Aftertaste Page #5

Season #1 Episode #1

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Kat puts her hand up stop mode.

But don’t read the rest. After we hash out

(CONTINUED)

the troubling aspects of each relationship,

I might wanna see if I can guess some of

the triggers.

MELODY RAE:

Cool! Yes. That would be great. Thanks, Kat.

(beat)

Oh, guess what? I forgot to tell you. I

finally bought that relationship book I

told you about. It’s in my jeep. I bought

it earlier today. I thought it would be

helpful in seeing why all my relationships

haven’t worked out well, and yours, too. It

combines each sign and explains why you

connect with certain personalities and not

with others.

KAT:

Awesome...go get it! Let’s check it out.

MELODY RAE:

I’m on it!

Melody Rae fishes her keys out of her purse and jams out the front door. When she returns a few minutes later, Kat isn’t there. She sits, scans the relationship chart in the front pages and begins reading. Kat bounds down the stairway, procures her wine glass and grabs the bottle, and begins to touch up both glasses and then sits.

KAT:

All right give it to me. What does it say

about you and Shay? Just read me the title,

your weaknesses and what you’re best at.

MELODY RAE:

Fine. The title for our combination, the

twenty-third of December with the third of

December is:
the resolve to prevail.

Our Weaknesses:
undermining, overconfident,

unhealthy. Best at: sibling.

KAT:

Whoa! That is spot-on, for sure. You two

stayed together way longer than you should

(CONTINUED)

have which was unhealthy. And, I mean, from

what I understand, Shay was arrogant and

you both consistently undermined one other,

albeit unknowingly. And I can see how you

treated each other like brother and sister.

Wow, that’s crazy how accurate that book is.

So weird.

MELODY RAE:

I know...too weird.

Melody Rae put the book down and poured herself some more wine and took a few sips. Kat seized the book off the table.

KAT:

I’m looking up my combo with Troy and

Steven.

MELODY RAE:

Go for it.

Melody Rae begins to prepare the baked salmon with Brie recipe at the kitchen counter. Kat continues reading.

DISSOLVE TO:
Window of Kat’s cottage shows sun going down then back to kitchen. One wine bottle is empty and another ne has been opened.

KAT:

You know, as your newly appointed honorary

therapist, I would say, aside from the

smell, sound, and taste that will forever

haunt you, your experience with Shay gave

you the tools to sense when a guy is lying

to you. You can be deemed the official

queen of understanding slimy, sardine-like

behavior. I mean, you’ve never dated

another gay guy with his demeanor, right?

MELODY RAE:

Okay, okay, okay. I suppose I can agree

with that interpretation. But I was still

quite inexperienced when I met Tony. Shay

was my only relationship experience before

(CONTINUED)

him. So, while I may have been the expert

queen of closeted gay men, superficiality

was totally foreign to me. You know what I

mean? And Tony was noncommittal and

uninvolved which didn’t seem unusual to me

because that’s how Shay was. I thought

separateness was intimacy.

KAT:

So, was that the serious deal breaker with

Tony, that he was a commitment-phobic?

MELODY RAE:

Um, n-o-o-o! There is w-a-a-ay more to it

than that!

KAT:

What were you eating?

MELODY RAE:

Well, now that is a good question. When the

theater unexpectedly closed; I was then

only working at Paw Parazzi’s. And despite

being a full-time assistant, my salary

barely paid the bills. And, since I was

still attending college there was little

money left over for groceries, so I was

eating an excess of top ramen, naturally.

And, since Tony was a movie fanatic and had

friends in the industry that procured us

tickets for free, we went to the movies an

excessive amount of time where I consumed a

ton of popcorn loaded with that artificial

oily movie theater butter. You know, when I

worked at that movie theater before I met

Tony, I struggled to read the label on a huge

tub of it once. Did you know there is no

recognizable ingredient in that stuff?

Seriously! And there’s no actual butter in

it at all!

KAT:

Gross.

MELODY RAE:

Oh, and at home I often had a bowl of

ratatouille with a handful of soup and

oyster crackers. They’re cheap. Of course,

Tony, who loved to cook, put extra garlic

powder on everything, mostly spaghetti

noodles which he prepared all the time.

After dating him I never wanted noodles with

garlic marinara ever again.

KAT:

So, you ate a lot of greasy, cheap,

artificial products?

MELODY RAE:

And your point is?

KAT:

Sounds like Tony.

MELODY RAE:

HA! You are so right. Boy, if I knew then

what I know now.

KAT:

Then you would never have any rich

experiences. The best adventures in life are

the ones with risk involved. C’mon, Melody

Rae, you know that! How else would you learn

anything?

MELODY RAE:

Spoken from the queen of risk…Miss bungee

jumping, skydiving, tough mudder, thrill

seeker.

KAT:

O-o-o-o-o-oh, I like that. I need a bumper

sticker with that on it!

MELODY RAE:

Next birthday gift.

KAT:

Okay, so how did you meet Tony? Although

you’ve told me a little bit about him,

you’ll have to remind me what he was like.

MELODY RAE:

Sure.

EXT. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

SUPERIMPOSE:
AUGUST 1988

SUPERIMPOSE:

Tony (Big Boy) Salinas—Phony Tony

Soft Shell Crab

A slippery fish. Sweet and sensitive on the outside, but underneath is a tender, pliable, weak shell.

TONY SALINAS-23, Hispanic, dark-haired, average height, surf instructor, business major.

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