_
Yes?
Mr. Talese? It's Gia Lombardi.
I'm in the vermillion parlour.
Take your shoes off and close the door.
You're letting all the AC out, for fuck's sake.
Your editor said you were hanging by a thread.
Come on in.
Let me see that desperation up close.
Hi.
This is the kind of gift you give when you earn out,
not before you start.
Have a seat.
Female writers generally don't do
the same sort of work I do.
So I found myself quite perplexed
with this request.
But then, of course,
I figured out how I could help you.
Great, I'm in...
The only thing I could have done
additionally to fortify Thy Neighbour's Wife
would have been to fuck the men, too.
- Uh-huh. - I could have.
But I didn't want to.
Oh.
So, uh, you're not participating in the research?
Mm. Mm-mmm.
Not really. I'm, I mean, I'm a journalist.
And I'm not?
Uh...
"Uh," what? You keep using this word.
What, are you afraid what your parents will think?
No. No, my parents are dead.
So, write about it.
Real writers don't give a fuck about
anything but the work.
The work supersedes all.
Are you working hard enough?
I...
My publisher just threw 200,000 words into the trash,
so I think I am.
Horseshit. Call me when you're the one
throwing 200,000 words into the trash.
How young were you when they died?
Early 20s.
Oh, you were an adult.
I was expecting you to say something tragic, like nine.
So, you have grief, you have trauma. That's good.
I can't write about my parents. It has to be about sex.
And specifically... sex in America.
Exactly, and that's why we're here.
So, I'll tell you what you're going to do.
You're gonna go out there and fuck married men.
You'll keep a log.
Why did they cheat? At what point did they cheat?
Does it matter if their wives are ugly or old
or they just refuse to fuck?
Where have you been in America?
Um, San Francisco,
- Los Angeles... - Please. New York?
The west coast? That's not America.
You need to get out of the city.
You need to get out in the country and meet people.
Real people. Not New Yorkers.
You need to fuck people. A lot of people.
Married people. Married people hold the key to sex in America.
Yes.
Yeah.
Can you believe that actually happened?
My idol told me to fuck married men.
Well, I managed to finish the book
without fucking anyone married.
But as wrong as Gay was about who holds the key
to sex in America, he was right about one thing.
That I was looking in the wrong places.
So I started thinking about my dead parents.
My dad being flung from his Chevy at 65 miles an hour.
My mother being sucked dry from cancer.
And like anyone who's alone because of cars and cancer
and doesn't know what they're doing,
I drove across the country and back.
And then back again.
And in driving I found
what I didn't know I was looking for.
Lina, a housewife in rural Indiana
whose husband no longer wanted to kiss her on the mouth.
He refused, in fact, to touch her at all.
Sloane, the most beautiful woman
I'd ever seen up close,
who lived on an island and had a secret
it would take me many months to learn.
And Maggie,
a girl whose first real experience of love
was with her married English teacher.
So, it was simple for me to answer the question
when people wanted to know why.
Why this person and not that one?
Why her and not me?
Why these three women?
Because these three were unheard in all the lonely ways.
And more than I wanted to tell their stories,
I wanted to hear them myself.
Because unlike so many others I spoke to
over the course of eight years,
Lina, Sloane and Maggie
were not people who wanted to be watched.
They were women who needed to be seen.
- Synced and corrected by synk - - www.addic7ed.com -
Come on!
Some parts of the country
still don't want to see women at all.
Which is why Lina became so important to me.
Her outsized desire
and how she had to hide it away from the rest of the world.
Which was hard for her, because Lina
still moves like a teenager.
Nervous, guarded,
excitable.
She spends hours crafting each movement
in approaching her own husband.
All Lina has ever wanted is
to be fully in love and forever partnered.
Like a penguin.
Lina, enough.
Mm.
Oh, Leen.
You can't be a little gentler?
There are two kinds of 15-year-old girls.
And Lina always knew she belonged to the type that did
more sticker collecting than French kissing.
But kissing a boy,
someone who wanted to kiss her back,
was the only thing she ever wanted.
And it's still the thing she wants most
in the whole world.
