She slams the door, when she comes into the house. She wanders into the kitchen, to find Zoey, folding laundry, at the kitchen table. Zoey doesn't ask where she was.
"You're not going to ask where I was?" Jackie tosses her bag down.
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"If you want me to know, you'll tell me. You made that perfectly clear, last night."
"I am sorry Zoey, but you have to understand where I'm coming from."
"I do."
"I went to his place."
"And?"
"Nothing happened."
"Nothing? I left. I couldn't say anything. I didn't want to do anything."
"You wanted to," Zoey points out.
"But, I didn't."
"What are you going to do?"
Jackie melts into a chair, at the kitchen table.
"Probably be locked up in a psych ward," she admits.
"That isn't what I meant, and you know it."
"What are the odds?"
"Not in your favor," Zoey reminds her.
"It was a rhetorical question."
"I know."
"But you felt it deserved an answer?"
"Yeah."
"I can't do this. I don't want to do this."
"Then don't."
"I..." Jackie hesitates.
"If you don't want to do it, what's with the face? What's with the hesitation, and anxiety?"
She shrugs, "I don't know. This can only end one way."
"How is that?"
"Badly."
"Maybe not."
"Zoey, life is not a fucking fairytale. People don't always live happily ever after."
"You have a lot of secret, but I think that your biggest is, that you want that."
"Want what?"
"To live happily ever after."
"Happily ever after is fiction."
"If you had your fairytale, how would it in?"
"Me, deep into a bottle of pills, and alcohol."
"That is bullshit, and even I know it."
"I am a drug addict. You can't expect me to want to be normal. Of all the things I have ever wanted to be, normal was not one of them."
"So, what? You're just going to give up."
"Give up? No. I'm not giving up. I have been run over by a truck, and then hit by a train, but giving up isn't an option."
"I know that this is tough, but maybe there is a lesson here, that you need to learn."
"Yeah," she nods, "Don't screw your boss."
"Tell me something."
"What?"
"Do you love him?"
Jackie doesn't say anything.
"You should just be honest with him."
"Honesty gets me nowhere."
"All of your problems, are from you lying. You know that, right?"
"I am conditioned to lie."
Zoey shakes her head, "Even when the truth would do you better?"
"What are you trying to convince me to do."
"Go back over there, and don't leave, until you talk to him."
"I already talked to him."
"No, you talked at him. Were you really listening."
"I am not going back over there. I know how it ends."
"How?"
"Shit hits the fan."
"You need to try."
"Zoey! I'm tired."
"Go!" Zoey insists.
He opens the door, and looks at her, in complete confusion. He doesn't say anything, he just allows her to step in. She closes the door, and looks up at him.
"What are you doing here?"
"Again?"
"You told me that you being here was a mistake."
"I don't know whether to think all of this is a mistake, or some grand plan, created by the universe, to..." she trails off.
"To what?"
She shrugs, "Hell, if I know."
"What are you doing here? You made it pretty clear, earlier you think that this is a mistake."
"I don't like being vulnerable," she admits.
"I know that."
"Most of the relationships that I have had with men, were just about sex."
"Except with your husband."
"I make stupid choices, all of the time."
"You think that I am a stupid choice?"
"I do a lot of things, that I know are wrong."
"And?"
"How do I know why I did this? Was it because I wasn't supposed to have you?"
"Maybe it was because you wanted me."
"I definitely wanted you, in the moment."
"But you don't know if you want me, beyond that."
"Look I have a lot going on."
"In your head?"
"In my life. I need time to process everything that is going on, in my life, right now, ok?"
"So what does that mean, for me?"
"You're just going to have to wait."
"For what?"
"Until I get my shit together."
"When will that be?"
"I will let you know.""Why are you really here?"
"Because the thought of this, of use, it scares the shit out of me."
"I thought you were fearless."
"Even the boogey-monster is afraid of something."