"...What?" she says.
He's embarrassed. He shouldn't have mentioned the sink -- she's told him... she's told him she's not a handywoman, that she doesn't exist to fix things from him. She's told him to call a repairman, eyes spiked with annoyance under lowered eyebrows. He had reminded her of his fear of strangers.
He quickly explains, telling her how the faucet in the bathroom just started -- just, dripping. And how it's from Hell, and he can't even go in there to wash his hands because the dripping doesn't have any rhythm. It's a Hell-faucet that wants to drive him crazy, and any time he needs the bathroom he has to go to the one next to his bedroom. He tries to tell her that... that he really needs it fixed.
"Oh, my God." she mutters, and the expression on her face doesn't change as she starts the car.
He stares at the knees of his teflon-covered pants as they pull away from Valley View Apartments. She fiddles with the radio, ads and blurred bits of songs coming out before she decides against it. Trudy liked classical music and soft rock. She would... she would sit on the sofa with a book and put on a CD of Celine Dion... or the Brandenburg Concertos, and she could sit that way for hours. Just reading and... and changing CDs.
Sharona stops on a station that calls itself KALT and turns the volume up so loud it shakes the dashboard. She turns a sharp corner and he's thrown against the door... It doesn't help that the song on the radio is full of... of tension. From what he can make of the lyrics, the singer either wants to... to kill someone or marry someone. He can't decide, though, on whether this confusion comes from the singer's throaty screaming or bad writing.
Probably both.
She looks at him from the corner of her eye, but then pulls her attention back to the road. She's silently singing to the radio... she's mouthing every single word.
They stop outside his house, and he's surpised when she pulls her keys out of the ignition and unbuckles her safety belt.
"What... what are you doing?" he asks, raising his eyebrows.
She Looks at him. "I'm gonna fix your damn sink,"
He smiles. As they walk towards his door, she adds that he has to stay in the kitchen while she's fixing the sink. He doesn't ask why, but she mumbles something to herself about possibilities... He wishes he knew what she was talking about. He hates it when she says things he doesn't understand, and it seems to be happening more often.
"Sharona... Why do I have to stay in the kitchen?"
" 'Cause I said so."
He's learned not to argue with that one anymore, but he wonders why she's suddenly in such a weird mood... He doesn't dare ask, though. He doesn't want his head bitten off.
He heads into the kitchen while she makes her way to the bathroom, and he runs back out to tell her the tools are under the sink. She opens her mouth, clearly about to ask a question, but then thinks better of it. It's probably about why he has tools. She doesn't seem to feel that he's... that he's ever been capable of anything other than detective work.
She forgets that she hasn't been with him forever.
This gets him wondering, although he knows he shouldn't be. He wonders what it would be like to be with Sharona forever. Not... not married or anything. Just, just like they are now. He wonders what it would be like to be the way they are until one of them dies.
Of course, he'd have to endure her psychotic driving and... and her frightening music. Her pajama pants (indirectly) and her independence...
She comes back from the bathroom, looking nervous and almost frightened.
"Done," she says.
He expresses his happiness and she Looks at him. She's biting her bottom lip.
"Can I go now?" she asks, trying to sound annoyed -- but he knows she isn't. He always knows when she isn't.
"...Do you have to?"
He doesn't know what made him saying -- God, he was thinking it, but he didn't want to say it -- and now, now she looks like she's going to faint and he doesn't know how to deal with an unconscious person. Why can't he just learn to do what he's supposed to? He shouldn't even want her to stay...
But he does. And no matter how hard he tries, he hopes she can.
"Well..." she says, "I... I guess I could. Benjy's at Sam's house until 1:00..."
He smiles.