Modern Love (2019) s01e02 Episode Script

1 We face the music together And throw our hats in the ring Facing all kinds of weather And not afraid of anything Hey When the sun comes up, we'll be on our way And we don't care where we land And the waves are high, but we won't turn round 'Cause your hand is in my hand And, oh-oh You make me feel invincible 'Cause it's you and me Through the wind and hail Setting sail into the world.
- (APPLAUSE) - I happen to like New York - (APPLAUSE) - I happen to like this town I like this city and I like to drink of it The more I know New York, the more I think of it (QUIET CHATTER, LAUGHTER) - You can join.
- Let's go there.
- Are you serious? - Here you go.
No, it's fine.
We'll We can get it without the flash next time? So why the name "Fuse"? Uh, seemed appropriate for a dating app.
(EXHALES) I like the two uses.
You know, the lighting of a fuse, the the fusing of joints.
You know, two things sort of locked together.
- Mm.
That makes sense.
- Mm.
- Ni It's nice.
- Anyway, this is what I say: "Fuse" isn't a dating website as such, you know? - Mm.
- In a brave new world, there is so much choice, and so many options, it's nice to have a guide.
I like "guide.
" I think maybe I'll just end on that.
So where is this gonna, you know, be appearing? Uh, Sunday magazine, the Times.
Cool.
- Well, you know, thank you very much for your time.
- Oh.
- It's nice to meet you.
- You have something to string together there.
Oh, no, good.
I-I did want to ask, though, have you, have you ever been in love yourself? I'm sorry? I was asking if you yourself have ever been in love.
(CHUCKLES) Yeah.
Uh No one's ever asked me that in an interview before.
Oh.
Oh, well, I don't have to print it.
- Print print what? - That story that's written all over your face.
Really? Is it that obvious? - Have you got a few minutes? - (PHONE BEEPS) (PHONE CLICKING) WOMAN: Sorry, you guys.
We're running, like, another five minutes late.
Uh, we are so sorry.
- Totally fine.
- All good.
Really? Because, uh, I I have more interviews to go to.
Oh.
I'm so sorry about that.
I'll try to hurry them along.
That'd be great, because we're already ten minutes late.
Thank you for that information.
I like that you did that.
I mean, they shouldn't keep us waiting.
Of course, it does put you at a bit of a disadvantage now, in terms of getting the job.
(LAUGHS) I don't care.
Yeah.
It's important to represent who you are at these things.
We're not late for them; they shouldn't be late for us, right? - Mm.
- Joshua.
J Josh.
- Emma.
- Andy.
How much for me to head off? Because I am totally getting this job.
- Really? Huh.
- Yeah.
It's the accent.
- They love it.
- Right.
Give me a hundred bucks, I-I'll leave it to you.
- I don't need an unfair advantage.
- Oh.
Right.
Okay.
- Where'd you go to school? - Harvard.
Oh, for God's sake, really? (CHUCKLES): No, just joking.
I didn't go to college.
You know, that might actually be worse for me, 'cause it's like self-made, edgy.
- You know? They'd love that around here.
- Yeah.
- Educated on the streets.
Mm.
- Mm-hmm.
Taking the pulse of the common man.
- Yeah.
- Yo.
- Uh-oh.
- I don't know why I did that.
- That was stupid.
(CHUCKLES) - When did did you just think you could pull that off? - WOMAN: Hey, Emma? - Yeah.
- Come on through.
- Oh, thanks.
Uh, oh, well.
- It was nice to have met you.
- Yeah.
Good luck, yeah.
- So who got the job? - She did.
(LAUGHS): Ah, she beat you.
- (LAUGHS) - Not exactly.
Uh, you know, we sat there for all of five minutes, and I knew I wanted to see her again.
Hey.
How did it go? - Oh.
Hey.
- You get it? I have no idea.
What You should really head back up there, though.
They're all wondering what happened to you.
That's all right.
This is more important.
What's more important? If I do the interview, how would I ever see you again? You'd be gone by the time I came out.
So you just gave up your shot at a steady well-paid job so that you could see me again? Are you sure you're not just, like, - some random guy off the street? - (CHUCKLES) Because if you are, this is a really good way - to get a date with someone.
- So we're going on a date? Yeah.
What else am I gonna do? I don't have another interview for three days.
- Me either.
- Okay.
So then what do two unemployed people do in New York City at 9:30 a.
m.
