Reggie
We go to a meeting of Jessie's friends. Jessie invited me and I only resisted a bit. I thought it was early to meet her friends but that's better than a girl who wants to hide me. She introduces me around and then sits by her ex, saying "You don't mind, do you?" I say not at all, thinking it's for a moment. But twenty minutes later she's still there. I make eye contact and she looks embarrassed but doesn't budge. I look at her, say nothing, but let my eyes ask "Are you going to pay any attention to me at all tonight?" She looks back to her ex and starts laughing at something. I turn and leave the party.
This part of the scene is a series of text messages between Jessie and Reggie
Jessie
Three dots appear. Disappear. Appear again.Hey, where did you go?Another minute passes. Then:Reggie?
Reggie
I headed home. Enjoy your evening.
Jessie
The three dots appear almost immediately this time, and hold for longer than a simple reply would need.Reggie, I'm sorry. I didn't think — I wasn't trying to —The message cuts off. Another starts.Can I call you?
Reggie
There's no need. Have fun.
Jessie
The dots again. Longer this time.Are you mad at me?
Reggie
No. Let's chat another night. You have a lot of friends there.
Jessie
The dots appear, then stop, then appear again. The pause is longer than it should be for a simple goodnight.Okay but — I feel like you're leaving on a bad note and I don't want that. I was just catching up with him. It wasn't a big thing.
Reggie
It's fine. Good night.
Jessie
The dots appear before his message has probably even delivered.It's not fine, I can tell it's not fine. You left without saying anything.A pause. Then:I didn't do anything wrong, Reggie. He's an old friend. You're being a little oversensitive about this.
Reggie
He's not an old friend, he's your ex. And I'm not sensitive at all. I'm enjoying the fresh autumn night. And you should enjoy your night, too.
Jessie
The typing indicator appears. Stops. Starts again. The gap between messages is getting shorter now, not longer.Okay there's a difference between an ex and an old friend? He's both. People stay friends with exes. That's a normal thing that happens.A few seconds. Then:Are you actually walking home right now?
Reggie
Yes. I don't live far. I might stop in at Wick for a Guinness. I'm truly okay. Good night.
Jessie
The typing indicator appears and stays, longer than any of her previous messages. Then:You're going to the Wicklow alone instead of being at a party. Because of me.A shorter pause. Then:That's not okay, I don't feel okay about that.
Reggie
I choose not to respond. I keep walking
Jessie
I just left. I'm outside. Which way did you go?
Reggie
Jessie, go back to your ex, and your party, and enjoy your night. I'm at Wick and I see some old friends there and I'm going to join them for a drink.
Jessie
The reply comes back fast. Too fast for someone who's supposed to be at a party. She's still standing on the sidewalk outside, and she reads it twice.Old friends. Right.A beat. Then another message, almost immediately after:I'm already outside, Reggie. Just — tell me which way. I'm not going back in there.
Reggie
Good night, Jessie.I grab a stool by Bryan, a guy I have disliked for many years, but it's better than being alone.
The scene shifts to real life, no longer SMS texts, at the Wicklow Pub at Stamp's Landing in Vancouver.
The Wicklow is doing its usual Saturday thing — not packed, not empty, the kind of crowd that lets you hear the person next to you clearly if you want to and ignore them if you don't. Reggie has found a stool. Bryan, who is exactly the kind of person you end up next to when the alternative is thinking too clearly, is saying something about things he knows little about. The door opens ten minutes after Reggie's last text.
Jessie
She spots him immediately — the room isn't that big, and she was looking before she was even fully through the door. She stops for a second, just inside the threshold, getting her bearings. Her jacket is still on from outside. She came straight here. She crosses to him. Not fast, not hesitant. She stops just behind his stool, close enough that he'll know she's there before she speaks.I looked it up on Maps. Hi.This last word aimed at Bryan, brief and friendly, because she is incapable of being anything other than that, even now.
Reggie
You shouldn't have come here.
Jessie
She holds his gaze. She doesn't sit down, doesn't reach for a stool, doesn't make herself comfortable — just stands there in her jacket with Maps still probably open on her phone somewhere in her pocket.Maybe not.A beat. She looks at Bryan briefly, then back at Reggie.But I'm here. So.
