Sid's Apartment

"What even is this?"
"This is...where I live?"
"Is it?"
"I think so?"

It's date number five for Alice and Sid, and they already have what an outside observer could only describe as a grating rhythm to their conversations. And that rhythm is built entirely on questions. Insincere questions, sarcastic questions, obnoxious questions, but always questions that teetered on the edge of playful flirtation. But tonight is different, or at least Alice fears it might be. 

The plan is simple: watch a movie to completion. The complication: this is also Alice's first time setting foot in Sid's apartment. That first impression is hard to write off, and she has a sneaking suspicion the questions she asks of Sid tonight will be far more genuine than they're used to. But for now, a little more banter.

"Were you robbed?"
"Don't think so? Why don't you sit?"
"Are you going to murder me?"
"I don't think so?"
"Where is all your stuff?"
"It's here?"
"But like, where is it?"
"Like, right here?" Sid gesticulates as he says this in such an over-the-top way that he's clearly in on the joke. But also well aware he's made a conscious choice about his living space.
"But like, where?"
"Like, here?" Sid's hand-waving gets even more animated.
"But like, I don't see it?"
"Maybe there's just nothing to see?"

Alice is now truly thrown off by how sparse Sid's living room is: a few books, a leather couch, and a wooden coffee table. But even more disorienting is how comfortable he appears to be with his home. Proud, even. Well, at least there's a television.

"Soooo... what did you want to watch?" She asks as she glides toward the coach. "Oooh there was this new Adam Sandler movie on Netflix that I wanted to check out."
"Oh, I don't have that." The way Sid says it is impossible to ignore. The playful questioning has vanished.
"What?"
"I only have HBO."
"Really? But like, why?"
"There's just too many shows out there for me to watch all at once. So I just go through each streaming service one by one till I've seen everything I want to see on each one. Right now I'm on The Leftovers."

"What about the ones that come out every week?"
"Oh like the new shows?"
"Yeah."
"I have a firm rule not to watch anything that isn't completely done." 
"What? Seriously?"
"I don't need a cliffhanger at the end of every episode, I hate cliffhangers."

By this point Sid has already started Barbie, which he claims he's never seen. So they settle in and start watching. Within six minutes, Alice snatches the remote from Sid's hand and hits the pause button.

"Okay, hold on. You seriously only have one streaming service? I can't even keep track of all of mine, and you're just going one at a time?"
"One at a time."
"You are a crazy person...or wait...are you...cheap? Is that why this apartment is so empty? Wait! Is it worse? Are you poor?! Am I dating a poor person?"
"No," Sid says politely but clearly annoyed by the question.
"Because I can't date a poor person, I have too much debt, I need you to know that. Two poor people in a relationship is one too many."
"I'm not poor."

Alice thinks back on the previous three dates and realizes Sid must be telling the truth. There was the dinner, the bachata dance class, the drinks, the pool hall...Sid hasn't been scrimping. 

"But then why don't you have more stuff? Why do you have only two pieces of furniture? Why don't you have Netflix?  Why haven't you seen Grey's Anatomy? Why Sid, why?!"

"This is all I need, any more would be too much. Look," Sid points to the wall behind them. There's a painting Alice hadn't noticed earlier. It's not elaborate at all, just a bunch of marks, almost as if the artist is counting. "This painting holds deep meaning to me in a way that other physical objects simply can't. No other work of art has ever resonated with me this way. If another one does someday, I'll buy it, no problem. But until that day comes, what's the point in having anything else?"

Alice has no idea how to respond, so she gives Sid a small, wry smile to indicate her approval and puts the movie back on. About halfway through Barbie, Alice pauses again for a bathroom break. And when she walks back toward the couch, she gets her first real look at Sid's cherished painting.

"Okay, so what's the deal with it?"
"With what?"
"The painting!"
"Oh, that's actually a good story."
"Is it?"
"It is. I got it at the Brooklyn Art Fair."
"In Greenpoint?! No way, I go there every year.""Me too. But yeah, I was looking at it and I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Then I got to talking to the artist and she tells me-"
"She?"
"She." He winks.
"Whore!"
"Like I was saying, she tells me each stroke stands for a breath. So the piece is a summation of all the breaths she took making the piece. That really resonated with me. Now every time I look at it I remember to breathe."
"Wow, that is neat."
"It really is, ya know?"
"I know."

As Alice restarts the movie, it dawns on her that she's learned more about Sid tonight than in all those first four dates combined. But that new information has only left her with more... questions.