It’s been there in your eyes since you said her name.



Jake:

You made me say her name. I would never have brought her up once without you insisting. You know that’s true.



Emma:

Good thing I did. Otherwise I would have never known about you and her.



Jake:

There is no me and her. There never can be and there never will be.



Emma:

So? That won’t stop you from loving her.



Jake:

Getting over things is a myth. Time buries things, it doesn’t erase them. They can always be dug up later. That applies to everyone – including you.



Emma:

You’re desperate to get beyond her. You’ll try anything. Now I understand why you called a phone number written under a piano.



Jake:

Entirely and completely wrong. I’m as simple as it gets. I believe in old school ideas, like Fate and Love. And those are what brought me to you.



Emma (mocking his words):

“Dysfunctional, counter-productive fairy tales.”



Jake:

Touché. But I believe in them, nonetheless.



Emma:

That is cute, I must admit.



Jake:

See?



Emma:

I said “cute.” It doesn’t make you a wealthy Alpha male.



Jake:

Can you just drop your routine for once? This has been the best week either one of us has had in a very long time.



Emma:

That’s true.



Jake:

Then why not stay with me?



Emma:

You’re serious?



Jake:

You know I’m serious. I adore you. So why not stay?



Emma steels herself.



Emma (coldly):

To recap: you used to wreck others’ lives, you’ve likely slept with prostitutes, and you have nothing to your name, except a guitar and some comic books. And a ring you bought for another woman.



Jake (hurt):

Christ, who trained you, Miss Havisham?