Todd: Like I said, you're wrong. All I want is sex. I'm a pig. I'm Todd Manning. I'm the king of all pigs.
Tea: I know who Todd Manning is...the real man behind all the masks, all the sarcasm, all the denials.
Todd: You're not going to give me that seeing the little boy in me junk again, are you?
Tea: I see everything. I see it all very clearly now. You can pretend all you want, but I know the truth now.
Todd: The truth is that I want to go upstairs, get into bed with you, kiss you and hold you for hours. And, the only reason I want to do all that phony romantic junk is because I want to nail you and I know I'll have a better shot if I give you all that stupid girl stuff first. Girls need all that phony junk to get revved up enough to let guys do what they want to them.
Tea: You don't want sex from me.
Todd: You're totally wrong about that.
Tea: Okay. You don't only want sex from me.
Todd: You're right. I also want you to do that lawyer thing and get me off. But, right now, I want you to get me off a different way. And, I want you to stop dragging this out and teasing me.
Tea: I'll be upstairs. When you're ready to drop this immature act, join me.
Todd: Join? Like two naked, sweaty bodies slamming together until the guy gets off?
Tea: We had a moment here. Don't blow it.
Todd: Speaking of blowing things...
Tea: If you want this to happen, drop the sexual innuendo. Drop the crude remarks. Drop the insults. Open your heart and be honest with me, for more than a brief moment. I'm here. I came when you wanted me to. I moved in with you, like you wanted me to. I will hold you and love you, the way that you want me to. But, if you keep trying to sabotage this, you'll succeed, because there is a limit to how much of this garbage I'll put up with and you're almost there.
[Tea turns and leaves the kitchen.
Minutes later...
Upstairs, Tea sits on the bed, watching the door, waiting for Todd. When he finally appears in the doorway, she can tell from his body language that he's struggling within himself to keep from turning and leaving, as his instincts are demanding in this moment.]
Tea: Join me.
Todd: Sex?
Tea: Love.
[Todd grimaces. He hates that word.]
Tea: It's not such a bad thing.
Todd: It sucks.
Tea: It's scary. But, it's also exhilarating.
Todd: How do you do it? How do you just let your thing be open like that.
Tea: My heart?
Todd: Yeah...your thing. How?
Tea: I don't know. I certainly don't always have it open and available. I've spent much of my life keeping it shut down and off-limits to everyone who tried to access it.
Todd: That's smart.
Tea: That's foolish.
Todd: No, foolish is opening yourself up to all that pain.
Tea: It can be painful sometimes, but not always.
Todd: Name me one time when opening yourself up to that misery turned out to be a good thing.
Tea: When I fell in love with you.
Todd: Don't give me that junk. Give me a real time.
Tea: The first time I felt my baby moving inside me. I knew that once I held my child I would fall hopelessly in love. But, when I felt him, or her, moving inside me, I knew in that moment that I already love this child more than I imagined possible.
Todd: You don't know what the kid is?
Tea: I want to be surprised. You know how much I love surprises.
Todd: Kids are full of them.
Tea: So are adults. You surprise, and amaze, me all the time. Come to bed.
Todd: I'm not tired.
Tea: Really?
Todd: I haven't slept in days and I'm fine.
Tea: You don't look fine. You look like you're ready to collapse. You trust me, don't you?
Todd: Not that word again.
Tea: It always comes back to trust. Do you trust me?
Todd: Do I have a choice?
Tea: You have many choices. You chose for me to be here. Don't waste this opportunity for both of us.
Todd: You really want all that phony junk?
Tea: I want to physically show you how I feel about you.
Todd: Finally!
[Todd moves closer to the bed and opens his pants.]
Todd: Aren't you going to beg me to stop before I do something that hurts you?
Tea: We're not having sex. If you want to sleep naked, that's your choice.
Todd: You're really just going to be a tease?
Tea: I'm not teasing. I told you that I would hold you and love you, and that's exactly what I'll be doing. Your attire is up to you.
[Todd refastens his pants before joining Tea on the bed. After he's settled himself under the covers, Tea moves closer to him.
