[man] Of all the great American singers, she was probably the great linguist.
In fact, she once learned how to speak Hungarian
simply to be able to sing the Hungarian opera.
Well, here is Jessye Norman in her impeccable French,
singing "Je Te Veux" by Erik Satie.
["Je Te Veux" playing]
[music stops]
[Alicia] Hmm.
Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?
Yeah, I'm good.
Oh, um,
you know I gotta go to that antique fair in Baltimore this weekend.
It's like a five-hour drive,
so I'm probably gonna leave straight after work,
um, so I can get to the market early on Saturday.
Okay.
[Alicia] Hmm.
[Denise sighs]
[sighs]
-[softly] Hey. I'll see you Sunday, okay? -Hmm.
-I love you. Bye. -Mmm.
[door opens]
[door opens and closes]
So, how's life?
Life is good.
Phone Flush is back.
Which one is that again?
I flushed her phone when I found out she was sexting this other chick.
Man, you gotta stop dating these kind of women.
What kind of women?
The kind of women that ain't on your level.
The kind of women that you gotta refer to as "Phone Flush."
You keep dating women you know you ain't gonna be in a relationship with.
Well, yeah, maybe that's the point.
Where is Alicia at?
She drove down to Baltimore for some antique roadshow thing.
Wow. She drive all the way to Baltimore?
Those must be some special fucking antiques.
-[scoffs] I guess. -[chuckles]
So how are you two? What happened with all the, um, baby stuff?
We stopped talking about it ever since the miscarriage.
She doesn't want kids anymore?
I don't know if she wants me anymore.
Really?
Yeah, some days we're good.
Then we go days without talking.
It's like we got this dark cloud over us.
I'm sorry.
All right. You pick something to watch.
I'm gonna put a face mask on. You want one?
I'm not looking like Dead Presidents with you.
Oh, why don't we watch that?
Yeah, I could go for some vintage Larenz Tate.
[suspenseful music playing on TV]
[man grunts]
[gun cocking]
[man] Shh.
You want some cookies?
You got some milk?
-Nah. Just cookies. -Mmm.
No, I'm good.
You not gonna eat my cookies 'cause I ain't got no milk?
No, I like to dip.
[chuckling] What?
You gonna eat these cookies, Anna Mae. [chuckles]
-You gonna like 'em, too. -[chuckles]
All right. Well, I'm gonna wash my face mask off.
You put on the oven.
Seriously?
What?
[chuckling] You buy the ones that are pre-cut into squares?
Yes, I do. 'Cause it saves time and it creates the perfect cookie.
What are you, like, five?
Here. Put these back in the fridge, please.
-Busy yourself. Stop talking trash. -[chuckling]
Wow. New Yorker review.
"The Three Loves of Althea Waters
is a tough look at American reality,
and a poem written in light, music and love."
Wow, that's nice.
How's, um… How's book two coming?
[chuckles] To be honest, not great.
And normally, I can write so fast,
but for some reason this one… It's not comin'.
Don't worry, it will come.
What if it doesn't?
Are you scared?
Yeah, I'm scared.
I'm scared I'll run out of ideas.
I'm scared this could all go away.
I'm scared I'll have to go back to my old life, working a cubicle job.
-Chill. You'll be all right. -[sighs]
-I hope so. -Don't stress.
It's gonna be okay.
I appreciate you.
You remember my friend Damon?
Yeah, I think so.
I went to go see his dad the other day.
That's nice.
Not really. He has ALS.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah.
When I was younger, my dad wasn't really around.
So he kind of stepped in.
He would always take the neighborhood kids to the movies.
And one time he gave my mom some money
to get my back-to-school clothes off of layaway.
Thank God.
[both chuckle softly]
Nah, he was a good dude.
I saw him a couple of years ago.
He was fine.
But a couple of days ago,
he was in this scary-looking wheelchair
and he was attached to a breathing machine.
And there was this "Do-not-resuscitate" letter
taped to his refrigerator.
Shit just seemed to get real.
Wow. I'm so sorry.
I was sittin' in his house…
and I was lookin' at this wall he has.
Just like a wall full of pictures.
Pictures of him as a kid.
Stuff from when he was in high school.
Military photos, a wedding picture.
Pictures of him watchin' Damon grow up.
It just hit me.
It doesn't matter what you do in this life.
This is what happens.
You get old… and you get sick.
[grunts]
[Denise] Really?
You gonna leave me all by myself to deal with my shame and guilt?
It's not that big a deal.
Easy for you to say. You're fucking Phone Flush.
-You're free. -You could be free.
I don't want to be free.
And I'm not in any shape to drive.
Why don't you just stay in the guest room?
I can't stay here, Denise. It's too weird.
[sighs] Fine. I'll drive you home.
Can you grab my hoodie, please?
