2: LOVE LINES
SCENE 2 INT. - AT THE REFLECTING POOL– 1:25 p.m.
The fountain is lit, but the surrounding area is dark.
CUT TO: NIKKI's face, she is smiling, HARRY is obviously forgiven for the time being, but it is not clear for how long. She gestures to a plaque at the side of the water feature.
CUT TO: The plaque, we read 'In memory of Neil Corrigan, Jason Renfrew, the names continue.
NIKKI (V.O.)
Show a bit of respect.
Camera pans back, we see HARRY and NIKKI from the rear.
A beat: HARRY looks; obviously noticing the sign for the first time.
HARRY
This is a memorial.
NIKKI (emphatically)
I KNOW
HARRY
I did wonder why it just appeared.
NIKKI
It didn't just appear HARRY!
HARRY
You know what I mean.
Harry leans against the rail and points to the CCTV camera.
HARRY (Cont'd)
It would account for the camera.
(He gestures) I just assumed it was
to catch the student who will
inevitably empty a bottle of bubble
bath into this, (he gestures again at the water)
and make the rest of us
drown in foam for a week.
NIKKI
How did you know there was a camera?
Camera zooms in on the CCTV camera, high on the wall in the gloom.
CUT to a view across the fountain into HARRY and NIKKI's faces.
HARRY (looking directly at NIKKI)
I got a letter.
NIKKI (bemused)
About the camera?
HARRY (Off her look)
No; about littering.
A beat: HARRY looks intently into the pool. Nikki turns her head to face him, but remains leaning against the railing.
HARRY (Cont'd Off her look)
I was caught on camera
'DESECRATING' the fountain.
NIKKI
You were what?
HARRY
He turns his head to face NIKKI.
I chucked an old business card in.
NIKKI (snorts)
Yours or mine?
HARRY (derisive)
You think I could get away
from YOU that easily?
Pause CUT TO: HARRY close up.
NIKKI
I wasn't aware you wanted to.
HARRY (Cont'd)
No, it was Miriam Wade's.
NIKKI (V.O.)
AH, another one that got away.
HARRY
Narrow escape more like.
Camera pans back we see both of them again.
NIKKI
She'll never be convicted.
HARRY
That hardly matters.
I'D know she was a murderer.
He looks mildly affronted.
NIKKI
Hasn't stopped you in the past.
HARRY scrubs his fingers through his hair.
HARRY
I DIDN'T know then!
NIKKI (sighs)
THEY didn't give you
much of selection did they?
NIKKI purposely raises her eyebrows on the word THEY as if imagining someone above watching them. HARRY doesn't answer but makes a non-committal grunt.
NIKKI (Cont'd)
I mean a heavily pregnant
police officer and a soon to
be married murderer.
HARRY laughs and turns to look into NIKKI's eyes. He raises his eyes on the word THEY just as NIKKI did.
HARRY
No, I guess THEY didn't.
A quiet moment; they both stare back into the pool.
HARRY (cont'd)
Didn't WE fall in love?
NIKKI
I don't think we did in the end.
HARRY looks back at her sadly.
HARRY
Shame.
NIKKI
Staring down into the water and off his look.
Well, we couldn't really.
HARRY
How so? Am I that undesirable?
NIKKI leans in and bumps upper arms with Harry as they lean across the railing together.
NIKKI
Of course not, WE'VE been in
love for years. THEY'VE
just never noticed.
Harry laughs conspiratorially and raises his look upwards.
HARRY
Maybe next year, eh?
NIKKI
Maybe?
So love it or hate it? Let me know.