08-05-2025, 06:28 PM
Jude, wiping the sweat from his furrowed brow with a beleaguered huff, seems to be demonstrating how the physical and emotional toll of engaging in a five-minute conversation with Near is equivalent to scaling the Matterhorn. Because that’s a solid way to win friends and influence people into further conversations with you after work.
Near would love to be as indifferent to the show of enervation as Jude claims he was to Guthrie’s emotional state; unfortunately, he is aggravated by implications he should really be numb to by now. (Claims because he is not sure he quite buys Jude’s quick declaration of indifference, but it doesn’t really matter.)
Because the thing is, Jude has gotten off pretty easy here: not dismissed, not insulted too badly, barely interrogated. He has not been pressed into any explanation of what he really wants, what “use” he thinks Near could possibly have, where he intends to go. His assumption that the breakup was a breakup and not a temporary schism hasn’t been called into question. And maybe part of the reason is because Near would prefer to avoid the potential vanishings or reality-melting tantrums that come with putting this particular baby in a corner. But there’s part of him, too, that simply is not interested in moving beyond basecamp here at the foot of whatever mountain Jude’s bullshit is.
With both hands, he pulls his hair away from his face and then lets it spring free before shaking his head at his own stupidity.
“Last call’s two. I’ll be home by two-thirty. Three. You know where I live.”
Near would love to be as indifferent to the show of enervation as Jude claims he was to Guthrie’s emotional state; unfortunately, he is aggravated by implications he should really be numb to by now. (Claims because he is not sure he quite buys Jude’s quick declaration of indifference, but it doesn’t really matter.)
Because the thing is, Jude has gotten off pretty easy here: not dismissed, not insulted too badly, barely interrogated. He has not been pressed into any explanation of what he really wants, what “use” he thinks Near could possibly have, where he intends to go. His assumption that the breakup was a breakup and not a temporary schism hasn’t been called into question. And maybe part of the reason is because Near would prefer to avoid the potential vanishings or reality-melting tantrums that come with putting this particular baby in a corner. But there’s part of him, too, that simply is not interested in moving beyond basecamp here at the foot of whatever mountain Jude’s bullshit is.
With both hands, he pulls his hair away from his face and then lets it spring free before shaking his head at his own stupidity.
“Last call’s two. I’ll be home by two-thirty. Three. You know where I live.”