Dialogue of Desire

The sun is coming through the living room window, casting a grid work pattern onto the carpet. She outlines it with her toe as he watches.

“So what do you want me to do?” she says.

“I don’t know… nothing I guess.” He replies.

“How can you say that after what you’ve just told me? You obviously want something here.”

“All I want is to be able to do this one thing. I just wanted your support, that’s all. I assumed you’d be able to do that.” He sighs and places his fingers on his temples. His frustration shows.

She grimaces and turns her back to him, folding her arms around herself and staring at the mantle above the fireplace.

“Can’t you understand that I need to do this?” he asks.

“No! I don’t understand at all! It’s stupid and irresponsible and….”

He can see that she is crying now. He can’t see her face, but her shoulders shake as she tries to control herself, giving it away.

“Please… please don’t cry. Maybe we should take a break and talk about this when we’re both a little calmer.” He says as he walks towards her, reaching out to touch her.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” she spits, “Get out of my house.”

He turns away and walks to the kitchen, grabbing his coat and helmet. He jingles his keys a little as he does up the zippers on his boots.

“I’ll call you later?” He says as he opens the screen door.

All he hears is her sobbing from the living room as a reply.

Dear Reader:

This was another piece from a workshop, where we were instructed to bring emotion and tension to a situation, but not ever explain what the situation was. We were supposed to give hints throughout, but never really say what exactly the "desire" is.

I am interested, with this piece, to find out what you, reader, thought the situation between our two characters is. I got so many different responses from the workshop, but I want to broaden the audience a bit.

Thank you for reading,

Cardeia