Sex with a Stranger

They stand looking into the distance.

ADAM. Such an amazing club.

GRACE. God yeah. Rob is so funny. Was it Rob? The black man?

ADAM. Robert. Yes. It’s his birthday. It was Wednesday but he’s celebrating it tonight.

GRACE. Yeah. I’ve done that. Was that his girlfriend?

ADAM. Katie. Yeah.

GRACE. Oh. Same as my sister. Except she’s a Kate. (Chuckling to herself.) She’s such a Kate…!

ADAM (chuckles). Yeah! I don’t think it’ll last though.

GRACE. What?

ADAM. Robert and Katie.

GRACE. Oh. Right. I thought you were talking about Kate!

ADAM. Who’s that?

GRACE. My sister Kate and her boyfriend Jake.

ADAM. No!

GRACE. God!

ADAM. Right. No. I mean I don’t think Robert and Katie will last.

GRACE. He’s taking her to Rome! He’s so gonna ask her to marry him and you’re sitting there saying it won’t last and I was like—

ADAM. No! Robert and Katie won’t last.

GRACE. – I was like, Jesus! Adam!

ADAM (laughs). No no no no no. I was saying I don’t think Robert and Katie will last. Sorry. I don’t think Robert and Katie are that good for each other, actually.

GRACE. Really?

ADAM. Yeah.

GRACE. I don’t know. They seemed good together.

ADAM. Yeah?

GRACE. Well I don’t know but to an outsider they seemed good together.

He scratches his hand.

ADAM. Yeah. I don’t know either. But I think Robert’s feeling a bit tied down if I’m honest.

GRACE. No…

ADAM. Yeah.

GRACE. No… I don’t think so.

ADAM. But life’s like that sometimes isn’t it.

GRACE. They seem like such great people.

ADAM. No they are. They are.

Silence. He offers her some Lucozade.

GRACE. No. Thanks.

Silence. She starts laughing.

Oh my God you were such an amazing dancer!

ADAM. Was I?

GRACE. Oh my God!

ADAM. In a good way I hope!

GRACE. Yeah as if! (Laughs.) You wish! You wish it was in a good way!

They laugh.

ADAM. That is so offensive…

GRACE. No it’s not!

ADAM. Amazing! So funny!

They laugh. He drinks and finishes the Lucozade. He scratches his hand.

I must’ve been bitten.

She feels her pockets.

GRACE (worried

). My Oyster.

Blackout.

She searches in her bag. She’s wild with worry. He’s scratching his hand.

ADAM. It’ll turn up.

GRACE. I just put a fucking tenner on it.

ADAM. Shall I have a look?

She searches. Silence.

Could you maybe have left it somewhere?

GRACE. For fuck’s sakes!

She searches. Silence.

ADAM. I can pay.

She searches. Silence.

I really don’t mind paying.

She finds it in her pocket.

GRACE. There it is.

ADAM. Oh good. Thank God for that.

GRACE (genuinely exasperated). It’s always in the last place you look.

ADAM. So annoying…

GRACE. I’m glad I found that.

It’s awkward. She looks into the distance.

(Ratty.) Is that ours? I haven’t got my glasses.

He looks with her.

ADAM. Yeah. Maybe. What one do we want?

GRACE. N73.

ADAM. No.

GRACE. Okay.

Silence.

(Back to normal.) Really glad I found my Oyster card. I put ten pounds on it this evening.

ADAM. Did you?

Blackout.

Really loud, cold, inhuman dance music. They’re in a club. They’re stood apart from each other, not dancing, stood alone watching other people dancing, unaware of each other.

Blackout.

They’re sat on a bus.

ADAM. That’s better.

GRACE. Yeah. I don’t like standing up.

ADAM. Yeah. I’m like that.

Silence. Hold on this.

I think I’ve been on this bus before.

GRACE. Have you?

ADAM. Yeah.

GRACE. Cool.

ADAM. Yeah I’m sure I have.

GRACE. I’ve been on it loads.

Silence. They just sit there, pretending it’s not awkward.

ADAM. I do like buses actually.

A beat.

So you’re in recruitment, is that right?

GRACE. Yes.

ADAM. God.

GRACE. I’m cool with it.

ADAM. That’s good.

GRACE. It can be difficult I guess. But that’s kind of a good thing in a way.

ADAM. Meeting lots of new people.

GRACE. Well not that but yeah.

A beat.

What do you do again?

ADAM. I’m in sales.

GRACE. Oh yeah.

ADAM. But I’m gonna move into social media.

GRACE. Yeah. I remember now.

ADAM. I’ve got this idea for a website—

GRACE. Yes I remember you saying.

Hold on them just sat there on the bus, looking separately.

ADAM. Busy tonight…

GRACE. Yeah.

Silence. He looks at her.

ADAM. I like your hair.

GRACE. Do you?

ADAM. Yeah.

GRACE. It’s my GHDs.

ADAM. Cool.

A beat.

And d’you get it cut like that? Or do you do it all with the GHDs?