Leen!
Leen, kids are up.
There are duties.
The things that we must fulfil as husband and wife.
Lina, you want Ed to kiss you.
Uh, to be more affectionate, as such.
Exactly, and I just don't think that that's too much to ask.
You know, we talk about, things that are
you know, annoying about marriage.
- There's also plenty that's... - Now just hang on a moment,
darling. Ed, I understand
this is difficult for you.
I just don't like the way it feels.
How is that?
I don't know. Um...
something. I j... I...
Something. I don't know.
Well, I don't like the feeling of wet wool.
Feels yucky. Gives me the heebie jeebies.
Yeah, like that, yeah.
And so, likewise, Lina doesn't like your itchy Colts blanket.
Apparently not.
Now, can you commit to...
fold it up, save it for game day?
Yeah.
See now, Lina?
The yucky way you feel
when you rub up against that itchy old Colts blanket,
you need to understand that kissing you on the mouth
makes Ed feel just like that.
Now, he's willing to let go of the blanket for you, see?
You need to let go of the kissing.
For him.
Right.
Did you know that some people just buy stuff?
They don't have to look at their accounts
or plan every single thing.
Easter!
Oh, look, the Easter Bunny.
It's not for six freakin' months.
This is from last year.
Mm-hmm.
Just buy it when they need it, some people, or want something.
Their husbands don't yell at them for it.
Fetch me that pitcher.
As you wish.
Lina once asked me,
"Do you know how some men,
they're men even when they're boys?
Like, they're men.
They hold doors open and they don't hurt you.
And they smell so good.
Their hair and their eyes.
And they look at you like you're beautiful."
And Aidan...
oh, he had this special nickname for her
that just lit her whole world up.
Hey, kid.
Hey, yourself.
Can I help you, ma'am?
Ma'am?
Hmm, what? What? No.
No thank you.
Lina Parrish.
Hi. Oh, my goodness!
Di! How the heck are you?
Well, four fucking kids.
- Wow. - What the heck with the gloves?
- It's not that cold out here. - Well, I got pain in my joints
and the docs can't say what's causing it. Well, that's...
One of them said that it might all be in my head.
So, maybe it is.
Anyway, it hurts less when I keep them warm.
You got to go see Doc Henry.
White Rabbit Body Works.
Down on Hendricks.
Doc Henry is a gosh dang miracle worker.
Does he take insurance?
Oh, he'll work with you if things are tight.
Tell him I sent you.
He'll give me some coupon.
The only...
- weird thing is... - Yeah?
He's Indian.
Like, from India.
- Yeah? - Yeah. No.
Not saying it's a big deal, just...
never had an Indian touching my body.
- Takes some getting used to. - Right.
I better go before he gets to the end of that bag.
All right, sweetheart.
- Bye. - Bye.
Hello?
All right, sweetheart.
So, there's two waves that I deal with, which is,
like, sort of, uh, a pulsing hum, and then there's a surge
that feels kind of like a cat scratching from the inside.
I do have to say, in the last couple days, um,
it's sort of been...
So, it's actually happening, uh...
this is an example of the, um...
Ooh, boy, it's, uh, it's totally...
- this is, this is what hap... - Okay, okay.
- Come here, it's okay. - Okay.
It's so funny, this...
Mm-hmm.
Tell me where the pain is.
Well, it's, um...
So, it's down below.
Uh, plus my, uh...
joints just hurt so bad all the time.
Mm.
There you go.
- Okay. - Okay.
You got "endo-me-tri-osis."
You got "fi-bro-my-algia."
Now, most doctors around here tell you
that disease don't exist, but I'm educated in Chicago,
see, and it's real, Linda.
- It's... - And a good number of diseases,
they derive some...
from the brain.
From decades
of heartache.
Life is hard, darling.
Hits some of us harder than others.
- Does that sound right? - Yeah.
Okay.
So, tell me...
you on birth control?
Am I on birth control? Uh, no.
Okay.
So, we're gonna do a regular exam.
And by the way, I do warm my speculum.
Most docs won't do that.
But we're gonna do the regular.
