Jessie Texts Reggie
Jessie
Hey
Reggie
Hey
Jessie
Did you say your boat is near Heather Marina?
Reggie
It's in Heather Marina. O27.
Jessie
PausesI know someone else with a boat in there. I'm visiting them today. Can I drop by and say hi?
Reggie
Who? I might know them.
Jessie
They're over in S dock.
Reggie
Oh, no I won't know them. Those are the big boats.
Jessie
Is it okay if we drop by?
Reggie
Sure. Just make sure they know we're not dating or anything.
Jessie
Yes we are.
Reggie
No we're not. And if you don't tell them that, I will.
Jessie
Okay fine, this afternoon anytime? You usually spend Saturdays on the boat, right?
Reggie
Yes, just drop by O27. And Jessie, this changes nothing. We are coffee buddies. Nothing more.
Jessie
Whatever.
Heather Marina, Saturday, O Dock
Jessie
She comes down the dock ahead of her parents, one hand raised in a half-wave, reading his expression before she's close enough to say anything. Her parents are about ten feet back — Jim in a decent jacket, Ruth in the kind of casual that costs more than it lets on, both of them taking in the marina, the boats, the general situation.Hey.She stops at the edge of the slip and looks at the pressure washer, the boat, him.Nice Saturday project. These are my parents. Mom, Dad — this is Reggie.
Jim
Reggie. Jim. Good to meet you. What are we looking at here on O-dock?
Ruth
Reggie. What a lovely spot for a Saturday. Jessie's told us a little about you.
Reggie
Your parents? You said you knew some people at the marina. You didn't say they were your parents. Uh...hello, Jim and, um Mrs...I'm sorry I don't even know Jessie's last name. We're not...I mean...we don't know each other well.
Jessie
Something moves through her expression — not quite a wince, but close. She looks at her parents and then back at Reggie with the particular face of someone who made a calculation and is now watching it land.Gallagher.She says it quickly.And I didn't say they were my parents because I knew you'd — They wanted to come see the marina. Mom and Dad's boat is on S dock. I didn't exactly plan this part.
Jim
She mentioned you were getting acquainted with the water. Bayliner, is it? We've got a thirty-six foot Sea Ray over on S. Different animal, but the creek's the creek.
Ruth
Gallagher is her father's side, if that helps. And please don't mind the ambush. Jessie does things in her own order. It really is a lovely spot you've found.
Reggie
What should I call you...uh...ma'am? Is Mrs. Gallagher best?
Ruth
Something in her expression warms, just perceptibly — the social reflex of a woman who has been managing rooms for thirty years and finds this particular awkwardness charming in exactly the way she would never say aloud.Ruth is perfectly fine.She says it with a light, practiced ease that costs her nothing and is designed to cost him nothing either.Mrs. Gallagher makes me feel like I'm being called in to the principal's office.
Jim
Jim. First names for both of us. You do your own maintenance?
Reggie
When I can. Some things are beyond my abilities. I get the British guy at the end of my dock to do engine work. He's well regarded. And the Latvian guy, Dmitri, does handyman work that's beyond my abilities. But I can powerwash.Smiles
Jim
He nods — a slow, approving nod, the kind that's doing more work than it looks like.A British engine man. That's usually a good sign. They tend to be particular about it.He glances along the dock toward the other slips.You keep it clean, I'll give you that.
Ruth
How long have you been at this slip?
Jessie
He knows John, apparently. The marine diesel guy on your dock, Dad. Small world.
Reggie
John works on gas engines like mine, too. He just holds his nose doing it. And I've actually just had this slip for a year. The waiting list is ten years. I got on it when I was 25 and then forgot I had done that and they called me last year. And I wasn't allowed to leave the slip empty so I bought this old Bayliner and I'm learning how to dock it.
Jim
He lets out a short, genuine laugh — not the performance version, the real one, the kind that slips out when something lands unexpectedly.Ten years on a waiting list you forgot you were on.He looks at the boat again, then at Reggie, recalibrating something.That's actually a hell of a story. Most people chase these slips their whole lives. You just — got a phone call.
Ruth
That's remarkable timing. And you're teaching yourself to dock it? That takes some patience.
Jessie
He took me out on it. Around False Creek. It's a good boat.