? The question is: What don't we do? JOSHUA: So we just walked around, exchanging life stories.
She told me about her plans to develop a file sharing app.
I told her about my ideas to set up a dating site.
(WHISPERS): Oh, my God.
- So I wonder how they met.
- Who? JOSHUA: These two.
EMMA: They met here.
What, do you think they, like, met downtown (LAUGHS): and decided to move up here together? - They All the animals meet here.
- I know.
I-I'm just saying, I wonder how I wonder how this all works, you know? - Dating in the animal kingdom.
- You're obsessed.
JOSHUA: Just fascinating to me - what that initial spark is, you know? - Mm-hmm.
I don't really think that animals have that.
I think they just choose someone to have sex with and, as long as it's the right species, just bang it out.
- They just bang it out, do they? - Bang it out.
But you don't know that.
Maybe they're just really good at knowing when Mr.
or Mrs.
Right comes along.
Mm? Okay.
So then why don't you ask him what you would ask your, uh, customers? (CHUCKLES) O-Okay.
Uh - Hello.
Hey, yeah.
- Hello.
Yep.
- Come on.
Sit down.
- Thank you.
- So, uh - Mm-hmm.
What are you looking for in a leopard? EMMA (DEEP VOICE): "You know, just leopard stuff.
" - Is that the voice you're going for? - Yes.
"That is my voice.
" - That's the voice we're going for? - "That's my voice.
" So, wait, what-what do you mean, "leopard stuff"? Do you have any preferences? "Well, you know, it doesn't really matter.
- Just as long as she's got the spots.
" - Spots? - "Mm-hmm.
" - That's it? So even a cheetah would do? "No.
No, no.
" (CHUCKLING): "I don't like me no cheetahs.
Uh, I prefer leopard spots.
And I can tell the difference.
" (BOTH LAUGHING) EMMA: And yet love is so universal.
We understand so little about animals, except that.
- Hey, are you okay? - (SIGHS) Yeah.
Yeah, I'm fine.
JOSHUA: I have this theory that a relationship is kind of like a rocket, and you're trying to get it into space.
And all you need is enough fuel to get you out of the Earth's atmosphere, and then it'll keep going, no matter what you throw at it, in the, in the direction it was launched.
It's all about the first explosion.
Yeah, less about do we have what it takes for our whole life, and more about that that initial thrust.
Our first six months were, like, as close to perfect as you can imagine.
We moved in together.
I hit if off with both her parents.
Both.
Even her dad.
I even bought her an engagement ring.
Which I hid, waiting for the perfect night to spring it.
Then we got knocked off course.
- (DOOR CLOSES) - Hey, you're back early.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Got an earlier train.
Just finishing something, then let's go out to eat, my treat.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah? How's home? How's your mom? Hey, what's up? Uh I fucked up.
What are you talking about? Remember that guy that I told you about? Uh, the one from high school.
My first boyfriend.
Yeah.
Uh, I remember you said he got married.
He did.
And then he wasn't.
And, um, I saw him at this bar.
And his wife left him a couple months ago, so we were hanging out, and I sort of let him go back in time a little bit.
Did you, um, sleep with him or just kiss him? I slept with him.
- Okay, bye.
That's all I need to know.
- For, like, ten seconds.
And then I stopped it and I came straight back to you.
I don't know, maybe this was just one crazy moment before us.
Because I love you, Joshua.
I love you.
That's not love.
That's guilt.
Love is trust.
- No, it isn't.
- That's all it is.
That's the only currency, - and you broke it! - No, it isn't.
This isn't your website manifesto.
Love is lots of things! (DOOR CLOSES) (MUTTERS, SOBS SOFTLY) (SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE) (RING CLINKS ON GROUND) I did what lots of people do when they're forced away from the thing they love.
You know, I-I threw myself into work.
Ironically, the very thing that got me through - my romantic pain was romance.
- (CROWD CHEERING) Reading about it, watching it, researching it.
I started seeing other people again.
You know, it was a slow recovery, but I started having faith in people.
The statistics I was reading about contradicted the ill will I had towards the entire romantic community.
Uh, people actually generally don't fuck up.
(SCOFFS) Yeah, it gave me hope.
And then, about a month ago For that moment, I realized I hadn't really been fully alive for the past two years.
I met amazing people.
Bright, funny, caring.
But none of them was her.
(CHUCKLES) On that street, for one fleeting moment, I came alive again.
Jesus.