I'm gonna give you Loestrin.
- Um... - I'm gonna give you Voltaren.
Sounds like Superman's bad guys, I know,
only they are not bad guys,
they are good guys.
My girl outside...
she's gonna give you some breathing exercises.
You're gonna do those at home.
See how all that goes, you come back here in two weeks.
How's that sound?
It's good, good.
Um... yeah.
Just the, uh, the... just the birth control.
Won't that make me gain weight?
Tell you what, sweetheart.
Why don't we get this all under control,
reduce the inflammation,
then we can start thinking about beach bodies
and drinking piña coladas in the rain.
Yeah.
Back in New York, people ask,
"What is it about this housewife in Indiana?"
I tried to explain it.
I had never met anyone so connected to their desire.
But for someone
who wanted to be loved so badly,
there was no worse body to be in than hers.
Not because it wasn't lovely,
but because it was always in pain.
And it seemed nobody in the world
wanted to go near it. Her husband
had not touched her in 45 days.
She kept a calendar and marked the days
with a fat, red marker.
Straighten your legs out, relax a little bit for me.
- Okay. - Okay.
Now, I want you to show me,
while I add pressure to your diaphragm,
the ones you've been doing.
- Like that? - Are you asking me?
Uh, no, I was doing them like that. Is that okay?
There's no wrong way to do it. It's a practice, just like
anything else we put our time into, okay?
- Okay. - You know why they
call a doctor's office a practice?
I've never really thought about it.
'Cause we're supposed to be getting better at this
- every day. - Aw.
How am I doing?
- Good, I guess. - Good.
- All right, you can sit up. - Okay.
I'm just...
I'm sorry, Lori.
- Mm-hmm. - I'm sorry.
I just can't imagine a man in the world
who wouldn't want to kiss you.
I can't.
Thank you.
Oh.
- Oh, sweetheart. - I just... Yeah.
Hey.
I'm sorry, he just makes me...
he just makes me feel really ugly.
Here, there you go.
All right.
You know, with women,
there comes a day
when you realise you're never gonna be a model.
When was that day for you, Lina?
- I was 14. - Mm.
Tell me, sweetheart.
What do you want?
What do I...?
I mean, I want, what?
I want...
I want to drive down a dirt road
in an ATV?
- Mm-hmm. - But, like, with a...
man.
Like, the wind's blowing in my hair.
And my arms are wrapped around his waist.
And I just want to be with someone who makes me feel...
hot!
As you should, darling.
All right.
Now that we got the pain under control,
I'm gonna tell you about my program.
Now...
it's for weight loss, sure.
But...
it's a whole lot more than that.
It's an overhaul
of the mind, body and soul.
Exercise, hormones, therapy, the lot.
And you get one hour with me bimonthly.
That's twice in a month.
Now I'm not gonna sit here and tell you
it's gonna change your life, but, sweetheart,
this is gonna change your fucking life.
And I swear to Jesus, darling,
feeling good... here...
and here...
and there...
mmm... heals pain better than medicine in some cases.
You can trust me on that.
And as such what I know,
in my soul, is there ain't nothing
in this whole world that heals
some of those ills
like a good...
goddamn...
orgasm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you can send her in.
All right.
Yeah, I'll tell her. All right.
Everything's gonna be okay, Linda.
Come in here, baby girl.
Sloane's problem
was that her light was too bright,
so she'd learned how to turn it down
and how to come off as a hard and pretty shell.
Because when your light is too bright,
people fucking hate you.
They also love to talk about you.
And they all said to me,
"Oh, you have to meet Sloane.
She's unbelievably gorgeous."
She and her husband are enviously successful.
And she's his ultimate fantasy.
But it's not all perfect.
There's a secret not too many people knew,
but those who did brought it around like a jewel.
The secret was that she and her husband
brought other people into the bedroom.
Other women hated her because of it,
like she was there to remind their husbands
that some wives still liked to fuck.
Shit. Fuck.
People thought it was her husband's desire
she was feeding,
but it was really Sloane's.
Her mother had embraced her a number of times
she could count on her hands.