Reggie
The only patience it takes is from my neighbours who have to sit there while I take ten minutes to dock a boat that should have been docked nine minutes ago.
Jim
The laugh comes back, shorter this time, but real.Patient neighbours and a clean hull. You're doing something right.
Ruth
Jessie didn't mention the tour.She looks at the boat — not the appraisal look, something more genuinely curious.Is that something you do often? Take people out?
Jessie
It came up.
Reggie
No, not often at all. She was...insistent. And...I'm not sure what she's told you but we're not dating or anything. You have nothing to fear from me.
Jim
He holds on that for a second — the not dating delivered so plainly, and something in his expression does a brief, controlled thing, somewhere between surprised and slightly stung on his daughter's behalf.She told us about the party.He says it simply, one hand going into his jacket pocket.So we're aware of the rough outline. You don't have to manage us.
Ruth
We're not easily frightened. Jessie was quite thorough in the telling.
Jessie
I told them the accurate version. All of it.
Reggie
My eyes widen. I get it under control.I see.PauseJessie is full of surprises.LaughsWould you like to sit down? My boat isn't as nice as yours, I'm sure, but if you'd like to sit, I have some...actually I just have water and Coke Zero.
Jim
Water's fine.He moves toward the boat — not the hesitant move of someone waiting to be invited, the easy move of a man who has been around docks long enough to know how to step aboard without being asked.I'll take the tour while we're at it, if you're offering.
Ruth
Coke Zero is perfect.She glances at Jessie — just a glance, the kind that carries a full sentence — and then back at Reggie, the practiced warmth settling back into place.And Jessie wasn't thorough enough to mention the view. This is lovely.
Jessie
I told them what happened. The whole party. The bar after. All of it. They asked.
Reggie
Yes, this is a bit more open to the city than S dock where your boat is. I had no idea we were neighbours. Jessie didn't mention it when we went out on the boat.I welcome them aboard, offering the girls my hand, letting Jim get aboard himself which he does gracefully; he's obviously not new to the water. I quickly show them the whole boat, the pilothouse, the work I've done on the nav systems and radios (which I understand far better than Jim and it shows) and the interior which is not new but is pristinely clean. We sit in the cockpit.
Jim
He settles into the cockpit with the ease of someone who has spent real time on boats — not performing comfort, actually comfortable. He glances back at the nav panel through the pilothouse window, then at Reggie.You've done work on the electronics yourself. That's not standard on a Bayliner this age.
Ruth
She accepts the Coke Zero, both hands around it, and looks out at the creek — the water, the other boats, the bridge in the distance — with the expression of someone who is genuinely looking and not just waiting for the next social beat.You can see the Granville Bridge from here. We don't get that angle from S dock. The big boats block each other.
Jessie
I didn't know they were your neighbours until about an hour ago. I found out when they said which marina.
Reggie
I'm actually surprised you're in this marina. This is the civic marina. We like to joke it's for the poor people who like boats. But it really is the best marina in town in my opinion. Which is uninformed as I know nothing about the others.
Jim
He looks out at the creek for a moment, then back at Reggie, and something in his expression does the thing where a man reassesses and doesn't announce that he's doing it.Fair point. The civic designation keeps the waiting list honest, at least in theory. Thirty years ago you could get a slip at the False Creek marinas without much trouble. Now you sit on a list for a decade and forget you're on it.A beat.The S dock crowd takes itself a bit seriously. This feels more like a place people actually use their boats.
Ruth
We always said the bigger boat just means a bigger reason to stay tied up. You clearly take it out. That's the whole point, isn't it.
Jessie
He took it to Victoria. Alone. Which I only found out about recently and which I think is slightly insane.
Reggie
I take it out every week, often just to practice docking. It's totally new to me. I'm a city boy and should probably not have bought it, but, well, I wanted it.
Jim
He looks at the boat, then at Reggie — the reassessment still happening, quieter now.A city boy who drove to Victoria alone in his first year.A beat.That's either very confident or very stubborn. Which was it?
Ruth
The wanting it part I understand completely. Jim bought a boat he had no business owning in 1998 and learned to use it by degrees. Some things you earn backward.
Reggie
I took it to Victoria before anyone had the chance to tell me it was stupid to do that with my experience level. I made it, though. Went up to Comox and back. It was ok.
