The Ring: Draft 3, Day 3

Metal pots and lids slammed onto tile. I turned the page of my magazine and started reading about an actress who was now 79 pounds. I studied the picture and looked for any helpful tips.

"I'm okay!" Glen yelled.

"Good to know!" I called back. I sipped my skinny hazelnut latte and grimaced at the foam. I hated foam. Idiot Starbucks girl.

"Do you want bread tonight?"

I looked at the actress with the seventeen inch waist. "No."

"Potatoes?"

The woman's collarbone was as defined as any skeleton's I'd ever seen. "Uh uh."

"Are you wanting red or white tonight?"

What I wanted was for the night to already end. "Red. And bring the bottle."

Bells made a cherry little jingle outside. It was annoying. I took myself to one of Glen's long narrow windows and found a two-horse carriage bumping its way down the street. Hope they thought the ten minutes of cold wind and horse farts was worth the fifty bucks they'd forked over with a dopey smile.

"Dinner is served!"

I put my coffee cup on the window sill and turned to see Glen holding a white platter. His white skin against the white dish, white chicken breast on top of white rice, reminded me of the white skin all over his soft body.

We sat and he ate. I pushed food on the plate and checked my Yahoo account. Then my Gmail account. Then Facebook.

"I think the chicken could use a little more tarragon," he said.

"Sure."

More chewing, more checking.

"I was thinking we could do the Christmas thing this year."

I stopped scrolling. "We never do Christmas together."

He cleared his throat. "Thought we should start. It's been, what, three years?"

I pushed the plate away. My birthday had been in Bora Bora. Valentine's Day had been in St. Maarten's. Tropical would be a good change. "Okay. So let's discuss this. What did you have in mind?"


NOTE INSERTED AFTER I WAS DONE WITH DRAFT 3: When I read through Draft #2, it struck me that My Girl was a little mean after Glen drops the dishes. I wanted to run with that. I also cut the exposition that showed setting...but didn't help story. Still working toward an ending, but it's more clear to me today than it was in Days 1 or 2.

--WHAT'S BEEN CUT WITH NO PLACE TO GO RIGHT NOW--

Nothing. Nothing seems precious anymore or fits with where I'm going.