RUTH. Or an iceberg?
ADAM. It’s Italian. And it’s already chopped. Save you chopping it.
RUTH. Yeah.
He puts it in their basket. They browse.
ADAM. What else d’you put in a salad?
RUTH. Avocado?
They browse. Silence.
Dressing?
ADAM (negative). Mm.
RUTH. Are you all right?
ADAM. Yeah. I’m fine.
RUTH. Is there anything I can do?
ADAM. No I’m fine.
They browse in silence.
RUTH. Oo. Yeah. I might get a can of Coke.
ADAM. It’s full of sugar.
RUTH. I don’t like Diet, do I.
ADAM. Coke Zero?
RUTH. Yeah.
She doesn’t get one. They browse in silence.
I saw a man the other day who looked like Robert.
Cucumber?
Blackout.
In the queue for the till.
RUTH (whispering). ‘Six items’ means six items. That’s so annoying though isn’t it. Look at her. It just holds everyone up. It’s really selfish though isn’t it?
ADAM. Yeah.
A beat.
RUTH. If it said ‘baskets only’ I’d understand. But look at her. It’s disgusting. What does she think she looks like?
ADAM. Mm.
A beat.
RUTH. It says ‘six items only’. I can’t believe she’s even being served. D’you know what I mean? I can’t believe they’re serving her. It’s ridiculous.
Silence. They queue.
ADAM. Maybe the peppers count as one.
Silence. They queue.
Blackout.
The streets. They’re walking with groceries. They both have a bag in each hand. On the first line, ADAM stops RUTH at a crossing from being run over. She smiles a thank you to him.
RUTH. I said what you said to say about Dan Fisher.
ADAM. Oh good.
RUTH. I said it in the group meeting while he was on reception – and I was cool and I didn’t get annoyed – I just said it like you said to say it.
ADAM. Good.
RUTH. Yeah. It was actually.
She goes to speak and a police siren approaches, passes, then departs. It’s too noisy to speak so they stand in silence, her looking to him and smiling. He smiles thinly back. When it’s passed, she speaks on. They remain stood still.
I mean I was talking to Soph about it at orchestra and she said I should’ve left it but—
ADAM. You had to do something about it.
RUTH. No. Thank you.
ADAM. He wouldn’t have done it if you’d been a man…
RUTH. Well…
They move across the road. She puts one of her bags into her other hand.
(Referring to his bag.) If you put that in that one, we can hold hands.
A beat. He does so.
Blackout.
RUTH and ADAM’s living room. He’s sat on the sofa, texting. She’s offstage.
ADAM. Yeah. Definitely.
RUTH (offstage). Because if we put the speakers on the walls with the wall brackets, we can get some plants or something by the telly. Or another option I thought of – well Candice – Have I told you about Candice? She’s the nice new lady that cleans our ward. She was talking about it’s what her brother’s got and I thought it sounded like something we could do – and it’s just a thought so just say if you don’t like it – what I thought is if we could put the telly on the wall with the wall brackets and then that opens up all that space for us to do something else with it. Get a new set of bookshelves. Put some of my books up.
ADAM. Yeah.
RUTH (offstage). What d’you think?
ADAM. Yeah. Definitely.
A beat.
(Looking up from his text.) Could we put the salad leaves underneath? So it’s like a bed?
A beat.
Ruth.
RUTH (offstage). I’m doing it.
A beat.
But d’you think that’s a good idea? The wall brackets. I mean, it’s not like I’m trying to hog all the space for my books. But a bookshelf’s for life. It’s a good investment. The bookshelves in my parents’ house they got as a wedding present. And they still use them.
ADAM. No. I know. It’s a great idea.
She pokes her head in. He stops texting and looks up as if he wasn’t texting.
RUTH. Seriously. I’m not. I know we don’t need them so if you don’t like it it’s fine.
ADAM. No. It’s fine.
RUTH. I’ll pay for them myself.
ADAM. It’s fine.
RUTH. Cool. Who are you texting?
ADAM. I’m on the internet.
RUTH. Cool.
She smiles, lingers for a beat and leaves. He sends the text and puts his phone to the side.
(Offstage.) Because you can put your books there too if you like. It’s just nice having books around isn’t it? They’re nice to look at. And then we’ll have these bookshelves for ever. We can take them with us.
ADAM. Could we cut the ham into strips?
RUTH (offstage). Okay.
ADAM. Thanks.
RUTH comes onstage with scissors.
RUTH. Sorry for going on about the bookshelves.
ADAM. Don’t worry.
RUTH (as if it’s funny). I’m such a loser. No wonder you want to go out tonight!
They both laugh. Hold on this.
Blackout.
Pub. RUTH and ADAM are sat onstage. Her friends and his friends are talking (invisibly and inaudibly). They don’t speak. Music from four years ago plays.
Eventually, ADAM leans over to her. They both speak above the noise around them.
ADAM. What do you do?
RUTH. English.
ADAM. Oh. Cool. (About himself.) Geography.
RUTH. Oh. Nice.
ADAM. Yeah. It is nice. Yeah.
A beat.
I’m Adam, by the way.
RUTH. Ruth.
ADAM. Ruth. How d’you know Chloe?
RUTH. We lived on the same corridor.
ADAM nods, interested.
How about you?
ADAM. Amnesty. Yeah. Amnesty. She’s great. She’s really turned the group around.
RUTH. Well that’s Chloe!
They laugh. Silence. They look at other conversations. She tries to think of something to say.
So Geography…
ADAM. Yes.
RUTH. Is that the political side? Or the geographical? Or—
ADAM. Well we touch on them all but I’m actually more focused on the environmental.
RUTH. Oh. Wow. And what’s that like?
ADAM. It’s actually quite frightening.
RUTH. I bet it is. Yeah.
ADAM. Some of the things they reckon’s going to happen.
RUTH. Tut. I bet…
A beat.
ADAM. It’s nice here isn’t it?
RUTH. Yeah. It’s a really cool place.
Blackout.
RUTH and ADAM’s living room. They’re eating their lunch on the sofa.
ADAM. This is lovely. Thank you.