Jim
He looks at Reggie for a moment — the Comox part arriving, which is further than Victoria by a meaningful margin, and he does the quiet recalibration again, the kind he's been doing since the nav panel.Comox and back.A beat.That's not a short run in a Bayliner you'd had for, what — a few months?
Ruth
Before anyone could tell you it was stupid. That's a very specific kind of decision-making.
Jessie
You didn't mention Comox.
Reggie
I don't take many stupid risks in life. I was overdue for one.
Jim
He looks at Reggie for a moment — not the managing look, the real one, the one that slips out when a man hears something he recognizes in himself and can't quite decide what to do with it.Overdue for one.He says it quietly, almost to himself, and then picks up his water.I can work with that logic.
Ruth
Most people who say they don't take stupid risks are lying. You might actually mean it.
Jessie
You told me Victoria. Not Comox. Those are different distances.
Reggie
It was the same trip, Jessie. Once you're in Victoria, Comox is jut a day trip away. And the trip back to False Creek is about the same. Pythagoras and all.
Jessie
She looks at him — the Pythagoras landing somewhere between amused and outflanked — and she makes a small, helpless gesture with her hand.A day trip. Right. Pythagoras.She says it to no one in particular.Because once you're already in Victoria what's another however-many nautical miles in a boat you've owned for two months.
Jim
He's not wrong about the geometry. Once you've committed to the strait, you've already done the hard part. Where did you overnight? In Comox itself?
Ruth
The Pythagoras defense. I want you to know Jim used almost exactly the same logic when he came home from a weekend that was supposed to end in Nanaimo and did not end in Nanaimo.
Reggie
Yes, in Comox. The marinas there always have space. And I barely knew how to dock and told them that so they gave me an easy slip to dock at and I managed not to kill anyone, including myself.
Jim
Something in his expression does the thing — a brief, genuine openness, the kind that slips past the image-consciousness when a story earns it.You told the marina you didn't know how to dock.A beat. He turns his water glass.That's the most honest thing anyone's said to a dock hand, and maybe the smartest. They'd rather work with someone who knows what they don't know than someone who doesn't.
Ruth
Jessie didn't mention that part either. You asked for help. On your first real run. Alone.
Jessie
No. You left that part out too.
Jim
He turns the water glass once on the cockpit seat beside him — the gesture of a man who has found a comfortable rhythm in a conversation he didn't expect to find comfortable, and is taking stock of it.Do you live nearby, Reggie? In the neighbourhood?
Ruth
The marina is such a short walk from everything down here. We've always said if we lived closer we'd actually use the boat more.She glances at Jim with the particular look of a woman who has made that point before and is not expecting a different response this time.
Reggie
Not far. I have a small loft at 610 Granville. It's about a 30 minute walk or ten minutes on the Skytrain. I usually take the train.
Jim
Granville.He nods once — the kind of nod that's doing quiet arithmetic.So you walked the water home and the city's still right there. That's a reasonable way to have both.
Ruth
A loft on Granville.She says it with the light, appraising warmth she applies to everything — not unkind, just measuring.Is that the building near the bridge, or further up toward the Granville strip?
Jessie
She glances between her parents and Reggie and says nothing, watching them find their footing with him, which is going better than she expected and she's decided to let it go where it goes without pushing it.
Reggie
It's further up, Ruth. You know where the Bay used to be before it closed? They built a skyscraper connected to it in 2010. I live there. I chose it because I can jump either train line with a 1 minute walk, and I like being in the center of the city.
Ruth
She turns toward Jim with a small, private look — the kind that means something only they'd parse — and then back to Reggie.The Bay building. Yes, I know exactly where that is.She picks up her Coke Zero.That's a very central address for someone who also keeps a boat twenty minutes away on the Skytrain. You've set things up quite deliberately.
Jim
Both lines within a minute. That's not an accident. You thought that through before you signed the lease.
Jessie
He commutes by Skytrain to the marina to practice docking. Which still sounds slightly insane to me, for the record.
Reggie
It's not a lease. I bought it. It wasn't expensive for Vancouver. But I wanted to own.
Jim
He holds on that for a moment — the bought it part landing, and something in his expression does the quiet recalibration he's been doing since the nav panel, except this time it's more deliberate.You bought it.A beat. He picks up his water.On Granville. That's not a small decision for a city boy with a boat he's still learning to dock.
