SCENE: Café, GUY is sitting, reading novel manuscript. Enter DAISY, she stands behind GUY and ‘blindfolds’ him with her hands.

DAISY: Guy—

GUY puts down the manuscript

GUY: (smiles) Oh my God!….I had this feeling our paths would cross again.

DAISY: It’s funny, I felt the same…but how?

GUY: It’s in the script…our script…you just have to read ahead

DAISY: So what’s new in your life? Any new novels?

GUY moves the manuscript slightly towards him

GUY: You didn’t write back, call back, E-Mail, text…there must be so many ways to avoid keeping in touch these days.

DAISY:…It was difficult, obviously.

DAISY moves her hand upwards, showing wedding ring

GUY: Did you ever give me a second thought?

DAISY: (looks at directly but softly at GUY) I…I thought about you…I did…

GUY: Just one call, it’s not much to ask…I needed you.

DAISY: You talk as if I’m the only one bad at communicating, what about you? I was crazy about you? You knew and you did nothing.

Pause

DAISY: And then last year, why get in touch again, after so long? What changed?

GUY: I had come to a turning point in my life, having sorted out job problems, finishing an old relationship… I was a blank sheet of paper, no hang ups no useless thoughts cluttering my head….I was ready for you, at last.

DAISY: Oh really? So I was to wait around ‘til you were ready for me? Well, I found someone who was.

Pause

DAISY: And anyway, I thought you were married.

GUY: What made you think that?

DAISY: I saw your photo in the Irish Times, with that woman, very cosy…

GUY: So you put two and two together and came up with nothing?

DAISY: So you weren’t ?-

GUY: But you picked yourself up…and things turned out well, didn’t they?

Pause

GUY: So what’s his name?

DAISY: Dave

GUY: And what does he do?

DAISY: a gynaecologist

GUY: (taking a breath)…So you met him through work?

DAISY: He’s good to me, cares. Says what he thinks

GUY: How long since ? –

DAISY: About a year

Pause


GUY: He’s a really lucky bloke

DAISY tries to stop a slight blush

DAISY: To late now…isn’t it ?

GUY: Too late for what ?

DAISY looks at GUY with a mixture of disbelief and laughter

DAISY: The look on your face

GUY: On my face?

DAISY: You like winding me up, don’t you?

GUY: No. I prefer a challenge in life. Anyway…

DAISY: You can’t do this?

GUY: What?

DAISY: Have that attitude of ”anyway…”, having said what you said
GUY: What?
DAISY: What we did or what we didn’t do.

GUY takes DAISY’s hand.

GUY: When I thought you didn’t want me, I got into things and people that had no real meaning, just to pass the time. The longing for you and consolation in rejection became my drug.

DAISY looks a little shocked, and starts to pull her hand away but GUY holds on

GUY: It was unreal, things went downhill. I knew deep down that the only real thing I ever experienced was loving you, and yet I felt trapped. I couldn’t cope with that, so I escaped from it all, I went on a journey to find myself. I looked deep and hard. And then I found it…and I found it, but I was incomplete.

DAISY pulls away her hand.

DAISY: No, no stop. You’re too much!-

GUY: And I realised, that I’m incomplete without you.

GUY lets go of DAISY’s hand.

GUY: But you’re married now, end of story.

GUY moves the script a little closer to himself.

DAISY: I know…I know. It’s no one’s fault how it turned out…What do we do now, Guy?

Pause

DAISY: Guy. I have to go… I’ve an early shift at St.Thomas’s. And you?…Why have you gone cold on me? After everything you said about not communicating properly. This is what I never understood about you. The sweetest, deepest words, and then nothing. Closed up. Isn’t it about time that we communicated?

DAISY sees the manuscript and grabs it

DAISY: One of your novels? Looks very professional, bound…

GUY: Yes my publisher is meeting me here soon

GUY looks a little uncomfortable.