So what did you do? JOSHUA: I made an excuse, and I left lunch with my girlfriend to call her.
Hey.
It turns out, she's engaged.
Fuck! For two years.
- That's a long time.
- (CHUCKLES) I know I can't just break up with her and then years later interrupt her life, right? You need to tell her, and more importantly, you need to tell your girlfriend.
I broke up with her, that night.
She's a lovely person, you know, every box I would look for to be ticked, but I don't know, after seeing Emma again, I just realized - It was like the leopard dating the cheetah.
- Oh.
Can I quote that bit, please? - No.
- Please? No, this is totally not part of the interview.
That is not the image I want to put out there.
Fucking lovesick CEO of a dating agency.
Trust me, you will never rest if you don't at least give it a shot.
You can't carry this your whole life.
Believe me, not knowing will mess you up, and potentially any other woman you might meet.
And if she's really moved on, then at least you can move on and meet other people.
Hang on a second.
How are you so sure of all this? Got a few minutes? Yeah.
JULIE: He was a senior in college, studying Shakespeare abroad, and I was a 22-year-old war photographer living in Paris, and we met in a bar in the Caribbean.
Wait, I think I've heard this exact story before.
- What? - I'm joking.
Is that real? - Oh, yeah yeah.
- (LAUGHS) Most people are like, "We met in college and then again at a party two years later and then we had some coffee.
" Yeah, I guess it was an adventure, yeah.
Sounds like The English Patient.
Yeah.
I thought about him every day.
Then a couple weeks after I visited him in London, he-he stood me up.
Yeah, he was supposed to come visit me in my apartment in Paris for the weekend, and he never showed.
God, it just burned me to know why he never showed up.
Wasn't that as perfect an opening to a relationship as you can get? I just couldn't understand how it could be so different for him than it was for me.
And all I had to remember him by was this one old photo of us.
So, I stuck it in a book and I carried it around with me, from apartment to apartment, from relationship to relationship, and even into my marriage.
So, uh, where you going? Uh, to my book signing upstate.
I'll be back tomorrow.
What about the boys? I told you.
It's a four-hour train ride.
I'm going directly to the book signing, and then I'm gonna stay at a really nice hotel that the publishers were kind enough to put me up in.
Why don't you guys come? You and the boys.
We could totally make a weekend out of it.
- Remember them? Weekends? - You know, I don't feel like half a day's travel.
Plus, I think the kids have a game.
See you tomorrow.
JULIE: "I watched the little girl prepare tea at the stove.
There were no parents.
We sat, the three of us, together, sharing tea and Khajoor biscuits, just looking into one another's eyes and giggling.
I didn't take a single picture that day.
These are the moments I remember.
These are the days that wash over me.
The days I left my camera at home.
" (APPLAUSE) - Thank you so much.
- Thank you so much.
It was, uh, it was my hope, so I appreciate it.
(GASPS SOFTLY) (CHUCKLES): Oh, wow.
It really is you.
And it-it, uh it really is, it's you.
Oh, my God.
(LAUGHS): Hello.
- Hello.
- (LAUGHS): Hello.
- How you been? (CHUCKLES) - Great! But it was, it was Paris that we were supposed to meet in.
- Yeah? And it was 15 years ago? - 17 years ago.
- Ah.
- I lost your book.
I lost the book you wrote your address in.
Let me remember.
It was what was it? - Anna Karenina.
- Anna Karenina.
- Right? - Yes.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
What a this is, this is a really nice coincidence.
It's not a coincidence.
I saw your picture, uh, online advertising this thing.
- Oh.
- And I said, "I can't believe it.
She's gonna be here in my hometown.
" So I've been waiting three months just to see you.
Actually, 17 years - and three months to see you.
- (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) - Yeah.
- And I can't believe it's you.
And you haven't changed a bit.
I, uh, I have to get - so, to get back, but, I mean - Oh, yeah.
- Uh, y you're here to sign books.
I understand.
- I am.
And thank you for coming.
It was so, uh - Okay.
- Okay.
I wrote my number on that.
Uh, if you're staying in town, you want to get a cup of coffee or something, just give me a holler.
Yeah.
Thanks.
No, I have to rush back home to my husband and two children.
- Of course.
- Thank you, though.
It was so lovely seeing you.
- Wow.
(CHUCKLES) - (CHUCKLES) WOMAN: Hello.
Hi.
Hi.
It's so wonderful to meet you.
I love your work.
