VII. (The Painful and Unsolicited Truth)
Emma is greeted by a stranger in her studio,
After she has an awkward conversation with Thomas.
Emma found Thomas at a stone table in the park. She was feeling sick, though she knew that it was her nerves making her stomach uneasy. She wasn’t nervous about Thomas, only trying very hard to forget a difficult time on the subway. She was thinking that maybe the city was too much, or could soon become too much and maybe she would need to make a move soon, to a place where she didn’t have to worry about being faced with such a bleak reality, maybe Brooklyn.
“You look positively green,” Thomas said as a joke when he looked up from the list he was writing onto a sheet of paper. “Feeling OK?”
Emma had no desire to recount her train ride and insisted that they talk about anything else.
“Fine. Is it the migration today? I thought I saw more trucks than usual. They’re never gonna figure that out are they? Its just like the porn glitch.” Thomas was referring to a recent phenomenon where television signals around the country were randomly interrupted by hardcore pornography. Supposedly, it happened as a result of the inordinate amount of pornography that Americans downloaded over the internet, but online streaming of TV shows and movies wasn’t affected. It happened on any TV, any channel, regardless of TV carrier, and it forced many parents to bar their children from watching TV altogether. Just like the migration, specialists claimed to be working on a fix, but the problem was becoming commonplace.
“I think the migration is charming, the trucks are practically animals.” Emma said absently, watching the clouds move over the buildings in the distance.
“You would like it.” Thomas said, going back to his list.
“I didn’t say I liked it, Thomas, I don’t like it. But it happens and I can’t control whether or not it does happen, so I choose to find charm in it.” Emma said, then she felt disappointed to see that Thomas was writing on his list. “What are you doing, anyway?”
Thomas held up a finger as he finished the word he was writing. Emma rolled her eyes. She had spent considerable time with Thomas and though the two were not romantically involved, they seemed to be heading towards something more than friendship. Emma appreciated that Thomas was accomplished for his age; he was an associate at a law firm and he was buying his own place on the east side of the city. And he even tried to enjoy the artistic ways that Emma spent her free time, watching old movies and going to galleries, but it was clear that sometimes the galleries bored him and he hated black and white movies. They were just friends so those things hardly mattered, but Emma had begun to wonder if their friendship was worth the effort, even if they occasionally enjoyed having sex.
“I’ve been thinking Emma,” Thomas started when he finished writing, “and I was making a pros and cons list.” He slid the paper toward Emma and when she looked at it, she read the title of his list; “Relationship with Emma.” There were two columns, pros on the right and con’s on the left. The left side was much longer than the right.
“You are a good friend Emma, but I don’t think this is ever going to go anywhere. And its not like I’m breaking up with you, we’re not together, but I just thought I should tell you that I like someone and I think I’m going to pursue her. And we can’t do it anymore…”
Emma cut him off before he could finish. “You’re right we’re not together. Why would you make a list like this? And why would you show it to me?”
“Honesty. Transparency.” Thomas said.
“Well, I’m glad I took the subway here for this. I’ll see you around.” Emma left Thomas at the table with his list.
She heads to her studio to work that will hopefully distract her from the nonsense her day has become. She decides to clean and puts on music to get lost in something other than her thoughts. Her cleaning is interrupted, though, by knocks on her studio door.
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