[Tea closes her eyes, trying to win the battle within herself. She knows that she needs to pull away from him. She needs to save herself from the overwhelming pain that her feelings for him cause her.
When she does try to pull away, to her surprise, he refuses to let her go.]
Tea: Let go of me.
Todd: Not until you tell me how you feel about me.
Tea: I don't love you. That's how I feel about you. Now, let me go!
Todd: Tell me the truth.
Tea: I don't love you.
Todd: Tell me the truth.
[This time Tea doesn't respond. He knows that her feelings are pushing closer to the surface. He knows that if he doesn't back down right now, her feelings will pour out of her, causing his own feelings to pour out, in response. They'll both end up drowning in the agony of those feelings.
Tea presses her face tightly into his shoulder, not wanting to face her feelings.]
Tea: Don't do this.
Todd: Tell me!
Tea: If you don't stop...
Todd: What will happen?
Tea: There'll be an explosion.
Todd: We'll survive it.
Tea: Who are you? You're not the Todd Manning I know, and trust to be just as terrified as I am.
Todd: I'm the guy you ran out on. I'm the guy you owe...big time. You're the one who has to say it first this time.
Tea: Disaster happens when we do this. I don't want to lose you again.
Todd: Then, don't run out on me.
Tea: If I say it first, you're the one who will run.
Todd: I should have. As soon as I saw you again, I should have taken off. I never should have let any of this happen. I screwed up. Now, you have to pay the price. You have to tell me.
Tea: Maybe if we don't say it...
[Todd pulls back from her. They make eye contact. Her eyes plead with him not to go any further.
She tries to return to their earlier attempts to just be friends, hoping that he'll join her in denying they have any feelings between them stronger than friendship.]
Tea: You can rent the video for tomorrow night...whatever kind you want. I'll cook. What would you like?
Todd: Ask me in the morning, when you wake up next to me.
Tea: You need to leave now.
Todd: That's not what you need. Is it?
Tea: Why are you insisting on pushing this until we fall apart? Is that what you really want? You want to go back to having separate lives? Because, we could find a way to make a relationship work, if we don't push it. I know that we could.
Todd: Just friends, doesn't work for me.
Tea: We could be a little more than friends.
Todd: Friends that fuck?
Tea: Maybe. As long as we're careful not to let our feelings get in the way.
Todd: If I wanted casual sex, I could find someone better than you.
Tea: Thanks, for the compliment.
Todd: You're welcome.
Tea: I was being sarcastic.
Todd: I wasn't. You're lousy at casual sex, at least with me. You're probably good at it with guys that you don't give a damn about...which would be all other guys, right?
[Tea brings her body against his. Her hands caress his chest as they move under his opened shirt, removing it.]
Tea: I need more practice with you.
Todd: It won't work, Delgado.
Tea: Yes, it will.
Todd: We tried friendly, unemotional fucking. You failed. Remember? You couldn't shut out your feelings.
Tea: If I failed, so did you.
Todd: Sex is just lining up the body parts, for me.
Tea: I know it got to you. I got to you.
Todd: If you believe that, why would you want to risk it again?
[Tea steps away from him.]
Tea: You're right. You should leave.
[Todd moves toward her as she steps backwards, into the doorway to her bedroom.]
Todd: Hurry up and tell me how you feel about me, so we can get to the sex, and then we can explode together, and then you can break up with me again.
Tea: Are you in a hurry for that?
Todd: Maybe, this time, we won't wait so long to get back together.
Tea: It seems to be getting longer and longer each time it happens. If we were smart we wouldn't risk it.
Todd: If we were smart, we never would have started any of this to begin with. I'm tired of playing word games with you. Tell me how you feel about me.
[Todd tries to move even closer to her, but she places her hand on his chest and stops him.]
Tea: That's as far as you go. This room is off-limits.
Todd: You screwed your most recent hubby in there and you're turning it into a shrine?
Tea: I haven't been with anyone in here. I'm saving it for when I make love to a man who isn't afraid to tell me how he feels about me before I have a chance to tell him how I feel about him.
Todd: You've had tons of chances. I'm beginning to think I was wrong about why you've been putting it off.
Tea: When I invite a special man into this room, it won't be a casual invitation. I'll have to know that he's committed to a permanent, monogamous relationship with me.
Todd: How would this guy have to prove himself to you? Would he have to marry you a couple of times? Would he have to hear that you ditched him and ran off with some other guy, and not hunt the slimy creep down and break his legs, or a certain other body part?
Tea: That would be a start.
Todd: What else?
Tea: He would have to be prepared for what would happen if I opened my heart to him.
Todd: What would happen?
Tea: I don't know. Every time I've tried in the past, something happened to shut my heart down again.
Todd: You ran out on him?
Tea: Or, he ran out on me. Or, his deceitful actions bit him in the butt on our wedding night.
Todd: You stuck by him and tended to his wounds?
Tea: I was too angry.
Todd: But, you've forgiven him now?
Tea: I've forgiven, but I haven't forgotten.
Todd: So, he'll have to spend the rest of his life looking behind him, waiting for the knife?
Tea: The past is in the past. At least it is for me. Is it for you?
Todd: I don't know. How do you feel about me?
Tea: That's complicated.
Todd: We could go in and get comfortable on the bed, and you could explain it to me.
Tea: I don't want to lose you again.
Todd: If you tell me the truth...
Tea: You can't promise me that you won't get scared and leave.
Todd: You can't promise me, either. I seem to recall someone I was married to once, or twice, boring the hell out of me with lecture after lecture about trust being important in a relationship, or some kind of nonsense like that.
Tea: Trust...and truth.
Todd: T and T. Without them a relationship is doomed. With them...
Tea: You risk a massive explosion.
Todd: Which do you want? Hot sex that we pretend doesn't mean anything? Or, admitting how you really feel about me and risking the explosion?
Tea: My heart exploded over you a long time ago.
Todd: Is that an answer?
Tea: Okay. You've convinced me to take the risk. I'll tell you how I feel about you.
Todd: It's getting late. Maybe we should wait on this.
Tea: It's too late.
Todd: That's what I'm saying. It's really, really late. I need to get back to my hotel. If I don't show up soon the desk clerk will worry. We've bonded.
[Todd turns from her and walks down the small hallway, toward the living room.]