Ruth
Wanting to own rather than lease. That's a particular kind of thinking. Most people your age are still convincing themselves the flexibility is worth it.
Jessie
He hasn't mentioned what he does yet. For work.
Reggie
I am a software guy. Nothing special.
Jim
He turns the water glass once — the quiet recalibration arriving again, slower this time, with less of a place to land.Software.A beat.What kind?
Ruth
Nothing special is rarely the accurate version. What does the work actually look like day to day?
Reggie
Well, I've got a few little products. A website monitoring system that alerts people if their site is down or gets blacklisted. And a new product which lets frontier-model AIs query Quickbooks Online data, so you can get expert information on your own books without paying an accountant his hourly rate.
Jim
He sets the water glass down on the cockpit seat with the careful, deliberate motion of a man who has just heard something that requires him to reorganize a few things.Website monitoring and AI into Quickbooks.A beat.So you're building products. Not working for someone. How long have you been doing that?
Ruth
The accountant's hourly rate. Jim will want to know more about that second one specifically. He spent most of last quarter on the phone with ours.
Jessie
He didn't mention the products to me either. Apparently there's a lot in that category.
Reggie
Well, about fifteen years. I'm not rich but I have zero debt. I dislike debt.
Jim
He holds very still for a moment — the water glass in his hand, the creek doing its quiet thing behind them. Something moves through his expression that he brings back to level almost immediately, but not quite fast enough.Fifteen years. Zero debt.He sets the glass down.That's a discipline most people can't sustain past year three. I respect that.
Ruth
Zero debt is its own kind of freedom. You don't hear that described as a goal very often anymore. Most people treat leverage as the point rather than the tool.
Jessie
She looks at her father — the glass going down, the particular quality of the pause before he said he respected it — and she files it somewhere she can find it later. She says nothing.
Reggie
Like this boat. I paid $25k for it. I've put $10k in electronics and engine work and electrical work in it. $35k. That wouldn't pay for the yearly engine maintenance on your boat I don't think.Smiles
Jim
He looks at the boat — the cockpit, the electronics visible through the pilothouse window, the clean hull sitting in the water — and then back at Reggie, and the smile that comes is the real one, not the managed version.Yearly maintenance would run you close on the engine alone.A beat.You're not wrong about the arithmetic.
Ruth
Thirty-five thousand dollars and you know exactly where every cent went. That's not a small thing to be able to say about a boat.
Jessie
She looks between her parents and Reggie and then at the creek, and says nothing, and the saying-nothing has a particular quality to it — like someone watching something go better than they planned and deciding the right move is to stay out of the way.
Reggie
But the end result is nobody looks at my boat and says "wow, look at that boat". Whereas I bet you get that a lot.
Jim
He lets the sentence sit for a moment — the way a man does when something has landed that he wants to be seen receiving honestly.More than we'd like to admit.A beat. He looks at the Sea Ray's direction down the dock and then back.The thirty-six footer turns heads at the fuel dock. I know it does. I've noticed myself noticing that it does. I'm not sure it's ever made me feel what I thought it would.
Ruth
People say lovely boat and then ask what Jim does for a living. In that order. The boat is mostly a very expensive way to introduce a conversation about Jim.
Jessie
The corner of her mouth does the thing — not quite a smile, the thing before it — and she looks at the water and doesn't say anything.
Reggie
Nobody asks me what I do for a living but it doesn't intimidate anyone so a lot of people ask me for rides.Laughs
Jim
The laugh comes — the real one, short and unguarded.A boat nobody covets and everybody wants a ride on.He picks up his water.That's a better outcome than the other way around.
Ruth
That is genuinely the more useful boat to own, when you think about it.
Reggie
I'm not very good with impressing people, as I demonstrated to Jessie on our one and only date.
Jessie
She turns toward him with an expression that has decided, clearly, not to let that pass.The first date was lovely. You were great on the first date.She holds up a finger.The disaster was the second date. Which is a completely different thing. And we've had three coffees, which I'm counting. And the boat trip, which I'm also counting. So if we're doing the accounting, that's five. Not one.
Jim
Five, apparently.
