Intimacy

Finally having attained some success later in his career as a short-story writer, a man decides to stop by his ex-wife’s house unannounced, though they have not seen each other for four years. Immediately upon seeing him, the ex-wife launches into a long, passionate monologue filled with bitterness and anger, all directed toward her ex-husband for his betrayal of her. Through the vitriol and pain, however, comes the clarity of genuine emotional connection—one that the woman cannot help but continue to feel toward this man. When at last the attack begins to fade and the ex-wife takes up a normal tone, the writer is on his knees holding fast to the hem of her dress. This moment of possibility is suddenly lost when she realizes the potential for trouble if her current husband were to show up on time for his daily lunch. Suggesting that her ex-husband is there only to use her as fodder for more fiction, the ex-wife then asks him to leave, and he obliges.