Ninety by Joanna Murray-Smith

Author:Joanna Murray-Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Currency Press
Published: 2011-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

WILLIAM: [hurt, shocked] You didn’t enjoy sex with me?

ISABEL: At the start. But later, to be honest, you were just a little too genteel.

WILLIAM: What?

ISABEL: If a man reveals no hidden aspect of his character when making love, a woman always wonders what’s there.

WILLIAM: I was too nice?

ISABEL: Women don’t like their lovers too well-mannered. Otherwise, you might as well play cards.

WILLIAM: Sex with me was like playing cards?

ISABEL: I kept wondering: Who is he really? As if your most unruly self was just a little bit afraid. Didn’t you feel that yourself?

WILLIAM: [shocked] I—No. No. [Beat.] Why didn’t you tell me?

ISABEL: I couldn’t shape you into the lover I wanted. Analysis kills desire. And does it matter? Really? I’m sure there were times we closed our eyes and I was your young Catherine Deneuve and you were my Jean-Claude Van Damme.

WILLIAM: [horrified] You thought of Jean-Claude Van Damme?

ISABEL: He was playing an art conservator in a new film and I was his adviser.

WILLIAM: And who was the casting agent? Mickey fucking Mouse? No-one would cast Jean-Claude Van Damme as an art conservator!

ISABEL: I would. And he adored me because none of his other girlfriends ate.

WILLIAM: You’re wrong. I know how well we… I remember how deeply we… Not always, but at our best—yes. We were great…

ISABEL: [quietly] Were we?

WILLIAM: I… I loved sex with you.

ISABEL: Maybe your standards are just lower.

WILLIAM: Remember when we hiked—Cradle Mountain—when the storm hit and we—

ISABEL: Yes.

WILLIAM: That time after the thing in the place when they left—

ISABEL: Yes.

WILLIAM: And the French B and B, in the attic, with the dust mites and we—

ISABEL: Yes.

WILLIAM: Well?

ISABEL: What?

WILLIAM: [tenderly, caught in the memory] Well, that was wonderful. That was—wasn’t that wonderful?

ISABEL: [with very quiet triumph] Yes.

Beat.

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