CASTING SIDE – MAQUINESS & NEIF
INT. VILLA – MAIN ROOM – DAY
The villa is heavy with silence. Champagne sweats in glasses, untouched fruit sits on the table. The air hums with secrets waiting to explode.
Maquiness suddenly slams her glass down — the sound sharp as a gunshot.
MAQUINESS
(firm, rising)
“I’m done.”
Neif stiffens, eyes narrowing.
NEIF
(calm, cautious)
“Done with what?”
MAQUINESS
(voice rising, locking eyes on him)
“This. All of it. The sneaking, the half-truths, the promises that never happen. And I’m tired of you walking home to a wife while I sit here playing your shadow.”
The words hang like smoke.
NEIF
(defensive, pressing)
“You act like you didn’t know. You knew the situation. You knew what it was from the start.”
MAQUINESS
(snapping)
“I knew what you said, Neif. Not what you meant. Don’t twist that.”
NEIF
(frustrated)
“I never twisted nothing! I told you from the jump I couldn’t give you the fairytale. You stayed anyway.”
MAQUINESS
(exploding, leaning in)
“No, Neif! It wasn’t about staying. It was about believing you. Believing that after twenty damn years, you’d stop being a coward and stand up for me. But here we are — I’m still the secret, and she’s still the wife.”
NEIF
(quiet, stung)
“You think it’s that simple? You think I ain’t been there for you? You think I don’t love you in my own way? You don’t see what I risk just sitting here across from you.”
MAQUINESS
(mocking laugh, bitter)
“Oh, don’t you dare play the victim. You get to have me when you want me, and then you run home and tuck her in at night. And I’m supposed to be grateful? Tell me, Neif — what kind of love is that?”
NEIF
(angry, blurting out)
“It’s the only way I knew how to keep you! If I left her, everything falls apart — my kids, my business, my name. You wanted me to throw away my whole life, Maquiness.”
MAQUINESS
(leaning forward, voice like a blade)
“I never asked you to throw it away. I asked you to choose me. Just once. But you couldn’t. And now you think I’m supposed to just sit here, quiet, while you keep playing house with somebody else?”
A long silence. Neif’s jaw tightens, but he can’t answer.
MAQUINESS
(low, final, cutting)
“Then hear me now — I’m done being your secret.”
The room goes heavy. Their eyes lock, twenty years of silence and compromise boiling between them.