As her hand touches his bare chest, she feels his body stiffen.]
Tea: Would you feel more comfortable if you put a shirt on?
Todd: I'd feel more comfortable if I left the room. Hurry up and get this over with.
Tea: This isn't something that we should speed through.
Todd: Why not? It's torture.
Tea: Is it?
[Tea's hand slowly caresses his chest.]
Todd: Yeah.
Tea: You don't enjoy my touch at all?
Todd: No.
Tea: We don't have to do this.
Todd: Yeah, we do. You're not going to leave me alone until you think I've felt loved, or whatever. Go ahead. Do whatever you think will make the impossible happen.
Tea: I love you, Todd. It's not impossible.
Todd: That thing always has been for me. People say the words but they never mean them. They never stick around long enough to mean them.
Tea: I mean it. I love you.
[Tea kisses his cheek and rests her head on his shoulder.]
Todd: It's phony words. You know, I don't even think that feeling is real. I think someone just made that up to prove how gullible people can be.
Tea: If that were true, there are millions of gullible people.
Todd: The world's full of idiots. I'm just glad I'm not one of them.
Tea: I'm glad I am. I like the way it feels, loving you.
[Todd smiles. He can't believe that he's lying in bed with Tea's body pressed against his while she lightly moves her hand across his chest and stomach, words of love flowing from her.]
Todd: This is nuts. I must be having another dream. There's no way this is real.
[Tea lifts her head and looks in his eyes.]
Tea: This is very real.
Todd: I don't do this kind of stuff, Delgado. I don't even know what other stuff people do next, when they're doing this kind of stuff. This isn't me.
[Tea returns her head to his shoulder.]
Tea: I just want to fall asleep next to you and wake up and find myself still next to you.
Todd: That's all?
Tea: You could share your words with me.
Todd: This just keeps getting worse.
Tea: Why does this have to be such a struggle?
Todd: Because you want something that doesn't exist.
Tea: Love exists.
Todd: It never has for me.
Tea: You have told me that you loved me in the past. You do realize that, don't you?
Todd: You never believed me. I did everything you said you wanted me to do and you always wanted more.
Tea: I want you to love me, that's all.
Todd: Maybe I can't do that.
[Tea's arm reaches around him and hugs him tight.]
Tea: Maybe you can't. It won't stop me from loving you.
Todd: Why?
Tea: Why do I love you?
Todd: Yeah...why?
Tea: You have so much inside you that is worth loving.
Todd: I have a bunch of rotting garbage inside me.
Tea: You have a beautiful heart.
Todd: I have a hole where that thing would be for anyone else.
Tea: I've seen it.
Todd: Whatever you saw must have been an illusion.
Tea: There have been moments that I thought I was touching it. I wanted to touch it. I wanted to be touched in return by your heart. I wanted you to love me. I always have been foolish when it comes to believing the wrong people love me.
Todd: I know what you're doing. You're doing that fake hurt voice on purpose, trying to get me to tell you all the stuff you want to hear. It won't work.
Tea: You don't have to love me. Just let me love you. Let me feel that feeling, without trying to push me away. Can you do that?
[Todd doesn't respond to Tea's question. He doesn't speak at all. He finally allows himself to give in to the feeling of Tea lying comfortably next to him. He closes his eyes and allows himself this feeling, despite how terrifying it is for him to feel that he's making himself vulnerable by needing her love.
Tea understands his silence. She accepts that he won't be offering her any more words on this night. She accepts from him what he is able to offer...his presence as she gradually falls into a blissful asleep.
When she awakens...
Tea finds herself alone in the darkened bedroom, that is just beginning to be illuminated by the morning light. She's disappointed that Todd wasn't able to stay long enough for her to awaken next to him, but she's still happy that he did allow her to fall asleep pressed against him.
After spending several minutes in the bathroom, Tea returns to the bedroom and gets dressed. When it finally comes time to leave the room and face Todd again, she takes a deep breath and prepares herself for whatever mood she may find her ex-husband in, on this early morning.