Reggie
Yes, you're here. And now that you're here, what is it you want?
Jessie
She pulls out the stool next to him and sits, which is an answer of sorts before she's said anything.What I want.A short exhale through her nose.Honestly? I want to know why you walked out of a party in front of all my friends without saying a word to me, because I have spent the last twenty minutes being asked where you went, and I didn't have a great answer. You embarrassed me, Reggie. In my own circle. I wasn't ignoring you on purpose — I was catching up with someone I know, and you just — left. Like I'd done something unforgivable.
Reggie
I don't see how I embarrassed you. I came, I greeted everyone, I talked briefly with everyone, and then I left in peace. I didn't get into any fights or insult anyone. And are you really going to litigate this standing up with your coat on? You're welcome to, if you wish. It just looks a bit odd and that seems to be concerning to you tonight.
Jessie
She looks at him for a second — the logic of it arriving in a way she didn't expect, because he's right, and she knows he's right, and that doesn't help.She unbuttons her jacket. Pulls it off. Drapes it over the back of the stool.Fine. I'm not leaving, so we might as well do this correctly. You know what I mean when I say you embarrassed me. You didn't make a scene — you made a disappearance. Which is worse, actually. Everyone noticed. Everyone asked. And I didn't have anything to tell them.
Reggie
Why not just say I left, and you don't know why?
Jessie
She looks at him. The question is so reasonable it takes a second to find the edge of it.Because I would have had to believe that myself first.She picks up the drink menu, doesn't look at it, sets it back down.You left because I was sitting with my ex for twenty minutes while you stood there alone at a party I brought you to. I know that. Everyone there probably knows that. Saying 'I don't know why' would have been a lie and I'm not a great liar in front of people who know me.
Reggie
Then you did have something to tell them. You just chose not to.
Jessie
The sentence lands and she goes still for a moment — not defensive-still, the other kind, where something accurate has arrived and there's nothing to do but sit with it.Yeah.She says it quietly. She's not looking at the menu anymore. She's not looking anywhere in particular.I could have said he left because I was spending too much time with my ex and he didn't want to make it a thing. That's the true version. And I didn't say it because saying it out loud to twelve people at a party means standing there while they all have opinions about it. Which doesn't mean you were wrong to leave. I'm not saying that. I just — I didn't expect you to go so fast. I was going to come find you.
Reggie
You should be chatting with your ex at the party. There's still time if you go back. Look, Jessie, what do you hope to achieve with this scene? Or wait, that's not fair. This isn't a scene by marina bar standards. This place has seen much worse. But whatever this is right here and right now, what do you hope to achieve by it? Do you want me to say "Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have left? Let's go back right now?" or do you want me to say "I'm very sorry I left, go back in peace and be with your ex?" Because if it's the latter, I'm happy to say it right now. What do you want of me?
Jessie
She looks at him for a long moment. The bar does its low ambient thing around them — glass on wood, someone laughing two stools down, Bryan existing somewhere to Reggie's left. She doesn't look at any of it. She looks at Reggie.Neither of those.She says it plainly, without building to it.I don't want an apology for leaving and I don't want you to send me back. I came here because I didn't want the night to end like that. That's the whole of it. And I think you know that what happened back there wasn't nothing. I was being bad at paying attention to you and you left instead of making it awkward, which was — actually pretty decent of you, and I'm aware of that. I'm just also here now. So what I want is for us to still be talking at the end of this drink. That's what I want.
Reggie
We're talking. I haven't blocked you, although I was tempted when you wouldn't stop texting. I do not intend to block you. So you have what you want. Go back to your party.
Jessie
She looks at him. The offer to leave is very clearly an offer to leave, and she receives it as exactly that — gentle, exact, and closed.She doesn't take it.I'll have whatever he's having. I don't want to go back to the party. I want to be here. Those are different things and I think you know that or you wouldn't have told me where you were.
Reggie
You're going to regret that. I'm having a Guinness. Women hate Guinness, generally.
Jessie
She holds his gaze for exactly one second before she turns to signal the bartender.Two Guinnesses.She turns back.I've had Guinness before. It's nasty. And you did tell me where you were.