So who was anyone to judge her
if she experienced tenderness and love
with another man? Or woman?
That she felt warmth, even,
watching her husband inside of someone else.
They had rules that they did not break.
But there were other rules. Unspoken ones.
She knew, for example, that the other men could not be
in any way better than him.
Sophie.
Been three days in a row.
I got three horses three days in a row. Where's my cat?
Guess what I'm drawing today.
What are you drawing today?
Just a plain white horse.
Okay.
I didn't think you were serious when you said you hated pools.
I mean, who hates pools?
- Chipmunk. - Uh, fucking Lestat hates pools.
Marquis de Sade.
In the pool, I feel like I'm swimming in my own spit.
And I just saw you using our $75,000 spittoon
to clean seaweed.
You just keep dicing those Persian cucumbers and mind your business.
Mm-hmm.
Sophie, I'll be right back, baby.
Okay?
Drink your juice.
One moment, Sloane believed
she deserves the world.
Her beautiful husband who wants her more
than any husband has ever wanted his wife.
One moment, the only person Sloane aspires to be
is her best self.
And the very next,
she believes she should eat shit and die alone.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. All right.
Like to do it just a little higher. Okay?
Go easy with it.
Yeah, yeah, perfect.
- Oysters are up, chef. - All right, thanks, Jay.
Equal amounts of roe on each, please, Lydia.
Like, exactly?
People crave parity.
Okay.
Even in their devilled eggs.
An amuse-bouche of socialism goes a long way...
Hey, you.
The oysters. Not great.
How not great?
Try.
- Mm-hmm. - Lisette.
Please tell Brandon to take down the raw bar now.
But i-it's already set up.
Fuck.
- Okay. Luke, right? - Yeah.
I need you to grab her champagne.
It's all right. We just need a new oyster man.
Or woman.
We are gonna get the best oysters
on the fucking coast.
Ooh, baby.
Okay.
Here you go.
My man.
Thank you.
What a weird fetish you have for hot young guys.
You ever think maybe it's just waiters?
I'm gonna get to work.
What do you think? Guy on the right.
Not boring?
I thought that's what you liked about white dudes.
Sometimes Sloane finds the exact right person.
Someone who excites her
and is fine by her husband.
Sometimes it satisfies her.
But sometimes she forgets what she likes about other people.
What she wants in them
is the very same thing her husband craves about her.
The danger
and the cruelty.
I'm sorry, would you serve the gentleman first?
Uh, yeah.
This looks delicious.
But I am going to have a Glenlivet, please.
- Okay. - Neat.
Is it a neat night?
Got a nice pool.
That'll boost your Zestimate.
Yeah, right?
Alexa, play "Sloane's Saturday Night."
Playing "Sloane's Saturday Night" playlist.
Oh, fuck, yeah.
Have a seat.
Okay.
Fuck yeah.
Sloane only listens to music written, composed
or performed by Black women.
It's just that...
we do it so much better.
Do what?
Everything.
Fuck.
Sit on my face.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
She prefers it...
lying back.
Whoa, slow down there, partner.
Shit.
Babe. Babe!
Ah!
Here we go.
Oh, God, you are going to fucking hell, man.
Fucking oyster!
Oh, I'm coming.
Hey.
Sloane Ford.
We almost took out a party of farm-to-table influencers
with spoiled virginicas,
so I am looking for a saviour here.
Influencers.
You mean assholes?
You're nasty.
Actually, the name's Will.
Nice to meet you, Will.
It's a fresh one.
This, for example,
was not the kind of man you brought home to your husband.
Okay.
Thank you.
Wait.
How do you like it?
I'll take a million.
As you wish.
All right.
Uh, I'm gonna go grow a million oysters.
And I am gonna go and order aforementioned oysters.
- Bus that glass, please. - Yes, ma'am.
There's a lipstick stain. You don't see that?
It's there.
She's tasty.
Huh? Huh? Huh?
Sloane, it is magical.
Thank you, Helly.
Ooh. Yes, dress. You look beautiful.
Tell the fucking check-splitter that.
What's his name again?
Barry the check-splitter.
Where is he?
