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Don't say anything. The film Diane picked is an action comedy, unapologetically her favorite genre. Both of you order food. Me with massive quantities. Her slightly larger than usual. No one cares about the slob behavior from both of us, me more than her of course

Lena doesn't say anything. She looks at Diane and Diane looks at her and the unzipped jacket and the untucked blouse and the loose hair and the tight pants and the small stain and the steady hands — all of it — sits between them on the sidewalk and Lena takes her ticket and they walk in.

Diane has ordered food. Lena sees it when they reach the back row — a tray on each seat, nachos and hot dogs and large sodas, enough for a small party. Lena's tray is enormous: two buckets of popcorn, three boxes of candy, two hot dogs loaded with chili and cheese, a large soda, a bag of chips she brought from home. Diane's tray has nachos and a hot dog and a soda and the portions are slightly larger than Lena has ever seen Diane order — more cheese on the nachos, the hot dog fully loaded, the soda large instead of medium. They sit. The lights dim. The screen fills with a car chase and an explosion and a man in a leather vest kicking down a door and Lena laughs before the first joke lands because she knows what Diane picked.

It's an action comedy. A real one — loud, fast, stupid, joyful, the kind of film where the hero makes a quip before every fight scene and the fight scenes are choreographed like dances and nothing is quiet and nothing is subtle and no one is alone in a house near the sea. The theater is half full and the audience is laughing and Lena is laughing and the sound is big and open and fills the back row. She eats with her hands. Chili runs down her chin and she wipes it on her arm and reaches for the popcorn and shoves fistfuls into her mouth and candy wrappers crinkle and the soda is gone in ten minutes. She burps — long, deep, unapologetic — and the couple two rows ahead doesn't turn around. Lena drops the empty popcorn bucket on the floor and it thuds and she opens the chips and starts on the second hot dog.

Diane is eating too. Not the way Lena eats — not with the total abandon, not with the hands and the chin and the arm-wiping — but she's eating more than Lena has ever seen her eat. The nachos go first and she tilts the tray to catch the last of the cheese and she doesn't use a napkin. The hot dog is gone in four bites and she leans back and drinks the soda and there's a small smear of cheese on her chin and she doesn't wipe it. She laughs at the screen — not the careful laugh Lena has heard at the office, not the manager laugh, but something louder and less controlled — and her shoulders are loose and the jacket falls open and the untucked blouse rides up and there's a sliver of soft skin visible at her waist that Lena has never seen before. Diane reaches for Lena's candy box and takes a handful without asking and eats it and doesn't say anything about it.

The film ends with a car driving into a sunset and a joke about taxes and the credits roll and the lights come up and the back row is a wreck — Lena's trays and wrappers and buckets and empty chip bags and the soda cup on its side, and Diane's nacho tray and hot dog wrapper and the cheese smear on the armrest. Lena's belly is full and round and she leans back and her body spreads across the seat and the armrests and she feels the warmth of the food settling into her and she doesn't move. Diane is leaning back too and her blouse has ridden up further and the soft skin at her waist is more visible now and the cheese is still on her chin and she hasn't fixed her hair and she looks — content. Not performing contentment. Not managing it. Just sitting in it the way Lena sits in her body. Lena says, "Good film." Diane says, "I've seen it four times." Lena says, "I know." Diane says, "I didn't want to pick another woman alone in a house. I wanted to pick something I actually like." Lena says, "You picked it for you." Diane says, "I picked it for me." They sit in the mess and the lights are up and the theater is emptying and neither of them moves.