Reggie
Jessie, look, this isn't going to go anywhere. We're talking. We were talking before. We've been on one date. One and a quarter if you couldn't tonight as a quarter of a date, although that's being generous. We've never been...we've never done anything. You're a young, pretty white girl and you've got a lot of choices. You're not losing anything here. Go pick a man from your Bumble DMs or wherever you find them and be happy.
Jessie
The Guinness arrives in front of her and she looks at it for a moment, not touching it. When she looks back at him her expression is doing something she's not managing — a quick, caught thing that she recovers from, but not quite fast enough.Look, I heard you.She says it quietly. She wraps her hands around the pint glass.And you're not wrong about any of it. One date. One and a quarter if you're generous. No history. I have choices, you're right about that too. But I didn't look up the Wicklow on Maps and walk here in the cold because I was confused about my choices. I came because I was sitting at that party after you left and the whole room felt wrong and I kept thinking about you walking out and I couldn't stay there. That's not nothing. I'm twenty-four, not stupid. I know what nothing feels like. And you told me where you were going. You didn't have to do that. You could have just said good night and left me on read. So I'm going to sit here and drink this Guinness, which is actually pretty good, and I'd like you to tell me what Bumble has to do with anything. Because I'm not on Bumble. And that felt like it was about something else.
Reggie
I didn't mean anything by Bumble. I just meant wherever you find men.
Jessie
She looks at him for a moment — not offended, something more complicated than that. She turns the pint glass a slow half-rotation on the bar and looks at it.The honest answer to that is — I don't really find them anywhere.She says it without making it sound like a complaint, just a fact.I'm not on the apps. I've tried them and they felt like the wrong size, like wearing someone else's coat. And guys don't really just — walk up anymore. You know that. It's not like that now. Not in 2026, not in this city. Everyone's got their face in their phone deciding whether to say something and then deciding no and then going home. You're the first guy who's asked me to dinner in the wild in five years. Since I was nineteen. And I know how that sounds coming from someone who looks like me, and I'm not saying it for sympathy. I'm saying it because 'go find another one' is not as simple as you're making it sound. And also because I didn't come here looking for simple.
Reggie
There's a pretty, tall, blonde white man waiting for you back at that party. Go, for God's sake. There's nothing for you here.
Jessie
She looks at the bar for a second. The pint glass is still in her hands. When she looks back up something in her expression has shifted — not quite rueful, not quite a smile. Somewhere in between.He's not stupid-looking. I'll give him that.She turns the glass once, stops it.He's exactly what he looks like. Which sounds like I'm saying something nice and I'm not. You can tell within about four minutes if someone's got anything going on behind their face. Four minutes was generous in his case. My friends thought I'd won a prize. And I just — kept steering the conversation back to things he could answer, which I got very good at, which tells you everything about how that was going. You're doing the thing where you're pointing at the door and calling it kindness. And I hear the kindness in it, I'm not saying it isn't there. But you told me where you were going. And there's something over there —— with his mouth closed, looking the way he looks. And there's this. And I walked here. So.
Reggie
I didn't tell you to be chased. I didn't even realize I was telling you. I just said Wick and you figured it out, which is somewhat impressive. And he didn't embarrass you at all. Quit lying to yourself. You were all over him. And I'm telling you as clearly as I know how that I'm fine with it. I'm not mad. Go be with him.
Jessie
She sets the pint glass down. Not hard — but down.Okay, stop.She turns on the stool to face him properly, and there's something different in it now — the warm, easy manner still there underneath, but something sharper on top of it.I was not all over him. I was talking to him. At a party. That I organized. And you walked out without a word — not a 'hey, I'm heading out,' not a text until I sent one first, nothing — and left me standing there getting asked questions I couldn't answer by people who were watching the whole thing. That's not nothing, Reggie. That's genuinely not nothing. And yes, I followed you here. And yes, I figured out Wick. And maybe you didn't mean it as an invitation and maybe I read it wrong, but I'm sitting on this stool drinking a Guinness I didn't particularly want because I didn't think the night should end like that, and now you're telling me I was all over my ex and pointing at the door, and I'm — I'm a little tired of being managed right now. I didn't do anything that deserved being walked out on. You could have said something. You could have come and found me. You just left.