Oh, thank you.
He probably found out it's an open bar.
- Mm. Cheers. - Thank you.
Sit with me and have a drink, girl.
I am working, and I shouldn't be
talking to the guests.
Oh, shut up, you're richer than the guests.
- Shh. - Come on.
Mmm, the raw bar is open.
Forget Barry, I want to shuck that.
All right, okay, shoo.
Go away, I'm working. I'm serious.
You're a terrible influence.
Terrible.
Can you take this back and have it re-plated, please?
- Mm-hmm. - Thank you.
Hey.
What's up?
What do you think?
You're welcome.
Traditionally, this is how we do it.
Babe, I'm in the middle of my day.
Hey.
Oh, uh, hi.
So, I knocked at the other door, but no one answered.
Makes sense.
Thought you were, um, stopping by tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, I, uh...
It's my fault, I just got off the boat from Chappy,
and you were right down the street, so...
I wasn't even thinking, though. I can come back later.
That would make me an asshole.
- An influencer, you mean. - Exactly.
Let me get you a check.
That's a nice pool.
I don't really like pools.
Especially when the ocean's so close.
Yeah, I hear you, but you can enjoy both.
I have it here, I just...
It's all right. You know, you take your time.
It's not like I need to be out there making money
or have other shit to do today.
Here.
Thanks.
This is too much.
Everybody at the party couldn't stop talking about your oysters, so...
All right, then.
Well, you have my number,
if we want to work together again.
Is that not of interest?
Yeah.
Well, yeah. But, you know,
there's more to life than work.
Is there, though?
When is the last time you went into that perfect pool?
Hmm.
I'll see you later.
I'd be in that pool every night if I were you.
It's really easy to hate a beautiful woman with money
and a pretty family.
I saw the way people looked at her,
like they wanted to fuck her or kill her or eat her.
The judgment of others can drive an innocent person to the brink.
Maggie, who is also beautiful,
at least did not come from a place of money.
She didn't have a way to defend herself.
But what she did have was the audacity.
What they all had was the audacity to believe
that they deserved more.
Mag...
I want to go home. I need to go home.
These discos are the shit.
Only dicks get the disco fries.
Hey, I got another one.
Yeah?
Uh, Brad Pitt on the beach,
or Leo on a boat?
Brad is, like, my dad's age.
So?
- So, I guess Brad. - Why?
'Cause he played a vampire?
Like any young girl with a crush on an older man,
she wanted to be seen.
To be picked out of a crowd like the glowing thing she was.
She didn't exactly know what that meant six years ago.
She didn't know if she wanted sex or no sex, or to undress in her room
while he watched from the sidewalk.
She was 16 then.
Look at her now at 23 on this day
that will upend her life and many others' forever.
Mags, table 66.
- Take their order, please. - No.
- When you get done, please. - Yeah, sure.
Will you come back because I need your help with the Micros again.
Mm-hmm.
You guys ready?
Hey, Mags.
Hey.
We went to high school together.
- Hi. - Hey.
What are you gonna get?
Oh, I feel so fat.
- Shut up. - Can we get an order
of, uh, cheese fries? Uh, disco.
Sure. Disco. Yeah, sure.
I'm hungover. Fuck yourselves.
Can we drop that for, like, ten minutes?
In-in life, ever?
Yeah, just like you last night.
Shut up.
Okay.
- I'll have a Greek salad. - Sure.
Doesn't Greek mean butt sex?
No.
She'll have the Greek.
She'll have the Greek tossed salad.
Leave me alone.
Hey, puppy.
Mags.
Remember when we used to think
rich people had better lives?
What's going on?
- Hey, stop. - What?
Go back out there and do it again.
- No. - Maggie...
- Mom. - Mags.
Go out there and do it again.
Fine, fine.
Don't keep me waiting.
Put 'em up.
Put 'em up!
No, higher. Higher.
Oh, there she is.
Oh, yeah, that's it. That's the girl.
She's got him against the ropes.
She's going for the one-two-one.
Let's see the jab. Let's see it.
Oh, he goes down! The crowd cheers.
Yeah!