Thank you so much for coming to our town, Julie.
JULIE: So it turned out that he hadn't stood me up.
Somewhere deep down, I knew it.
- Good night.
- Thank you.
JULIE: I can't believe that you lost my copy of Anna Karenina.
- MICHAEL: I did.
- (CHUCKLES) And I've never been able to to read that book because of that.
I have no idea what happens.
Oh.
Well, there's brilliant prose, and then she kills herself, and then just some more brilliant prose.
What, you couldn't look after it better? It was the one thing you had to do.
- Who steals a book? - (CHUCKLES) I was on a Paris train.
I had the book in front of me.
It's a big book.
I figured I got to go to the bathroom first - before I read this thing.
- Oh, right.
(MUMBLES) And then I went there, I came back, the book was gone.
- Oh.
- Nothing else, just the book.
Maybe one of our spouses came back from the future, alter the past, and they stole the book.
Yeah.
- Life could've been different.
- Mm.
Then I wouldn't have had my children, so there is that.
- Me either.
- You have children? - Two kids.
- And wh uh you're calling up old flames? I've only had one old flame.
I got married a year after I left Europe.
Quickly.
I got married quickly 'cause I was afraid of losing someone else.
Maybe a bit impulsive.
Hi.
Thank you.
Sorry.
JULIE: Are you still with your wife? MICHAEL: We're under the same roof, put it that way.
She's a good woman: beautiful, great person, great with the kids, and I don't deserve her.
So, what are we doing here, Michael? Why did you show up at my signing? What were you hoping would happen? I was hoping that we could carry on where we left off and that I'd get a second chance and that we'd both be in a place in our life where we could fall in love again.
For 17 years and three months, I've been fantasizing that our attraction and our spark would still be there, and I take you to a hotel room, and we sleep there.
And then we agree to go back to Paris and find that romance that we lost as adults.
(JULIE CHUCKLES) - Michael.
- Mm.
We don't have to stay in a hotel room to find out we still love each other.
We do, clearly.
Just the idea of you just got me through a lot, a lot in life, and, uh, just knowing you existed, you Come here.
(JULIE BREATHES DEEPLY) Let's get out of here.
JULIE: Sometimes you realize that true love in its absolute form has many purposes in life.
It's not actually just about bringing babies into the world or romance or soul mates or even lifelong companionship.
The love we had in our past, unfinished, untested, lost love, seems so easy, so childish to those of us who choose to settle down.
But, actually, it's the purest, most concentrated stuff.
(BIRDS CHIRPING) I don't think we got any sleep back then.
Now I can hardly keep my eyes open one night.
- (LAUGHS) - I'm here.
Well, dawn is for lovers and bakers.
- I got something for you.
- Yeah? I happen to know you don't have a copy of this book.
(CHUCKLES) It's got brilliant prose, and she dies, then some more brilliant prose.
Thank you.
Candy stripes Be well.
I will.
Lights against the sky Red and yellow Dancing in your eyes I let my heart fly Above the high wire But we came spinning down Do you remember when the circus Came to town? Cavalcades and - (DOOR CLOSES) - Hey.
Are only passing through The painted wheels roll on To somewhere new I want to work on this.
And I don't want to But I still love you And I can't turn it around 'Cause I still remember when the circus (SIGHS) Came to town.
- How'd it go? - I think we're done.
Damn.
JULIE: "And then, the CEO mask comes off, and I meet Joshua for the first time.
The polished young dot-com whiz kid disappears, and what's left is an emotionally complex young man who's thrown everything he has at his website.
Then he tells me what must be the most romantic story of love at first sight this writer has heard in a very long time.
It's about an ex of his.
We'll call her Emily.
" (QUIETLY): Bathroom.
(CLEARS THROAT) JULIE: "Here's this kid bringing thousands of people together, and yet he's all alone, carrying a torch that's so bright, it's burning him.
" (CRYING SOFTLY) "Joshua doesn't want to wake up in 20 years' time and regret his silence.
" (SNIFFLES) "His story reminds me of my own.
Of a love unlived and untested.
" The sky can't touch the ceiling of human love Human love The wild, instinctual feeling of human love Human love Out in the jungle, there are buildings and cars And it's survival of the richest on the boulevard Everyone's so phone-smart, dumb in their heart Searching for something, but there's nothing Quite as dangerous as human love The animals are watching us watching the animals Watching us watching the animals Watching us move Like animals would never move.