Read Online Love Love by Sung J. Woo - Free Book Online

she’d leave.
    Unfortunately for her, they took their time with their final course. The man sipped his coffee, the woman stirred her tea, and after eating half of their respective desserts, they switched plates to share in their gastronomical delights. Even though the restaurant was almost full, Judy caught enough of their conversation to know that they were husband and wife and that tonight was their anniversary, but there was something else there, an edge she felt as the man clinked his spoon against the martini glass in an attempt to extract the last piece of fruit.
    This was where her imagination was supposed to supplant reality. In her last screenwriting class she took at the community college, her instructor, a man who always seemed as though he was on the verge of saying something important (but never did), stressed the importance of extending the limits of reality into the realm of fiction. He’d told the class that stories existed everywhere, but only portions, just the roots. It was up to the artist to nurture and grow these buds into flowers of creativity.
    As exciting as it had sounded, when Judy thought about it later, his advice was no different than the songs crooned by other cut-rate teachers she’d taken over the years—Mary Jane the sculptor who baked oblong vases in her barn, Vladimir the photographer with his fetish for orchids, Yuri the poet who forced everyone to write in rhymes. Even in these sad little classes, there were people moretalented than she was, or if not talented, just more driven. It was obvious in the ways they talked, the ways they held themselves, their voices high and strong, making Judy wish she’d stayed home.
    Home. That’s where she would be going, because the couple was done. The man signed the credit card bill, and they rose, and Judy’s evening was thankfully over.
    But here was Roger, hurrying toward her, not even letting her have this crumb of satisfaction.
    â€œMy car,” he said. “It wouldn’t start, AAA took forever, and I kept getting your voice mail?”
    She’d forgotten that she’d silenced her cell earlier in the day to avoid the wrath of Beverly, the woman at the temp agency who’d been ringing her phone on the hour, as robotic and as inescapable as the Terminator. Judy knew all Beverly wanted to do was let Judy have it, tell her what a fuckup she was for walking away from her job. Scanning the call history, Judy felt stupider than ever.
    As soon as Roger sat down, the waitress with the unstoppable smile pounced on him to offer him a drink. “A beer, please,” he said, and he asked Judy if she wanted anything.
    What she wanted to say was that she’d like to leave, but instead she ordered a martini.
    â€œHave you seen our special drinks menu? Our choco-tinis are really yummy. You also can’t go wrong with the key-lime-pie-tini.”
    Even an hour and a half ago, she would’ve found this girl tiresome, but now, after the shitstorm of self-doubt and self-hatred she’d endured, Judy tapped into a malignant growth of negative energy, the sort of dark force that would’ve made Darth Vader proud. She felt herself enlarging, strengthening, ready to tell this goddamn moron of a waitress what she needed to hear.
    â€œThank you, miss,” Roger said. “But I think my lady here will have a regular martini, like she asked.”
    After the waitress left, Judy grabbed the knife and formed a hot, tight fist around the handle. She saw herself jumping out of her chair and stabbing Roger in the eye with it. She could see it happening, bloody ooze dribbling down his face, the image so violent that she immediately dropped the knife back on the table for the fear that she might actually do it.
    â€œI’m not your lady,” Judy said.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Roger said, “I didn’t mean to call you that; it just came out. But I felt as if you were going to say something you were