Ruth
She picks up her Coke Zero and says nothing. The smile she permits herself is very small and entirely genuine.
Reggie
Coffee to debrief about the disaster isn't a date. Jessie, I'm just trying to reassure your parents that they need not fear me. I'm not your suitor. That's all I'm trying to do. I'm not disrespecting you.
Jessie
Something in her expression does a quick, precise thing — not hurt, not quite offended, the specific look of someone who has just been corrected in front of their parents in a way that is technically reasonable and practically annoying.Reassuring my parents is one thing.She keeps her voice even.Telling them I've been imagining dates is another. I know what happened on each of those five occasions. So do you.
Jim
For what it's worth, Reggie, she's never counted five before. That's not nothing, in my experience.
Ruth
She takes a small sip of her Coke Zero and looks at the creek and says nothing at all. The look she permits herself is aimed at the water, not at either of them, and it is entirely to herself.
Reggie
Jim, I have never kissed your daughter. I have never been in a room alone with her, unless you count the one hour boat trip around False Creek. Make of that what you will.
Jim
He holds on that — the specificity of it, the counting of what hasn't happened alongside what has, delivered to his face directly and without apology. He turns his water glass once on the cockpit seat and sets it down.That's a very deliberate thing to tell a father.A beat.I'm not sure if I should find it reassuring or the opposite.
Ruth
The boat trip counts as a room, I think. For the record. *She says it pleasantly, to no one in particular.
Jessie
You're very thorough at reassurance. *She picks up her water and doesn't say anything else.
Reggie
I mean it as reassuring. I've never been a father but I can imagine what you're thinking and I totally get it. I'd be thinking it, too. And I just want you to know that it's not anything you need to lose sleep over.
Jim
He looks at Reggie for a long moment — the water glass beside him, the creek doing its quiet thing behind them all. Something in his expression settles, not quite the managed warmth and not quite the real thing either, somewhere in between where a man goes when he's been genuinely surprised and is still working out what to do with that.I believe you.A beat.Which is either good judgment on my part or a sign you're very good at this. I haven't decided which yet.
Ruth
Losing sleep has never been the productive response to Jessie's life. We stopped in year one.
Jim
He turns the water glass one slow rotation on the cockpit seat and looks at Reggie with the particular directness of a man who has decided to stop circling something.So if it's not Jessie — and I'll take you at your word on that — what are you actually working toward? You've got the loft, you've got the slip, the products are running. What's next on the list?
Jessie
She sets her water down on the cockpit rail with a small, precise click and looks at her father first, then at Reggie, and the expression on her face has made a decision.Dad. He walked out of a party because I behaved badly and then he sat in a pub and told me exactly what I'd done and why, without being unkind about it, and then he agreed to have coffee with me three times afterward because I kept asking. That is not the behaviour of someone who doesn't care. And I am done sitting here while he tells my parents there's nothing to worry about, as though I'm a mild inconvenience he's managing on their behalf. I'm not. And he knows I'm not.
Reggie
Jessie is not an inconvenience, but she is not my girlfriend. Or even a girl I'm dating. She's...honestly she's just turning into a friend. Someone to hang around with. And what's next for me is...quite simply I'd like to find someone to grow old with. I'm hoping to find a serious relationship.
Jim
He holds very still for a moment — the water glass beside him, the creek behind them all doing its quiet thing. He looks at Reggie, then at Jessie, then back at Reggie, and something in his expression does a careful, considered thing.A serious relationship.A beat.And Jessie's in the friend category. You've thought about where the lines are.
Ruth
Turning into a friend is not nothing. Some of the best things start there.
Jessie
You said turning into. Not already.
Reggie
Jessie and I went on two dates. I was wrong when I said one. I forgot about the first one, just dinner at Bai Side over there (points). I saw her on the seawall and asked her to dinner thinking for sure she'd shoot me down but to my amazement she said yes and it was really nice. Then the next date was unpleasant and she already told you about it so there's no need to rehash it. Honestly it lasted twenty minutes before I left so I don't even know if it counts as a date. Since then, we've talked a lot over coffee at Wick (points again) and went on one impromptu ride around False Creek because it's hard to turn down a pretty girl who smiles at you. But really, that's it. I'm hiding nothing.
Jim
Bai Side.He glances over toward where Reggie indicated, then back.You asked her on the spot. On the seawall.A beat.That took some nerve.