As she approaches the top of the staircase, leading into the living room, she watches him for a moment as he stands at the large window, his back toward her.]
Tea: Todd?
[Todd doesn't respond.]
Tea: Are you awake?
Todd: Do you have to ask stupid questions this early in the morning?
Tea: You did tell me once that you were learning how to sleep standing up. Remember, Moose was teaching you. I thought, perhaps, you had finally mastered it.
Todd: Don't talk about him.
Tea: I'm sorry. I won't mention your bird again. Are you ready for breakfast?
Todd: Are you just going to ignore it?
[Tea finally begins to move down the staircase, into the living room...into his domain.]
Tea: Ignore what?
Todd: You know what. If you ever tell anyone about that...
Tea: There's nothing for me to tell. We shared a bed, that's all. You probably got up the second I fell asleep, anyway. Now, I'm up. You can have the bed all to yourself. Go on up and get some sleep. You need it.
[Todd finally turns toward her. He's disappointed to find that she changed out of the nightgown she had been wearing the previous night.]
Todd: You're really going to ignore all that junk that happened last night?
Tea: That's what you want, isn't it?
Todd: Yeah, but I never get what I want.
Tea: You've got it this time. I'll have a long breakfast at the diner, go to the law library when they open in a couple of hours and stop at the grocery store on the way home. That should give you plenty of time to get some sleep. No more fighting it, Todd. You need to sleep.
Todd: You think that's why I haven't slept...because you were hogging the bed?
Tea: It doesn't matter why. You need to sleep. Please, try. Despite your insistence to the contrary, you can't survive without sleep.
Todd: I can't sleep. It has nothing to do with you.
Tea: Do you want to tell me about it?
Todd: I'm not like you. I can't just shut my brain down whenever I want to.
Tea: What are you thinking about that's preventing you from sleeping?
Todd: Everything.
Tea: If you can't talk to me about it, do you think you could talk to Viki?
Todd: She'd just dump a bunch of clichés on me. I hate that.
Tea: What would help you sleep?
Todd: You don't want to know.
Tea: Try me.
Todd: Sex.
Tea: Very funny, Todd.
Todd: See? You don't even believe me.
Tea: You're serious?
Todd: Most of the times we've done it, you conked out before me so you don't know how much easier it is for me...after.
Tea: Really?
Todd: So, what do you say?
Tea: It wouldn't be right for us to have sex right now.
Todd: Because of your boyfriend?
Tea: Because you're in no shape to make such an important decision.
Todd: What's important about it? It's just sex.
Tea: It's more than that, and you know it.
Todd: Whatever! It doesn't matter anyway. Like I keep trying to tell you, I don't need sleep.
Tea: There must be another way for you to sleep. What about all those dreams you told me about?
Todd: What dreams?
Tea: Those...erotic...dreams...about us.
Todd: I was just saying that stuff to get a reaction out of you.
Tea: Would it help you fall asleep if you imagined us together first?
Todd: Why should I have to go solo when I've got you here to do all that stuff with?
Tea: I'm willing, Todd...
Todd: Upstairs?
Tea: I don't think we should.
Todd: You're confusing the hell out of me.
Tea: After you've slept...
Todd: I won't need it then. I need it now.
Tea: I would feel like I was taking advantage of you while you're sleep-deprived.
Todd: Trust me, I won't mind.
Tea: You may after you wake up and you're thinking more clearly again. You may be so upset that you throw me out of your life again. I can't risk that. I need to stay until your case is settled.
Todd: After that, you'll split again, right?
Tea: I don't know what comes next. Is having a future with you an option?
Todd: Are you nuts?
Tea: I'm in love with you.
Todd: Stop saying that.
Tea: That's the truth.
Todd: There's no such thing.
Tea: There's no such thing as truth...or, love?
Todd: Neither exists.
Tea: They both exist. They're right in front of you. You just have to trust them. You have to trust me.
Todd: You're not going anywhere. You're staying here...all day. I've decided. End of story!
Tea: I need to work on your case.
Todd: You can do that tomorrow.
Tea: You need to sleep.
