Scene, interior, a dated kitchen in a dim corner of a house. A sweep of the room shows some natural light/exterior, but we focus away from that to a down-lit counter/island. A green bottle of chardonnay with about 1/2-half a glass left in it sits on the counter. A woman walks into the kitchen and picks up the bottle.
Man, walking into the kitchen - What’s with the wine?
Woman - It’s old. I’m going to dump it.
Man - If I’d known that, I’dve used it for sauce.
Woman - It’s too old. What’s the point?
Man - …only a couple weeks in the fridge, probably fine.
Woman, resigned, puts the bottle on the counter.
Man - I’m going to cook some veggies. I’ll use it up. I’ll cook them outside so you won’t have to smell it - in the garage microwave at least.
—
In the kitchen from the previous scene, the Man is working at the counter. We see him take the lid off of a casserole dish and then watch him scoop vegetables from the dish into a plastic container. He places the plastic container on the right side of the sink. He rinses the casserole dish and puts it and the lid in the dishwasher.
The Woman walks into the kitchen. Moving to the left side of the Man - Hey, can I get in here for a sec?
Man, closing the dishwasher and moving to the right - Sure.
Woman - Thanks.
The woman moves past the opened container of vegetables to the other side of the island.
Man, agog. He looks at the woman and back at the veggie container. Something in his expression goes with the idea that something weird just happened - So, you know those those veggies I cooked in the garage microwave?
Woman, nods with an expression that might indicate skepticism, not quite a raised eyebrow kind of thing, but with a little asymmetry, possibly to indicate a slight interest
Man, droning on - Well, when I went to get them I figured they’d stink, but they didn’t. The garage hardly had a cooking smell at all.
Woman, showing some interest, nods again - Huh.
Man - When you were at the sink, you were right by them and usually, you know, with cruciferous vegetables, if I even bring them into the kitchen, you’ll let me know.
Woman, nods - yeah, I didn’t smell anything bad.
Man - Weird.
Woman - Yeah, weird.
At the end of the season finale for The Bear, the outro song is Laid by the British pop group James. This short gem of a song popped up in late 1993 and early 1994. A guy meets a girl and is so enthralled, for reasons that the song makes obvious, that everyone he knows, including his therapist, advises him to slow down and put some distance in his relationship. Meanwhile we learn that the woman is interesting, and equally entranced.
The last two lines are the best summary of the beginning a long term relationship I have ever seen/heard:
You’re driving me crazy
When are you coming home?
When the preliminary results are promising we usually keep going.
Only two of the handful of relationships I’ve been a part of have had that very strange pushme/pullyou vibe. Every relationship had the giddy beginning. That’s the point of segregating the preliminary results of any experiment. Many things start out with promise. It’s the knowing when to go on part that is hard.
I don’t know if covered microwave sauteing of cruciferous veggies in old chardonnay is really a thing. I do know I’ll try it again. Preliminary results noted