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Experimental fiction: Dialogue only

by A.M.

Created on: February 10, 2008

Give My Regards to Manhattan...

"We have to talk."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"There's no not talking about it. We have to talk about it."
"Don't say we' like you and I. Don't generalize. I don't want to talk about it."
"You have to. Becauseit's getting too hard."
"What?"
"This. Our situation. Right here and right now. Our relationship."
"I'm not having this conversation."


"Look, I love you, you know that, right?...Right?"
"I know that. I truly and honestly know that."
"Look at me. I want a girlfriend I can see every day of the week. On Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons for lunch dates. Not some one I see on weekends when I take a flight to Albany or you take the Amtrak to Manhattan. Not like that."
"It's how it is. We knew that when we got into this. Do you want out?"
"Do I want out? Of course not."
"You want me to move to the City."
"And you hate the City."
"I don't hate it."
"Then why are you against moving here? Your career would soar. You would be unstoppable. Agents in Albany rarely become the go-to guys for best sellers."
"I could set a precedent. I could make a monopoly. Here I would just be another fish in the literary lake."
"You're fighting me! You're always fighting me about this!"
"I'm not! And what about you? Can't you make another office in Albany? You have one here, you have one in Californiafor God's sake you have a company in England. Why not in Albany?"
"I'm from Albany. I paid my dues. It's boring up there. I don't want to set precedent there."
"Funny."
"No joke."
"I don't know what to do. Why'd we even start this?"
"Because I want to marry you."
"Excuse me?"
"Marriage. I want to marry you and I don't want you to be the wife that is never here. My friends don't even believe I have a girlfriend. They think I'm making you up. At least that's the joke."
"Not funny."
"It's not funny. That's why we have to resolve this. I want to marry you."
"I don't want to be the woman who moved for marriage."
"It shouldn't be this difficult. It shouldn't feel so labored."
"I guess it is. I guess"
"Don't guess. Know. Be definite. Tell me what you want. No- tell me what you don't want."
"I wantI want time to think."
"Of course. Moves are difficult. For either of us, it'll be difficult."
"So you have that meeting soon, better get going."
"I should. But I love you, know that. And just think about it. Please? Don't leave before I get back. I want to talk about it again."
"You're right. We'll talkI'll be here for round two."
"Joking, right?"
"I don't know anymore."

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