Todd: I'll have a better shot at that if I'm not thinking about you splitting on me. That's all I'll think about, if you leave.
Tea: I won't leave you...not until...
Todd: Until my case is over. You made that clear.
Tea: If I had a choice, I would never leave you, but I don't think you'll allow me that choice.
Todd: You're right.
[Tea turns away from him, but before she does he sees the hurt expression on her face. Her pain cuts through him. He hates when he hurts her. But, he's spent too much time lying to everyone in his life in recent months. He wants to be honest with Tea.]
Todd: You can't stay, Delgado. You know that.
Tea: I know.
[Tea continues to avoid eye contact with him, but the pain in her voice is enough to break his heart.]
Todd: If I let you stay, I'd be screwing your life up...again. And, you'd be screwing up your kid's life. You'd end up hating yourself. You'd end up hating me. I can't let that happen.
[Tea finally returns her gaze to his.]
Todd: You have to get away from me, before I screw everything up for you.
Tea: It could be...
Todd: It can't be different. I mean, it is different. It's always been different with you. But, I can't be that different, not even for you. I'm the monster that Peter Manning created. If you give me the chance, your kid will be the monster I create.
Tea: You would never do to this child what was done to you. I know that.
Todd: I'd do other things. I can't even get it right with my own kids.
Tea: You are a wonderful father.
Todd: I stink at it. I keep screwing everything up. My kids are better off without me.
Tea: That's not true.
Todd: They're stuck with me. Your kid is lucky enough not to have me as a father. Don't screw that up by trying to make me a step-father.
Tea: What about us?
Todd: Once you pop that kid out, there's no more us. Until then...
Tea: Until then?
Todd: I'll let you have today.
Tea: Today?
Todd: Yeah...today. You can put me through all that hell you like. It will be payback for all the other kinds of hell I've put you through, all the years we've known each other.
Tea: You mean...
Todd: I mean...whatever you want, Delgado.
Tea: Is it what you want?
Todd: Why would I want that?
Tea: Did you want to share that bed with me last night? Clearly, you couldn't stay the whole night, but did you want it?
Todd: Yeah.
[Tea is stunned to hear Todd admitting that he wanted physical, and emotional, closeness with her. She's even more stunned that he wants more.
Todd is nervous. He knows that he's revealing too much, giving her too much power. He can't stop himself. He knows that their time together is limited. He doesn't want to waste anymore time.]
Todd: What do you say, Delgado? One day. You stay here. We'll order food, whenever we want it. We won't see anyone. We won't talk to anyone. Just you and me. Are you up for it?
Todd: No going anywhere? No seeing anyone? No phones?
[Todd's anger rises as he watches Tea hesitate.]
Todd: Forget it! I changed my mind. Go do whatever...wherever. I don't care.
Tea: One phone call, Todd. That's all.
Todd: Call as many people as you want. Spend the whole damn day on the phone. Just do it somewhere else.
Tea: If I don't call him, he'll call me.
Todd: I thought you were the one holding the leash in your twisted relationship. I guess not.
Tea: I know it's unfathomable to you that anyone could possibly care enough about me to worry if they don't hear from me, but...
Todd: I get it, Tea. He's the perfect guy. And, I'm the insensitive bastard from hell.
Tea: You can be thoughtful. But, sometimes...
Todd: Sometimes I'm an insensitive bastard from hell.
Tea: Only sometimes.
Todd: Is that supposed to be a compliment?
Tea: You can be a jerk, Todd, but I love you anyway.
Todd: You know, when people throw that word around a lot, I always expect them to either hit me up for money, or shove the knife they're holding into my back.
Tea: I don't want, nor do I need, your money. And, look, no knife.
Todd: You could be hiding one in that tent you're wearing. Maybe you should take everything off so I can check you for weapons.
Tea: Later. First...
Todd: Really?
Tea: Maybe.
Todd: You're giving me a headache. Just tell me if you want that, or not.
Tea: I want to be with you, in every way. We should talk first, though.
Todd: Talking sucks! There are better ways you could use your mouth.
Tea: I won't even consider being intimate again until after you've slept.
Todd: You won't?
