breakfast on the balcony

I'm idly reading Dan Brown and cloud-watching, barefoot and sipping a coke in spite of the chill in the air. He emerges sleepily onto the balcony from the kitchen looking like a man trying to solve a mystery with no clues, until he sees the milk sitting by the empty cereal bowl on the table next to me. Silently I hand it to him and then put my book down as he huddles around his first coffee of the day. I've been eager for him to wake up, because I've made a discovery, but I wait until he's had a sip of his now milky coffee.

"Hey you know that movie we watched last week, Threesome?"

"Yeah."

"Remember the scene where Alex asks Eddy to tell her some big words on the phone and he says, 'concupiscence', and she's orgasmic over it but she has no idea what it means?"

He nods.

"Well I found out what it means."

Either his curiosity or the coffee kicks in.

"Really? What is it?"

I smile, knowing this is the punchline.

"A strong desire or longing, usually sexual."

"You're kidding!"

He starts laughing. The entire movie is about strong sexual desire or longing. It's the scriptwriter's own little joke and now we're in on it.

"Imagine, some really smart person saw that movie..."

I'm already nodding in agreement.

"And got the joke the first time?" Exactly, exactly.

"Yeah, and they probably burst out laughing in the cinema and everyone else was looking at them like, 'what?'"

Now he laughs full-throated.

"That's great!"

"Isn't it?!"

Yeah. It is.