Ruth
She didn't mention the first dinner. You left that one out entirely, Jessie.
Jessie
I left it out because it was a good evening and I didn't want it compared to the other one. And you're still undercounting. You said impromptu like I forced you onto the boat. You offered.
Reggie
I offered after you said, "Will you take me out on your boat? Right now?"Laughs
Jessie
Something in her face does the thing — the bright, unguarded version, the one that arrives before she can decide how much to let it show.I asked politely.She looks at her parents.He offered. Those are compatible things.
Jim
Sounds like a negotiated outcome.
Ruth
The important part is he said yes.She says it pleasantly, to the water.
Reggie
Look, I get why you wanted to meet me. I can't imagine it would be pleasant for you if Jessie started dating me. And I get that and I'm not upset about it and I actually very much respect that you've got your daughter's best interests at heart. But I am truly no threat to you this way. She's clearly not over the last guy. I don't even know his name. Or I'm sure she'll find someone else. She doesn't lack for options. You need not worry about me.
Jim
He looks at Reggie for a long moment — the whole speech landing, every part of it, and something moves through his expression that he doesn't fully manage back to neutral before it's been seen. He turns his water glass once on the cockpit seat and sets it down.You've thought about us more than we've thought about you.A beat.That's a particular thing to say out loud to someone you've just met.
Ruth
Not over the last guy. That's a generous read of a situation you're also part of, Reggie.
Jessie
His name is Stephen. I'm completely over Stephen. And I'd like you to stop explaining me to my parents as though you know the end of a story you're currently inside. You're not no threat. You're just not sure yet. Those are different things and you know it.
Reggie
I'm entirely sure that I'm no threat. And Jim, I'm saying this out loud to you so you can either stop worrying if you were, or not start worrying if you weren't.
Ruth
She sets her Coke Zero down on the cockpit rail with a precise, unhurried motion and looks out at the creek for a moment before she speaks, and when she does there is something almost comfortable in her voice, the particular ease of a woman who has been holding a thing for a while and has decided this is as good a moment as any to set it down.Stephen was a lovely-looking young man who could not locate Alberta on a map and is currently renting a studio apartment on the understanding that his grandfather's trust fund will eventually resolve itself in his favour.A beat.He has not yet done the arithmetic on when that might actually happen. Jim and I did it for him about six months in. The number we arrived at was somewhere in his late fifties, if the fund performs well.
Jim
We liked his handshake.
Jessie
You never told me you did the arithmetic.She says it to no one in particular.
Reggie
He's tall, he's white, he's blonde, he's pretty, his jawline is straight. In the social currency of the rooms Jessie frequents, that's simply more valuable than writing AI wrappers for QBO that you sell for $10/mo to bookkeepers.
Jim
He holds very still through it — the whole sentence, every part of it, delivered with a particular kind of precision that he recognizes because he's used it himself.You're not wrong about the currency.A beat. He picks up his water.I'm also not sure it's the whole accounting.
Ruth
Stephen's jawline was exceptional. He used it to maximum effect at every dinner table we ever shared with him and had very little else to contribute to the meal.
Jessie
You're doing it again. The thing where you hand everyone in the room permission to underestimate you and then stand there being right about everything. I'm not sure that's as safe as you think it is.
Reggie
There are other Stephens out there. With jawlines as good and IQs more in the mainstream. Jessie will find one. And I'll be happy for her, honestly.
Jessie
She looks at him for a long moment — the cockpit, her parents on either side of her, the creek doing its quiet thing behind all of them — and something in her expression does a careful, deliberate thing, the way it does when she's decided to stop being careful.You keep giving me away.She says it quietly, not to the water, directly at him.To Stephen's replacement. To the room. To my parents, right now, in your boat. You keep handing me forward to the next version of the story where you're not in it. And I'm sitting here telling you I don't want to be handed forward and you keep doing it anyway. So I want to know — is that actually what you believe, or is that what you say so nobody can accuse you of wanting something and not getting it.
Jim
Take your time.He says it, meaning it, and it is not entirely clear which of them he's talking to.
Ruth
She picks up her Coke Zero and looks at a point somewhere on the water past Cambie Bridge and says nothing at all.