Reggie
I could have said something. I did not. I could have come to find you. And I did. And we made eye contact. And you looked embarrassed about ignoring me. And then you turned back to your ex and started laughing. So let's not revise history.
Jessie
The words land and she goes quiet. Not the managed quiet she uses when she's buying time — the other kind, where something is accurate and she knows it and there's nowhere to put it.She looks at the bar. Her hands are around the pint glass and she's not drinking from it.You're right. You did. We did. And I looked embarrassed because I was embarrassed. And then — I don't know why I turned back. I don't have a clean answer for that and I'm not going to make one up. But I want you to know that the laughing wasn't — it wasn't pointed at you. It wasn't me choosing him over you. It was me being an idiot in front of someone who knows how to make me laugh and not thinking about what it looked like from ten feet away. That's the honest version. And I know that doesn't fix it. But I didn't want you to think it was deliberate.
Reggie
Of course it was deliberate. You had choices. You made a choice. Perhaps you didn't think much about your choice, but it was a free choice made with an unimpaired mind. That's the definition of deliberate.
Jessie
The sentence arrives and she looks at him — not with the defensive energy she came in with, but something quieter underneath it, the kind of quiet that happens when someone uses a word precisely and you realize you've been using it loosely your whole life.Fine.She says it. One word, flat.Fine, you're right. Deliberate. I made a choice and I didn't think about what I was choosing, which is maybe worse than choosing badly on purpose. That still doesn't mean I wanted you to leave. Both things can be true. I made a bad choice and I didn't want you to go. I'm sitting here because of the second one.
Reggie
Sitting here is just another bad choice. I asked you this once. What do you want? Why are you here? Last time you said you wanted us to keep talking. We're talking. I've told you I won't block you. You can text me with more crap about how you didn't mean anything by it or whatever else you might want to say. You have that. So I ask you again, what do you want? Why are you here?
Jessie
She looks at him for a long moment. The Guinness is in front of her and she's not touching it anymore. The bar noise exists somewhere behind them and she lets it.Something shifts in her face — not the management dropping, because she's not managing, she never really manages, it's just not how she's built. But something settles. Something honest.I want you to take me seriously. That's what I want. Not a text chain and not being told to go back to the party and not — this. I want you to look at me the way you looked at me on our first date, when you were actually curious about what I was going to say next. Because you stopped looking at me like that somewhere between the party and this stool and I noticed the exact moment it happened and it was before you left. I made a bad choice tonight. I know that. But you decided something about me at that party — I could see it — and I don't think you should get to decide that from twenty feet away while I was doing something stupid without even thinking. So that's what I want. I want you to not have decided yet.
Reggie
You're right. I decided that I didn't want to be treated like that. So I left. Where's the issue?
Jessie
She holds his gaze. The noise of the bar does its thing around them — someone orders, a glass moves, Bryan exists — and she stays right where she is on the stool.That's not where I said the issue was.Her voice is level. Still warm, because she doesn't seem to have a setting that isn't warm, but there's something underneath it that isn't backing down.The issue is the deciding. You decided something bigger than that. Not just that you didn't want to be treated that way — that's fair, that's completely fair and I'm not arguing it — but that I'm the kind of person who would always treat you that way. That I'm not worth staying for. I saw it happen in your face before you even walked out the door. And I'm sitting here telling you that you made that call on one bad twenty minutes of a night I was nervous about to begin with, and I think you should at least know you did that before you finish deciding.
Reggie
Yes, that's true. I decided I didn't want to be treated like that, and that I believed that you would treat me like that, and I had the best possible reason for thinking you would treat me like that because, at that exact moment, you were treating me like that.
Jessie
She receives that the way it deserves to be received — without flinching, without the reflexive move toward deflection. She looks at her pint glass for a moment. When she looks back up she's not performing anything.Yeah.She says it. Just the one word, sitting there.You're right. The evidence was present and ongoing. I don't have an argument against that. What I have is — it was twenty minutes. Of one night. And I was nervous about this party before we even got there, which I know you didn't know, but I'm telling you now. He's easy to talk to in a way that doesn't require anything from me. And when I'm nervous I go toward easy. That's not an excuse. It's just what happened, and I think you deserve the actual reason instead of whatever I was calling it before. You decided I'd always do it. From twenty minutes. I'm asking you to tell me if there's anything I could say right now that would make that not a permanent verdict. Because if the answer is no, I'll drink this Guinness and go. But I'd like to know.