You'll be able to spit nails, kid.
You're gonna eat lightning and you're gonna crap thunder.
You're gonna become a very dangerous person.
That's my girl.
After the break, in chillier local news,
North Dakota's latest Teacher of the Year...
Look, isn't that... Wasn't he your teacher?
Homeroom, right?
English.
I was in a diner in Medora, North Dakota,
when I read about this young girl who had spent hours on the phone
with her teacher after midnight.
My mother once told me nothing good happens after midnight.
I couldn't believe it,
that an entire jury thought she was lying
about something going on.
Talking on their phones for four hours,
and nothing is going on.
A married father and his high school student.
And I could also tell that the teacher himself,
he'd been in love.
Perverse or not, there was something deep to this story,
and I would never be able to get her name out of my head.
Teacher of the freaking year?!
The freaking governor was there.
Yeah, well, he's a cunt, too. Who cares?
You know, it's been five years, Mags.
Time to move on, yeah?
Fuck you, Billie!
Fuck you!
You want me to move on, then?
Yeah.
Dude, I did not mean, like, another dirtbag.
I meant dating somebody you actually like.
Mags!
God, you look nice.
Thanks.
I heard you left school.
Mm.
You at Buffalo Wild Wings or...
Perkins.
Perkins?! Mm.
So your sister got married?
- Oh, yeah. The old dude. - Yeah.
A tale as old as time.
Trying to piss off her preacher daddy.
It's whatever, though. The guy's got money.
Bought her a nice apartment in the Cities.
Got a walk-in closet.
So now I got her room above the garage.
You want to see?
Mm-hmm.
I tell you I've been practicing for the step test?
Your mom and I started doing all the stairs at the ice arena.
Gonna do 'em every single morning until I retest.
Get my job back.
Isn't it cold in the arena?
Not when you're working up a sweat.
I remember watching you in that arena.
You were, you were, what, eight, nine?
You were so good.
That pirouette in the air and whatnot?
- Lutz. - You were fantastic.
Coach Linda used to call you what?
- Your toe loop was like... - A hummingbird.
Didn't even make sense. She was nuts, Dad.
Made sense to me.
All she meant was that you were beautiful in the air.
Why'd you stop taking lessons again?
The worst thing is when you get frozen in place,
and that last person, when it seems like
there could never in the world
be a better person than them.
Oh, no, shit.
Oh, shit. Shit.
Fuck me. Fuck me, fuck me, fuck.
Fuck me, fuck me, fuck, fuck.
- All right, ladies. - No, give me a beer.
Ooh.
- My God, it's bright. - We need some service.
- Hey, Jackson. - Jackson!
Jordo.
What's the matter, Jordo?
You think it's stupid?
I'm just trying to get a fresh start here.
No, I like the tattoo.
I mean, it's silly as fuck, but whatever.
- What then? - Jordan, you're being
a real sassy twat, then.
What does that mean?
Nothing.
What?
It's supposed to be a happy thing. Don't do this now.
What? What?
What the, what the fuck are you guys talking about?
Nothing.
We were just talking bullshit.
- But... - But what?
- Mags. - What?
If something happened with you and him,
I don't know, maybe it could happen again
with another girl.
♪ Well, it's no, nay, never ♪
♪ No, nay, never no more will I play... ♪
What?
What do you want me to do?
It's... say I'm a freaking idiot?
No! She doesn't mean it.
No, I mean, I think you should probably do something about it.
What, then? Tell me.
- What? - I-I don't know.
Something.
♪ I go home to me parents ♪
♪ Confess what I've done ♪
♪ And I asked them to pardon ♪
♪ Their prodigal son ♪
♪ And when they've caressed me ♪
♪ As ofttimes before ♪
♪ Well, I never will play the wild rover no more ♪
♪ Well, it's no, nay, never, no, nay, never no ♪
"Dear Aaron,
I have questions I want answered."
Ooh!
"I've grown up and gained
a new perspective on what happened."
"Call me when you get a chance."
"It would be in your best interest to prove me wrong."
- Synced and corrected by synk - - www.addic7ed.com -