(DANCE MUSIC PLAYS OVER HEADPHONES)
(PEOPLE LAUGH)
(MUSIC GETS LOUDER)
♪ I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love
♪ Ooh
♪ I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love...
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Hey!
♪ I feel love
(SONG STOPS ABRUPTLY)
(POUNDING DANCE MUSIC PLAY IN CLUB)
Ripped By mstoll
(CAR HORN BLARES)
Come on.
Hey, guys.
Um, I was just... wanted to see if you're still up.
But...
(GULLS CRY)
(FAINT PANTING)
(MUSIC PLAYS OVER DIALOGUE)
(FAINT PANTING)
Are you OK?
Me? I'm fine.
You don't know me, but if you did, you'd know I'm always fine.
- What about your drink? - You can keep it.
(STEADY ELECTRONIC BEEPING)
(RAPID BEEPING)
COMPUTER VOICE: Destination reached.
Scanning successful.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- Hello. Hi. - Hi.
(MAN SINGING ON TV)
(CHEERING ON TV)
(DISTANT POLICE SIREN)
WOMAN: No, no, no. No, no.
Oh, no. (SIGHS)
I'm going to stay in tonight.
- You don't feel so good? - I'm fine.
(SAXOPHONE PLAYS IN THE DISTANCE)
(DISTANT CHATTER)
(ALARM BEEPS)
(GULLS CRY)
I wanted to say thank you.
Oh.
Which I didn't get to say... last time.
I just had a... a hunch.
Sometimes, you have to take a chance, right? Otherwise, how do you know?
(CHUCKLES) Obviously, I got this wrong.
Oh, sorry.
(CHUCKLES) My name's Danny.
My name is Joe.
So, Joe, are you...
Are...
(CHUCKLES) I've run out of questions. Um...
Ask me... please.
Are you out?
No.
If you want to go, I can understand that reaction.
I don't want to go.
JOE: I work for an investment bank. It's their apartment.
Security is a concern.
- (CHUCKLES) - There's a terrace.
If you want to smoke... I mean.
I'm going to take a shower.
(SHOWER RUNS)
(DOOR OPENS)
I'll let you get dressed.
(DOOR OPENS THEN CLOSES)
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACH)
- I can pay. - No, it's fine, um...
- I must be easy to read. - You are.
Is that bad?
It makes a change.
The people I work with... are inscrutable.
(INHALES DEEPLY)
(CLEARS THROAT) I can be inscrutable.
Did you look through my clothes?
(CHUCKLES)
See you.
Has he rung?
- DANNY: He will. - A week.
I've never been more certain of anything in my life.
- Why? - Because... that can't be it.
There's more. There has to be.
(CHUCKLES) You love falling in love.
The moment when it's all possibilities and dreams.
You think he's out of my league?
The thought never crossed my mind.
DANNY: Where are we going to drink tonight?
OLDER MAN: Somewhere dimly lit and terribly old-fashioned.
So, we're on the doorstep, saying goodbye.
I'm trying to give him Pavel's number because I don't have a phone,
except he doesn't write it down, and I'm like...
"If you don't want to... If you don't want to see me again..."
And then, he says, "Numbers, Danny, I have no problem with."
Like he could remember every phone number in the world.
- (CHUCKLES) - And then, we shook hands.
If you'd have told me a week ago I'd be this happy with a handshake
at the end of a date...
I'm sorry. I'll stop talking about him now.
- It's alright. I understand. - It's just the feeling, you know?
I'll be unable to think about anyone else.
Yeah? (CHUCKLES) I know the feeling.
DANNY: Yeah, of course.
(KNOCKING AT DOOR)
(KNOCKING CONTINUES)
Otherwise, how do you know?
So, at some point, you're going to talk about yourself, right?
Not your work, I understand.
That's, uh, secret, but, um, the other stuff...
- Why? - (CHUCKLES)
Isn't that what you do when you meet someone?
I tell you stuff, you tell me stuff.
JOE: This is us.
(CAR BEEPS)
DANNY: So grown up.
You drink tea out of a thermos and you go for country walks.
I must seem young... compared to the people you work with.
You do.
- You're not joking, are you? - I started university when I was 15.
So, you never... messed around?
- In what sense? - Any sense.
I've been serious for a very long time.
DANNY: What made you change your mind?
- About? - About me.
I wondered what it would be like to do these walks with someone.
For one minute, I was worried that you were going to say
it was because I made you laugh.
I don't think you've ever made me laugh.
- It's not that you won't. - I understand.
- I'm sure you will. - I understand.
So, you turn up on my doorstep, which is wonderful,
except I never told you where I live.
And I was wondering... and I should say in advance that I don't mind, but...
did you carry out some kind of background check on me?
The way we met was unusual.
