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What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
A man named Nick is listening to his friend Mel talk. Nick’s wife, Laura, has been asked by Terri McGinnis to make a salad in the kitchen. She goes into the kitchen and begins chopping vegetables. Sunlight streams through the window as they sit at the table drinking gin and tonics while discussing love. Mel thinks that spiritual love is more important than romantic love because he had spent five years studying religion before going into medicine.
Terri shares an experience with her ex-boyfriend who lived with her before Mel. Her ex was violent and beat Terri up, but she believes that he loved her anyway. Mel disagrees, saying that the abuse wasn’t love. However, Terri is convinced otherwise because of how much the boyfriend cared for her despite his actions.
Mel tells Nick and Laura that Terri’s ex-boyfriend threatened to kill him. Finishing his drink, Mel reaches for the bottle of gin and says that Terri is a romantic who interprets violence as affection. At this, Terri shoots Mel a look, and he grins back at her and tenderly touches her cheek. Terri sips her drink and wonders aloud how they arrived at this topic; Mel is always thinking about love, she says. Mel retorts that Terri’s ex’s behavior hardly qualifies as love.
Mel: ””Terri’s ex once threatened me.””
Nick: ””What did you do?””
Laura: ””Did you call the police?””
Mel: ””No need to go to such extremes.””
Terri: ”(to herself) “I have no idea where this conversation came from…” (aloud) “Why are we talking about my ex? What does it matter? It doesn’t change anything now anyway!”
Mel asks Nick and Laura what they think about Ed’s situation. Nick says that he can’t judge Ed because he never met him, but Mel is trying to say that love should be unconditional. Laura agrees with Mel and adds that she also doesn’t know anything about the situation. Then Nick touches Laura’s hand, which makes her smile at him.
Mel: I’m not saying it was right or wrong for you to leave your husband, but why do you insist on making a public spectacle of yourself?
Terri recalls that Ed had tried to kill himself by drinking rat poison after their breakup. He survived, but his teeth were damaged. Mel adds that he’s dead now and Terri says it was a combination of suicide attempts—he shot himself in the mouth too. She feels sad for him because she thinks he loved her more than anyone else did. Nick asks what exactly happened with Ed’s failed suicide attempt and Laura looks at them like they’re crazy for talking about this subject so casually when they knew someone who’d died from suicide.
Ed had threatened Terri and Mel with a.22 caliber pistol. He used to threaten them on the phone by making bombs, so Mel bought his own gun for self-defense. Ed was crazy and would call at night when he knew that Mel would be working at the hospital. Terri feels sorry for him because of this, but Mel says that Ed was out of control and threatening their lives.
Laura, a legal secretary, urges Mel to get back on topic. Nick gives an aside that Laura is easy to be with because she’s his girlfriend. The two met through work and have been together for some time.
Mel continues his story: Ed shot himself in the mouth while staying at a hotel. The manager found him and called an ambulance, but Ed died three days later from swelling of the head. Terri wanted to visit Ed in the hospital, which Mel didn’t want her to do because he was afraid she’d be upset by what she saw.
Laura asks Terri who won the fight with Ed and she replies that no one was in the room with him when he died. Mel says that Ed wasn’t a good person, but Terri insists that she knew Ed loved her because he was willing to die for it. Mel disagrees—he’s not interested in love like that. Terri admits that Mel is right—they were afraid of Ed and even wrote a will just in case he killed them both. She called the police once, but they couldn’t do anything until or unless he actually committed a crime.