DAISY: I felt very proud when I heard about your first book. People look at you…see what you do in your day job…they don’t realise the talents you have…you’re something else…

GUY: That’s really kind of you to say so…

DAISY: I know the way things turned out…if they’d been different…I can’t change it…but if I could…

GUY: But what if…we could…

DAISY: But we have to forget this now. We can’t tell anybody else about what we talked about, just between ourselves…

GUY: It’s difficult…

DAISY: I know, but it can’t be, can it ?

GUY stands behind DAISY, hands tenderly on her shoulders.

GUY: If only it was, I’d give up on all the other things I do… Like writing novels.

GUY tries to grab the script, but is resisted by DAISY.

DAISY: No you musn’t…

GUY: I would. Give it to me.

DAISY turns away with it

DAISY: This takes me back to when we were young. Those plays we used to perform as students.

DAISY starts to thumb through the pages, GUY is looking very worried…

DAISY’s face changes from smiling to a mixture of horror and anger. She looks up at GUY.

DAISY: What’s this ?…these characters…their us ! You’ve written about us ! You’ve written about me…You haven’t even changed the names!

DAISY flicks to the final pages of the script.

DAISY: …”although Guy new she was the one, the only one, he felt she was too volatile and would take much looking after. So at that time he gave up and walked away, leaving Daisy to her own devices”…so that’s what you really thought of me, highly strung, high maintenance…the truth comes out now…in your book of all places…how could you!

GUY: It’s what I do! Look, if you’re gonna read it, read on, don’t stop there!

DAISY: How can you put pen to paper about any of this! This is the most shallow, filthy thing anyone can do! You have no morals, no boundaries, you’ve used us to further your ambitions. It’s degraded everything, ruined it all ! Do you know how I cried for months when I thought you were married. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even move. I was at the end, the very bottom. But for the grace of God I somehow came back. And you’ve assumed the way I felt and turned it into a bestseller! What you’ve done is sick.

DAISY moves away from GUY, aghast and serious again…

GUY: It was my way of coping.

DAISY: Sure, most guys I know would cope by having a lads’ night out. Bedding blonde bimbos. Throwing themselves into their work. Going on holiday to Ibetha. But you…you…I feel so violated…and vulnerable

GUY: When it’s published I won’t say anything

DAISY: What? You’ve had it accepted? So everyone will read this fantastic distortion of us

GUY: Do you think I’d do that? Do you think someone with my talent, you said so yourself, would write anything but in a convincing way, with great depth of feeling, real passion? And I wouldn’t parody the things that happened to us

DAISY: It’s still fiction, fantasy…in danger of it being thought of as fact. What if Dave or somebody picked itup? What would people think of me?

GUY: Your over-reacting

DAISY: This…this whole thing was very real to me. You can’t just step away from it.

GUY: It’s based on fact

DAISY: Is it?…For you, was it all just fantasy? Has the whole thing with us been fantasy to you?

GUY hesitates.

GUY: I love you

DAISY starts to leave, and puts her bag on the chair, turning briefly back to GUY.

GUY: That’s real

DAISY: No…you’re too much.

GUY picks up his mobile phone

GUY: It’s my publisher’s. He’s parked.

GUY looks very uncomfortable

DAISY: So you’re going through with this

GUY: I’ve been commissioned

DAISY: Then de-commission !…

GUY: I’m committed

DAISY: And you’d know all about commitment, wouldn’t you…

GUY: That’s unfair, laying it all on me !

DAISY: How would you feel if I wrote up your case notes with the words “…addictive personality disorder, delusions, thinks he’s got a hotline to God…”

GUY grabs DAISY by the arm.

GUY: Daisy !

DAISY: You know what I’ve always felt for you…But there’s more to all this…Regardless of our situation, all this we’ve been through, is it really right to do this..to write the story of our life, is it really okay.?…You have a choice. You either publish or leave with me.

GUY and DAISY hold the look between them.