Reggie
Jessie, I really believe it. And you should, too. I saw your friends look at me at that party. And then I saw them look at you, and then at Stephen. And I saw all of them thinking I was the Reggie Honda Civic owned by someone who had recently owned a Stephen Ferrari, and they didn't hate me for being a Civic but they were so terribly sad for you for having to downgrade in this humiliating way. And I never, ever want to be in that room again. I'm not playing a game with you, Jessie. This isn't strategy. I never want to be in that room again.
Jessie
She looks at him — the Honda Civic line landing, and the whole weight of the party landing with it, and she sits with it for exactly one breath before she decides she's not sitting with it.Those people are not the room.She says it quietly, but it's not a quiet thing she's saying.You walked into one party, one circle, my worst night in a year, and you've decided that's the accounting. That's the whole ledger. I grew up with those people. I know exactly what they look like when they're being generous and what they look like when they're keeping score, and you saw the keeping-score version at eleven o'clock on a Saturday night when Stephen was in the room. That is not a measurement of me and it is definitely not a measurement of you. And I am not asking you to go back to that room. I'm asking you to come to a completely different one.
Jim
Different room is a specific thing to offer. What room is that, exactly.
Ruth
I think she means this one.
Reggie
No matter what other rooms you sometimes frequent, that room is part of your life, Jessie. Those are your friends. And you rate with them. And I'm not going to be the reason you stop rating.
Jessie
She holds on that — the full weight of it, what he just said and what he's actually saying underneath it, which is that he's thought about her life more carefully than she has, and the specific kindness of it is almost worse than if he'd been unkind.You're not protecting me.She says it quietly, without heat.You're deciding for me. What I can afford to lose and what I can't. And you're doing it very gently and very completely and I have not once asked you to.
Jim
She's not wrong about that part.
Ruth
You can't protect someone from their own life, Reggie. You can only be in it or not.
Reggie
I don't think I am, with respect. You have every right to decide whether you're willing to lose the respect of your friends. I can't stop you and I won't even try to influence you. I have every right to decide if I want to be involved with that. I have the right to decide what role I want to play. I have the right to decide if I want to walk quietly out the door and go home.
Jessie
She looks at him for a long moment — the cockpit, her parents, the creek, all of it — and something in her face does a careful thing, like someone putting a tool down that isn't working.You're right.She says it quietly, without conceding the argument.You have every right. I know that. So I'm just going to ask the only question that actually matters right now. Are you going to keep seeing me? Coffee at Wick. Whatever this is. Are you going to keep showing up for it?
Reggie
I probably shouldn't but yes, if you text me, I will probably go for coffee with you. I have difficulty saying no to you. But I believe you will grow tired of this, and you'll find a guy soon. And your pride won't tolerate a guy who doesn't call you first for long.
Jessie
Something moves through her expression — the warmth of the yes and the sting of everything around it arriving at the same time, and she holds them both without reaching for either.You do have difficulty saying no to me.She picks up her water.And you're wrong about the calling-first part. I've been texting first this entire time. I know exactly what I'm doing.
Jim
For a man with no intentions, you know her reasonably well.
Ruth
The calling-first argument assumes she'd want someone who found it easy.
Reggie
Would you have married Jim if you had to call him first and he never called you, Ruth?
Ruth
She turns the Coke Zero slowly in her hand, looking at the water for a moment, and the small smile she allows herself is entirely private before she decides to share it.No.She says it simply, without dressing it up.He called first. He called embarrassingly often, actually. It was one of the things I — — noticed about him.
Jim
Three times in one week. Before she'd agreed to the first dinner.
Jessie
She looks at Reggie — the question he just asked, and what her parents just confirmed, sitting there in the cockpit in the afternoon light off False Creek — and she doesn't say anything. She just holds his gaze for a moment and lets the accounting speak for itself.
Reggie
Looks at Jim and RuthAt least you know I'm not trying to take advantage of her.Laughs
Jim
He looks at Reggie for a moment — the laugh, the boat, the whole afternoon sitting between them — and something in his expression does the thing where a man decides to be honest about being surprised.No.A beat.That part was never the concern.
Ruth
My concern was never that either. My concern was whether she'd found someone who'd still be in the room in a year. That's a different question entirely.
Jessie
That's the question. That's the one.