Reggie
I can imagine nothing at all that you could say that would make that verdict not permanent. So drink your Guinness and go in peace.
Jessie
She doesn't move. The Guinness is in front of her and she said she'd go and she doesn't go.Wait.She says it quietly, and then again, firmer.Wait. No. I just told you I'd leave if you said no. And you said no. And I'm not leaving. Which I know is — I know how that looks. But I need you to tell me why. Not 'because you ignored me' — I know that part. Why permanent. Why you looked at twenty minutes of a nervous girl doing something stupid and landed on permanent. Because I don't think I'm a person who deserves a permanent verdict from that. And I'm not going to drink this Guinness and walk out of here believing I am.
Reggie
Jessie, you know how replaceable I am. You know that while it's true men don't approach women in the wild much these days, you could go on the apps and find as many hookups as you want. You own a mirror. And I know that you like how you look and appear to need constant validation about it. Not just about your looks but also the fact that you can pull men and be the center of attention just about anywhere. And I believe that wherever you go, you test that. You look around, you want everyone to love you, especially men, especially attractive men. And I know that's not how I want to live.
Jessie
The words land one at a time and she lets them. She doesn't look away from him, doesn't reach for the pint glass, doesn't do any of the things a person does when they're buying time or building a case. She just sits with it until she's sure she's heard all of it.You're not wrong.She says it quietly. Not as a concession — as a fact she's looked at and recognized.I do like knowing I can pull a room. I'm not going to lie to you about that. I know what I look like and I know what it does and some part of me — yeah. Checks. Every room I walk into, I notice where I land. I've been doing it since I was seventeen and I don't think I've ever said that out loud to anyone.
But I need you to hear the difference between needing the whole room and needing to know you're in it. Those aren't the same thing. What happened tonight — that was the room. Him, being easy, everyone watching to see if I'd brought someone real or just someone decorative. And I went toward easy because I was scared about the second one. About whether you were still — interested. Whether you were glad you came.
That's not an excuse. It's just the true version under the stupid version. And I know you've already decided, and I said I'd go, and I'm still sitting here, which probably proves your point more than anything I could say. But I'm asking you to consider that the thing you're describing — the checking, the needing to land — I know it's in me. I just don't think it's all of me. And you've seen maybe three hours of me total. That's a small sample to close the file on.
But I need you to hear the difference between needing the whole room and needing to know you're in it. Those aren't the same thing. What happened tonight — that was the room. Him, being easy, everyone watching to see if I'd brought someone real or just someone decorative. And I went toward easy because I was scared about the second one. About whether you were still — interested. Whether you were glad you came.
That's not an excuse. It's just the true version under the stupid version. And I know you've already decided, and I said I'd go, and I'm still sitting here, which probably proves your point more than anything I could say. But I'm asking you to consider that the thing you're describing — the checking, the needing to land — I know it's in me. I just don't think it's all of me. And you've seen maybe three hours of me total. That's a small sample to close the file on.
Reggie
Jessie, quite lying to yourself. All your friends are white, most of them are young, most of those are bimbos, male and female, and the large majority of them saw me, a 5'10" brown guy, and saw me as a HUGE downgrade from the 6'2" blonde white guy you were all over tonight. And if you tell me you don't think that's true, I will leave you here to finish your Guinness alone.
Jessie
She opens her mouth and closes it again. The bar does its thing around them. She looks at her pint glass for a long moment.Some of them.She says it. Quietly, and without looking at him yet.Some of them looked at you that way. I know which ones. I know their faces. I watched it happen and I didn't like it and I didn't say anything about it to you, and I should have. But you're asking me to own every person in that room and I can't do that. I can't be responsible for what twelve people think when I walk in with someone. What I can tell you is what I thought when you walked in with me. And I thought — I thought you were the most interesting person there. Before you'd said a word to anyone. Just — the way you stood. The way you looked at the room without needing the room to look back. I know that doesn't fix the accounting. But you said you'd leave if I lied, and I'm not lying.
