Written by: Winnie Holzman and Maggie Friedman
Directed by: Matt Shakman
(Dimitri's tie and patterned shirt seem olive now.)
Grace appears at Mr. Dimitri’s sliding glass door. He is visible through the glass, doing dishes in the clean kitchen. At Grace’s knocking Dimitri turns to see her. “It’s open.” Grace slides the door open and enters, smiling and saying “Hey!” “Hey,” Mr. Dimitri says back. “Just want to…finish these up.” Grace exhales. “I’m actually early.” She unzips her gray jacket and takes it off. Grace’s blue top is tighter than her usual sweaters, and her skirt is faux leather. She places the jacket on the counter and heads for the fridge. “You hungry?” Dimitri asks. “Not really,” Grace almost nervously answers. She opens his fridge anyway. Grace lets out a breath and stares inside the fridge as she announces “So, it turns out Lisa and Russell can’t come.” Dimitri turns his head toward her and Grace turns hers to see his reaction. Dimitri doesn’t seem to react. “Oh, okay. So, I’ve been thinking about your story.” He finishes drying a bowl and moves to put it on a shelf. Grace takes something out of the fridge and grimaces, “Oh my God, you should throw this out.” “Feel free.” Grace tosses it in the trash and looks at her newly soiled hands. Dimitri turns and continues, “I’ve got a great idea for your ending.” Grace looks around for a dishtowel to wipe her hands. Dimitri sees this and walks toward her holding out his dishrag. Grace takes hold of the towel but Dimitri hasn’t let go, instead drying his hands as well, finger by finger as they talk. “But I already sent it out to that place.” “So what, it doesn’t mean you have to stop working on it,” Dimitri suggests, stepping in close. “Okay, but I thought…” Grace explains, “I mean, I like the ending. Everything ties together.” “Yeah,” Dimitri nods. “It all ties together maybe, maybe a little too much.” Grace says a little “Oh,” then looks back at Dimitri. He lowers his head just slightly and looks deep into Grace’s eyes, barely leaning forward as Grace, surprised, barely leans backward. She smiles a bit to ask “What’re you?…” His finger wipes under his own eye as he shows her “Oh, your eye makeup’s smudged.” “Oh shoot.” Grace turns away and walks a few steps, wiping under her eye. Dimitri opens his hands. “Where are you going? Come on.”
Grace stops. “I have to find a mirror.” Dimitri tosses the towel in the sink and reaches for his coat. “Well, there’s a mirror in my car.” “No, I…” Grace turns to look at Dimitri. “Come on,” he says, taking his coat from under Grace’s. Grace smiles. “I just realized something.” “We can’t miss the beginning,” he says, pulling his jacket on. “What did you realize?” “That I’ve never seen the rest of your house before.” “Yeah, you have,” Dimitri replies, leaning toward Grace’s jacket on the counter. Grace gathers up her courage and looks Dimitri in the eye. “But I’ve never seen where you sleep.” He inhales. Grace clasps her hands, looking for a moment like a child. “Grace.” “Well, I haven’t,” she tries, “and I really want to.” Dimitri blinks, open-mouthed, and looks down. “If you laugh at me right now I swear I’ll never speak to you again.” “Ah, I’m not laughing” he says, stunned. Grace watches and builds up, “So…can we just” (she steps in closer) “not go to the movies?” Dimitri looks back at Grace, not saying anything for a moment, looks down and shakes his head, then looks away to the side. “No, we can’t.” Immediately Grace puts up her hands and starts walking closer. “Please. Okay, I know I’m going this really stupidly—" “No, you are doing this alarmingly well and I’m (he brings his hand to his heart) extremely honored, however—" “Oh God! Don’t say that,” Grace exclaims in horror. “No, just. Please.” “Grace.” “Okay? I’ve given this a lot of thought.” Dimitri puts his hand up to stop her sentence. “Grace, listen to me, okay?” His jaw sets. Grace stops, afraid of what he’s about to say. “We really can’t be late.” Grace looks away and crosses her arms. “Come on,” Dimitri encourages. “It’s a ground-breaking film. It’s part of your education.” He steps in closer and smiles. Grace doesn’t look up at him. “See, Kurosawa takes one event and he plays it over and over and over from four different points of view. You can really see how each person has their own view of what happened.” Grace’s voice wavers. “I made a total fool of myself just now, didn’t I?” “Well, that’s not how I see it,” Dimitri says, looking at her reassuringly for a few seconds. “Come on.” He picks up Grace’s jacket. “Let’s go to the movies, okay?” He holds out Grace’s coat for her and she grudgingly turns to put her arms in as he slides the jacket on. “You okay?” he asks. Now composed, Grace answers, “Yeah” and flips her hair out from under the jacket as he picks something, maybe lint, off her left shoulder. Dimitri pats Grace’s right arm twice yet his hand lingers. “I am a little hungry though,” Grace says, zipping her jacket slightly, still feeling rebuffed. Dimitri’s hand opens, then one by one his fingers lift gently from her arm. Grace doesn't seem to notice. Dimitri answers “Well, then, I’ll buy you some popcorn.” Grace doesn’t look at him but gives an expression that popcorn wasn’t what she had hoped for. Dimitri gingerly follows Grace outside.
She walks ahead until Dimitri says, “Wait a second.” Grace stops and turns to face him. He steps in very close. “It’s still pretty cold out.” Dimitri zips Grace’s jacket all.the.way.up and smiles. Grace starts to follow his hand up with her eyes, then she looks straight in his eyes. He smiles and walks away, unlocking the car by remote. Across the street Alexa watches alone from her car, unseen. Dimitri drives Grace to the movies.