(CHUCKLES) Right.
So, you thought, "Stranger! Seduction!"
Not that, um, I'm presuming you're seduced by me.
That's, um... process ongoing.
Um, what was I saying?
Um, yeah. So, you thought our meeting was part of... a setup.
It's fine. It's fine. I just... I thought you said I was easy to read.
JOE: That would have been the reason you were selected.
The appearance of innocence.
DANNY: I'm not innocent.
You might be the only innocent person I know.
Can you tell me what your real name is, now?
My name is Alex.
I'd like you to come up...
if you want, obviously.
- And if you don't want, that's cool. - I want to.
I didn't mean to say "cool."
You want to?
(BOTH CHUCKLE)
- But... - (CHUCKLES)
It's a little fast.
Well, maybe next time.
- You've got to stop shaking my hand. - I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
OK.
(KEYS JINGLE)
Fuck!
DANNY: It's normally tidier than this.
It's never tidier than this.
ALEX: Had you guessed?
Hmm, I'd guessed you hadn't slept with guys before.
I thought maybe you'd slept with a couple of women.
Can I ask you a question?
Hmm.
What stopped you?
You don't have to answer.
How do you admit to someone... you've never been in a relationship?
Who wants to hear?
And when they do, who wants to stay?
I do.
In school, I was old.
At university, I was young.
(SNIFFLES)
I've always been...
out of step with the people around me.
In the end, I left it so late... I gave up.
I told myself I was all about the mind, and people found me odd.
It grated on them. I could see it in their eyes.
And rather than change, I...
I started playing the role, more and more.
I didn't need anyone.
That's what I told myself. I didn't want anyone.
Did you imagine you'd spend the rest of your life alone?
Yes.
I can't begin to understand what that must feel like.
- You always knew you'd find someone? - Always.
(CHUCKLES)
I can't imagine... what that must feel like.
(CHUCKLES)
ALEX: I'd like to try again.
- We don't have to. - You don't want to?
(CHUCKLES)
We can wait.
I've waited long enough.
ALEX: Drugs?
I've been using them to make me believe the sex was special.
That the person I was with was special.
But...
I'd love to know what it feels like for real...
because I bet it's the best feeling in the world.
Will you stop worrying about me?
(GASPS)
DANNY: You saw me.
What I mean is, you saw "me."
And you asked if I was OK.
And not like most people ask it, like they've...
asked it a hundred times that day already.
You asked it as if...
nothing else mattered to you.
And I thought, "How is it that this person
who I've never seen before...
how are they the only person in the whole world who knows...
that I'm not OK?"
And I was sure if I could just find out your name,
if I could just find out who you were...
then everything would be OK.
What if everything... isn't OK?
Then we tell each other and we deal with it.
Whatever it is, we... deal with it.
Together.
(CHUCKLES) Is there something you want to tell me?
No.
(CAMERA WHIRS)
(TRADITIONAL JAPANESE MUSIC)
(WOMAN SINGS IN JAPANESE)
I'm excited you two are going to meet.
- I should have organized it sooner. - Hmm!
A month or two, I could understand.
I'm not so old, I can't remember what it's like to be smitten.
But eight months listening to you declare how wonderful he is
while failing to introduce us feels willful.
DANNY: Sorry.
(MUSIC ENDS)
DANNY: Scottie, this is Alex.
Alex, tell me...
what did you make of her?
Too much?
That doesn't surprise me.
Danny's always preferred his men to be as straight as possible.
A tedious form of self-loathing
that I've unsuccessfully tried to wean him off.
Scottie, I was telling Alex...
I hope you told him this is where we first met.
You must be wondering how an old queer like me ended up friends
with a handsome young man like him.
Nineteen years old, he walked through that door...
as lost as a person could be.
(SIGHS)
I saw him, in his tatty jeans,
with his cropped hair and his puppy dog eyes.
I could guess his sad story without hearing a word.
I presumed if I bought him a drink, there wouldn't be a single second
when he wasn't hoping for someone better to come along.
But what can I say? I'm a soft touch, so I bought him that drink.
And, to my surprise, he talked to me for the whole night.
He didn't leave even when others stalked him.
A small gesture, but it meant a great deal.
And we've been friends ever since.
I'm the one he comes to when times are tough,
and they often are.
Poor Danny has a terrible track record for picking the wrong man.
He's an insufferable romantic, one of the last.
Does it fall to me to say,
"Don't break his heart"?
I could never hurt Danny.
May I ask, as someone who's been witness
to the breaking of many a heart,
how you can be so sure?
Because he is the only friend I have.
I'm pleased for you.
I'm pleased for both of you.
Had you two met before?
No.
(BICYCLE BELL RINGS)
DANNY: You know Scottie asked if you knew how I became his friend.