Reggie
Yes, you are lying. And I'm not leaving so I'm apparently as full of shit as you are. But let's be clear, I'm not asking you to own them. I'm asking you to own yourself. You felt the looks, you saw that you would get far more validation and attention and envy from your peers if you were touching his arm and not mine, and so you did that. And that's the real truth. And I need you to quit lying about it.
Jessie
She goes very still. Not the performative still of someone composing themselves — the other kind, where something has landed exactly and there's nothing to build a wall out of fast enough.She looks at the bar. One beat. Two. When she looks back up her expression is doing something she wasn't planning on, which is nothing at all — no warmth deployed as cover, no bright deflection, just her face, sitting there.Okay. Okay, yes. I felt it. I felt the room shift when I was next to him versus when I was next to you, I know what that shift means, and I went toward it. That's — yeah. That's the true version. I went toward the version of the night where my friends were impressed instead of the version where you were. And I knew I was doing it and I told myself it was just catching up with an old friend and that's the lie. That's the specific lie you've been pulling apart for the last twenty minutes and I've been sitting here handing you different versions of it.
I don't know what to do with that. About myself. I'm not — I've never said that out loud either. Any of this. Tonight is a lot of firsts. I'm not asking you to make that mean something it doesn't. I just — I needed to say it because you were right and you knew you were right and I kept making you prove it, and that wasn't fair.
I don't know what to do with that. About myself. I'm not — I've never said that out loud either. Any of this. Tonight is a lot of firsts. I'm not asking you to make that mean something it doesn't. I just — I needed to say it because you were right and you knew you were right and I kept making you prove it, and that wasn't fair.
Reggie
Right. I appreciate you telling the truth about that. And I think it's healthy for you to. But now I'm telling you as clearly as I know how to tell someone, I want no part of it. I'm not going to be ugly about it. I'm not going to message your friends and call you names. I'm just going to remove myself from the situation with what little dignity I have left, and get on with my life.
Jessie
She holds that for a long moment. The Guinness is in front of her. The bar does its thing. She doesn't look at the glass, doesn't look at Bryan, doesn't do any of the small things she does when she's managing the temperature of a room. She looks at Reggie.I hear you.She says it quietly — not as a preamble, just as the first true thing available.And I'm not going to argue with it or tell you you're wrong or give you another version of tonight that makes it easier for me to sit here. You've been patient about this for a long time already and you didn't have to be. I just want you to know that I'm going to think about what you pulled out of me tonight for a very long time. The true version. The room shift, the envy, all of it. I didn't know I was carrying that until you made me look at it, and that's — that's not nothing. Even if it doesn't change anything for you.
Reggie
Don't look too hard. Don't beat yourself up over it. Be yourself. Find a pretty white guy. A tall one, with blonde hair. And make beautiful babies that reflect a lot of light. Get what you truly want. And don't feel guilty about wanting that, because there's nothing wrong with it. And there's nothing wrong with you.
Jessie
The sentence arrives in full — all of it, the pretty white guy, the tall one, the blonde hair, the beautiful light-reflecting babies — and she listens to every word of it without looking away. When he finishes she is quiet for a moment that isn't managed or performed. She just sits with it.That's a very kind way to tell someone to go away.She says it simply. No edge in it, just the fact of it, sitting there between them.You've been kind about it this whole time, actually. Even when you were pulling the true version out of me. You were never cruel about it.
I don't know if I want what you just described. I think I've been letting other people want it for me and calling it my own, which is — that's a thing I'm apparently going to have to sit with for a while. But I'm not going to argue it with you tonight. You've given me enough to think about. More than enough.
For what it's worth. You were the first interesting thing that's happened to me in a long time. I don't mean that as a guilt trip. I mean it as the true version, since that's what tonight has been about. I'll remember this bar. The Guinness is actually fine, by the way. I was wrong about that too.
I don't know if I want what you just described. I think I've been letting other people want it for me and calling it my own, which is — that's a thing I'm apparently going to have to sit with for a while. But I'm not going to argue it with you tonight. You've given me enough to think about. More than enough.
For what it's worth. You were the first interesting thing that's happened to me in a long time. I don't mean that as a guilt trip. I mean it as the true version, since that's what tonight has been about. I'll remember this bar. The Guinness is actually fine, by the way. I was wrong about that too.