[door opens]
[door closes]
[thuds]
[brakes squeal]
Why are you stopping?
'Cause I gotta go see if I hit somethin'.
[car alarm blaring]
[Alicia] Hi. Um, I was told Denise Watkins is here. I'm her wife.
-[woman] Check in on the third floor. -[Alicia] Okay.
[panting]
You all right? How you feelin'?
[sighs]
-I mean, a little shook up, to be honest. -[chuckles] Yeah.
It's kind of scary, but…
The doctors did some scans. They say my brain is all right.
-Thank God. -Yeah.
And I got, like, a scrape on my leg,
and a bruise on my forehead, but…
[sighs in relief] Okay.
They said I'll be all right.
-Yeah. -Hmm.
I'm sorry I scared you.
No. That's all right. I'm just glad you're okay.
Can we please get the heck out of here?
-[laughs] Yeah. -Jesus.
-This place sucks. -Yeah.
-Thank you, babe.
It's okay.
[door opens]
[door closes]
Hey. You okay?
I don't know.
Do you want any water?
No. I'm okay, but thank you.
Okay. I'll be up in a minute.
Why did I find someone else's underwear downstairs?
[sighs]
Look…
I…
I don't even… I don't wanna make excuses for myself.
Did you fuck her?
Look…
I'm a fucking asshole, okay?
I'm a horrible human being,
and I feel horrible.
[splutters] I'm never doing that shit again.
-So you fucked her. Okay. All right, okay. -[sighs]
All right, but do you understand
how much of an idiot that makes me look like?
I drove down to the hospital at 4:00 in the morning
because you were up late fucking some next bitch.
Fucking hell.
I'm not trying to make you look like an idiot.
-[scoffs] -All right? That's… I…
I don't wanna do that.
[both sigh]
But how… how did you drive down at 4:00 in the morning
and get to the hospital at 5:00 if you was coming from Baltimore?
Baltimore is, like, five hours away.
I wasn't in Baltimore, I was in the city.
Okay, so, why were you in the city?
You know what? Fuck it. I was seeing someone.
[scoffs]
-You seeing someone? -Yeah.
What the fuck? How you gonna come upstairs then,
ready to rip my head off,
but yet, you was on some bullshit, too?
-What the fuck, bro? -[sighs]
You know…
maybe I wouldn't have fucked Heather
if you had touched me in the last three months.
I'm not trying to make excuses--
Okay. All right. No, so…
I'm saying, we ain't been intimate in a minute.
I haven't touched you for the last few months.
You haven't talked to me in the last few months.
We just had a miscarriage.
There has been nothing from you!
What do you want me to say?
What do I want you to… Something!
I want you to say something!
You know why it's hard to talk right now?
-'Cause I'm fucking stressed out. -Oh, God. Okay. You know why?
[Denise] I'm trying to write another book, figure out what I'm doing.
[Alicia] It's because you're thinking about yourself.
Again. You are thinking about yourself.
You're thinking about this house, this career, everything else but me!
[Denise] Jesus Christ.
I am fucking in this giant fucking house in the middle of nowhere!
All I do is think about you. I'm thinking about us all the time!
-[Alicia] You know what it is? -Jesus fucking Christ.
-[Alicia] You know what you like to do? -I bought you a toothbrush.
You like to go, "Oh, my girl, I got my girl this and I got her this."
-"I got her a big house." -Yes, I buy you shit.
-It's about you. -Look at this window. This window--
Who gives a shit about the fucking window?
-You did! You wanted to come… -Oh, for fuck's sake.
…live in the country, have the vintage trimmings.
-[Alicia] I can't. I can't. -I did this for us.
-I bought this shit with my brain. -[Alicia] That is a lie.
You did it for you. So you could live your life,
so I can play your wife in this little house…
[Denise] Time-out.
You want me to do the bed all the fucking time. No, no time-out!
-No time-out! -What the fuck, man!
-I'm done. I am done. -Jesus.
-I'm tired. I'm done. -We had some flings.
-We fucked up. -Hon…
-We gotta go to couple's therapy. -The thing is, babe,
-mine wasn't a fling. -We work through this.
Mine wasn't a fling.
Okay. All right. So now you love the bitch?
Yeah, maybe. Maybe I love that bitch.
-Maybe she can give me more than you. -Go find the bitch.
See if the bitch can get you Smokey Robinson's hair grease.
[Alicia whispers] For fuck's sake.
You know what? You know what?
You live your life and I'm gonna leave you fucking to it.
Because that's how you like it.
You just use me as a fucking prop.
-I'm out of here. -Okay.
[door closes]
[footsteps receding]
[door closes]
[exhales deeply]
[car door opens and closes]
[engine starts]
[car departing]
[sighs]
[grunts softly]
[water running]
Fucking cookies.
[cookies clattering into trash]
[turns faucet off]
[operatic song playing]