ALEX: Danny, you don't need to tell me anything.
I love you.
And I need you to know.
I was 19... like he said.
(SIGHS)
It was a bad time.
I'd left home, I was doing a lot of drugs...
and one night... I was wired.
Not happy, not high.
I was numb.
And I posted an ad online,
saying that anyone could come around.
I mean anyone.
My only condition was that they didn't speak.
And people showed up.
I didn't turn them away. I didn't ask anything of them.
And they must have thought they're luck was in, because...
they didn't make a sound.
(SIGHS)
And the next day, I couldn't stop crying.
And I went to see Scottie.
I didn't... know him very well. I'd only met him a couple of times,
but he was the only person I could trust.
And he took me straight to the hospital.
And I was put on a course of PEP, which is, um, emergency medication.
I was on the drugs for 28 days,
and Scottie looked after me.
Sixteen weeks later, I had an HIV test.
And I was clear. (CHUCKLES)
(CRIES) Sorry.
And we were friends.
I've never done anything like that again.
I swear.
I was out of my mind.
I'm always safe. Always.
I don't know what happened to me that night.
I look back, I don't recognize that person.
And I've never cheated on you.
(SIGHS)
I don't want to have any secrets from you.
I never want to have any secrets ever again.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC ON THE RADIO)
Let's go away for the weekend.
Sure.
(TURNS VOLUME UP)
I have to buy a battery for my laptop.
I can't go without replacing it.
I understand.
(LOUD ROCK MUSIC PLAYING / INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Has Alex called for me?
Has Alex called?
How long?
(SIGHS)
Eleven days.
SCOTTIE: What happened?
- I told him... - That you loved him?
DANNY: How you and I became friends.
That was a mistake.
Why didn't I shut my mouth?
Because you needed to know...
could he still you love you?
I fucked it up. I...
I'd fucked it up before I'd even met him.
SCOTTIE: Have you tried everything?
(SIGHS)
Well, there's only one thing left to do. Accept that it's over.
- I can't. - What other choice do you have?
You'll get over it.
Not quickly, not completely, but enough to carry on.
Trust me on that.
But, now, I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me. I have work to do.
- You want me to leave? - I'd never ask you to leave.
Rest here, sleep, eat.
But, today, I can't play assistant to your personal life.
Just out of curiosity...
did you ever wonder what I might want?
What you want?
What do you want?
Do you want this?
Is this what you want?
What do I owe you? Five nights? Ten nights? Tell me!
Scottie, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- We should call the police. - Nothing was taken.
We couldn't even give our stuff away.
(WOMAN SHOUTS)
(ELECTRONIC BEEPING)
COMPUTER VOICE: System rebooting.
Item for Danny Holt.
(STEADY BEEPING)
(RAPID BEEPING)
(STEADY BEEPING)
(RAPID BEEPING)
Destination reached.
(KEY TURNS IN LOCK)
Alex?
Alex!
(LIQUID DRIPS)
Alex?
(MUSIC BOX PLAYS)
(MUSIC STOPS)
(GASPS)
(GROANS)
(GASPS)
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
(GASPS)
(WATER RUNS)
(TURNS WATER OFF)
Police, please.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACH)
(SIRENS BLARE)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(BUZZER)
Police. Can you open up, please?
(BANGING ON DOOR)
MAN: Police! Open this door!
(BANGING CONTINUES)
Open this door!
Step aside, sir.
His name's Alex.
He's my partner.
It's his apartment.
He disappeared two weeks ago.
Do you think it might not be him?
Tell me what you know about Alex.
He's a genius.
He went to university at the age of 15.
He's got no family. His parents are dead.
Um...
He works for an investment bank.
What else do you need to know?
Do you know...
this man?
Yes. This is Alex.
Your partner?
(DANNY SIGHS)
Yeah.
WOMAN: What kind of relationship did you have with him?
- Did it involve sadism? Drugs? - No.
You see, it's hard for me to believe you were in a serious relationship...
when you don't even know his name.
This man is called Alistair. His parents are alive.
He did not work for a bank.
Is it possible you enjoyed extreme sexual encounters
with someone who didn't want you to know their name?
Is it possible?
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACH)
This will stop right now.
(POLICE SIREN IN THE DISTANCE)
He lied.
About everything.
When you introduced us...
- You knew? - Not exactly.
Our paths had never crossed, but I recognized the type.
I see them in the corridors of Whitehall.
People with power and secrets.
Their importance emanates from them. I felt it.
He worked for Ml6.
He was a spy.
But, Danny...
The police were concerned you might have taken something from the crime scene.
A personal item? Something of sentimental value?
You wouldn't have done that, would you?
- Of course not. - No. Of course not.
(TRAIN RUMBLES PAST)
(STATIC)
Ripped By mstoll