Love & Stress: A Screenplay

Scene One: Cooking with the “Culinary Master of Canada”, 5:00pm

Cut to Leah and Tim, romantically preparing an appetizer of coconut shrimp and a delectable-looking shrimp, garlic and white wine cream sauce complete with fresh pasta. Also, he has quartered a chicken and is making home-made chicken stock in the oven for a soup the following day. They are kissing, googly-eyed at each other and at one point Tim even says to her that she is the most wonderful, amazing and thoughtful girlfriend in the whole world. And he compliments her on her Nintendo skills  as he feeds her the coconut shrimp sprinkledwith lemon zest that tastes great.

Cut to Leah and Tim eating dinner at the bar, discussing going to see a movie that evening and admiring their gorgeous new hanging planters, potted plants and herb gardens. Leah comments that the way she feels about those plants, which Tim and herself had planted together the previous day, can be likened to the way many people feel about their pets. Tim admits that he kissed them goodnight before he went to bed the previous night.  Leah checks the times that Angels & Demons is playing in a nearby theatre, and the decide to leave shortly thereafter.  Leah and Tim decide to clean up after the movie.

Leah and Tim leave the house;  Leah receives a phone call from her wonderful and intelligent best friend, Stef, and they make arrangements to chat the following day, when Leah isn’t walking out the door.  Tim and Leah casually drive to the theatre. Leah tries to give away the ending of the movie (she is bad for that), but Tim isn’t having any of it. Good for him.

Scene Two – At the theatre

Tim and Leah enter the mall through Chapters. Leah is distracted by most books, and comments on the number of Mac computers that now call Chapters their home – lucky computers! The escalator isn’t working – no problem. Tim and Leah trudge up the (surprisingly long) stairs. By the time they get to the top they are out of breath. “We need to exercise more,” Tim comments to Leah. Tim walks to Tim Horton’s and grabs a medium double-double,  and Leah purchases a medium coke. The find some comfortable seats and Leah wonders how she could have forgotten to bring her purse “I have my wallet, but where is my purse?” Tim reminds her that she got a phone call as she was packing up her stuff to leave, and likely forgot her purse.  She is okay with that, and ends up appearing only slightly uncomfortable while sitting on her wallet. She Glares around at the nearby people around her to ensure it doesn’t get stolen as she is closely guarding it.

2 hours and 20 minutes later, the movie ends. Tim says to Leah “Let’s get out of here. Fast.” Leah speeds up her pace as she chats to Tim about the movie and about how he liked it. Tim quicly responds with “I liked Da Vinci Code better. ” and then after a few quick moments, “Um, Leah. Remember that chicken stock? Yea. It’s still in the oven. And the oven is still on.” Leah’s eyes bug out as much as possible here, [inset images flshing around her of her apartment building on fire, being banished from the city, and of black smoke clouding the building) and she starts speed walking towards the car parked in the lot yelling incoherently using the words idiot, incompetent, oven, burn the house down, exasperation, etc.  Tim catches up to her and tells her it will be fine.

Cut to Leah and Tim driving down a main street. Leah is yelling at him to drive faster and craning her neck to see if there is any smoke coming from south of the downtown area. They are waiting at a stoplight, and complaining that it is the slowest light in the city (it is). Tim apologizes to Leah, and Leah tells him not to apologize yet as she is not in the mad stage yet, and is stuck in the worried stage.

Cut to Leah and Tim approaching their home. Leah states a plan of action. She tells Tim that she is not going to be the one to deal with the immediate aftermath, so he is going to go in the front door and Leah is going to park the car.

Cut to Tim running towards the elevator.

Then Leah walking down the hall of the apartment, sniffing the air. See her laugh, and then frown. She walks in the door and Tim is standing nonchalantly beside a pot of delicious looking chicken stock, spooning some into his mouth. Want some delicious soup? He asks her, clearly trying to keep a straight face.

Leah looks at Tim, scowls and says “Don’t talk to me for 24 full hours” and sits on the couch to continue her game of Super Mario Brothers 3 (in which she is clearly kicking butt.) “Oh, and you’re doing all of the dinner dishes.”

(This happened. And then the next day Tim made delicious risotto with the chicken stock. It was the best risotto I had ever tasted. I still harboured hard feeling towards him when eating it)

The end.