And the Oscar goes to . . .

It’s a beautiful boat, Frankie.

Remember me when I was pushing a rack through the snow on 28th Street?

I remember many things, Frankie.

I’d like to get you to forget some of them. Listen, Kay, I was a punk without a subway token. It couldn’t have gone anywhere with us. It’s different now.

What are you talking about?

I’m talking about us.

Us. There’s no us. There’s you and there’s me. There’s no us.

That’s not true. There is something between us, Kay. It may not have been right in New York, but there were things happening between us always. You can’t deny that.

Well, you’re not exactly the kind of man any woman would call a passing fancy. There’s nothing happening between us. Now any more than before.

It was the Princess and the Pauper then. I didn’t have anything to offer you. But now it’s different.

Don’t con me, Frankie. Offer me? What were you ever going to offer me? The chance to fight you off every time we got together? Oh, fine, now you’ve got the yacht and you’ve got cars, they save the best table for you at the best restaurants. So what? You haven’t changed. It’s that seed of rot inside of you which makes you what you are. That you can’t change. You just dress it better.

Now I get it. I think I understand. Maybe it’s that thing inside me, that rot, that evil you think you see. Maybe that’s what turns you on.

Take me home, Frankie.

You slapped my face the first time I made a pass at you, but you got me a job that kept me near you. Every time I tried to get close you pushed me away, but not too far. Oh, that middle-European peasant upbringing of yours, baby. They told you so often that playing house with a guy was dirty, you got all knotted up inside. But you like to play. So you can’t get turned on by a guy who treats you nice, a schlep like the one you were out with tonight. But a guy who wipes his feet on ya, that you dig.

Shut up. You just want me because I won’t let you use me like all the others, because I’m not like all the others. You represent everything I loath, Frankie.

You mean everything you love.

Take me home. Take me home! Right away.