Tea: No, I won't.
[A determined Todd approaches Tea. Tea steps back from him and places her hand out in front of her, indicating that she doesn't want him to advance any further toward her.]
Tea: Todd...
Todd: If you won't even consider it, nothing I do could convince you, right?
Tea: Right. Now, let's decide about breakfast.
Todd: You know what I like first thing in the morning.
[Todd places his body intimately close to Tea's, but doesn't touch her. He wants her to be the one to initiate physical contact. He knows that if she does, they'll be making love this morning for certain.]
Tea: Don't do this, Todd.
Todd: What am I doing? I'm not touching you. I'm not kissing you. I'm not rubbing you all over your body. And, I'm especially not rubbing that one area that you like so much.
Tea: After you've slept, okay?
Todd: I can't sleep without this.
Tea: You can. You just need to try.
Todd: I did. It didn't work.
Tea: Did you try after I fell asleep? Or, did you immediately jump out of bed?
Todd: I get claustrophobic sometimes.
Tea: Your fear is intimacy, not...
[Todd turns and walks away from her.]
Todd: What do you want for breakfast?
[Tea moves closer to him as he stands by his desk and opens a drawer full of delivery menus.]
Tea: I want you to be honest with me...and with yourself.
Todd: Food, Tea. What do you want?
Tea: A bagel.
Todd: Just one?
Tea: Maybe two...or three.
Todd: I'll get us each a dozen. You and the kid can pig out all you want.
Tea: If I eat too much, I'll need a bigger tent.
Todd: They have them bigger than that?
Tea: I was referring to your earlier comment.
Todd: It is huge, Tea.
Tea: I'm huge.
Todd: So, you get to call yourself fat, but I'm not supposed to, is that it?
Tea (smiling): Basically.
Todd: I never do what I'm supposed to do.
Tea: If you truly want to be intimate...
Todd: Call it sex.
Tea: If you want to be intimate, you'll have better luck if I'm not focused on how large I am right now.
Todd: I already told you, Tea...I like the way you look.
Tea: Do you really?
Todd: Would I want you to jump my bone if I didn't?
Tea: I thought you only wanted to be intimate so you could fall asleep more easily?
Todd: Well, yeah...that's the main reason.
Tea: But, I'm not completely unattractive to you?
Todd: Not completely, no.
Tea: Am I partially?
[Todd sets the menu in his hand on the desk and turns toward Tea.]
Todd: If you want me to say all that junk now, I will. But, if I do, don't be expecting it again when it's time for sex. Unless, I actually get the words right this time and you stop being stubborn and give me sex right now.
Tea: You would regret it, after you're thinking more clearly.
Todd: I regret almost every second of my life. But, I've never regretted any of the seconds we've spent doing that.
Tea: You have been distant sometimes, and angry...after.
Todd: What do you expect? Do you think it's easy for me to let you into that area?
Tea: Your heart?
Todd: I don't have one of those things. How many times do I have to tell you that?
Tea: You do have a heart. If you want my body, to help you sleep, I want your heart, in exchange.
Todd: Why? What's in it for you?
Tea: Your heart is.
Todd: That doesn't even exist. But, even if it did, why would you want that?
Tea: Because...
Todd: Because...why?
Tea: Because it's your heart.
Todd: That makes it even stupider.
Tea: That makes it precious and special.
Todd: Your hormones have whacked out your brain.
Tea: That's always what I wanted. You know that. You knew that in the past. That's why you always held it just out of my reach.
Todd: Like hell!
Tea: I could see it, but I could never quite touch it.
Todd: That's bull!
Tea: When have you ever allowed yourself to truly open your heart to me?
Todd: When haven't I?
Tea: Always.
Todd: I didn't open my heart to you?
Tea: No.
Todd: I didn't let you inside there?
Tea: No.
Todd: Then, why can't I get rid of you?
Tea: I'm certain you will throw me out again...eventually.
Todd: But that wouldn't get rid of you. We were apart for a hell of a long time and you never left me alone. That feeling...that agony...in my chest, and my stomach, every day when I would think about you...
