Aphrodisiac is now available from upstart young publishers Samuel French (founded 1830).
AVERY
What’s the worst-case scenario? He’s hiding something terrible. He’s done something we never thought he was capable of. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have thought he was capable of having an affair. I would have thought he was too averse to risk.
ALMA
Like Bill Clinton?
AVERY
Maybe Dad didn’t see it as a risk. Maybe he saw it as part of the job. He’s a consummate professional.
ALMA
Like Bill Clinton.
AVERY
Best-case scenario. Benefit of the doubt. It was an innocent friendship. Here’s this young woman. She and her friend — what’s the friend’s name?
ALMA
Trish.
AVERY
She and Trish are grad students in public administration. They go on what they call “political field trips” where they visit the offices of House members and have their photo taken with them. One day, they visit the representative from Ilona’s home town. Trish talks herself into an internship in the office, but Ilona, Ilona’s already interning at the Bureau of Prisons. But she and Dad get to be friends. They call each other often. Maybe there’s an element of flirtation, maybe not. Then she disappears. He is questioned. He tries, perhaps misguidedly, to protect her reputation, and as a result he is crucified in the media. Anything could have happened to that girl. She could have let herself get picked up by a serial killer in a bar. She went jogging alone at night. This is not a bright girl.
ALMA
You don’t know that. She was an independent adult.
AVERY
She was having an affair with a married womanizer congressman.
ALMA
Have you never been involved in a stupid doomed self-destructive affair? Love, sex, whatever, makes you do stupid things. That doesn’t mean you’re stupid. That doesn’t mean you routinely put your life in danger.
AVERY
May I answer the question? No, I’ve never been involved in a stupid affair.
ALMA
Have you ever been involved in a smart affair?
AVERY
Well, Alma, I’ve not been a perfect man.
ALMA
Funny.
(Pause. AVERY sips his beer.)
AVERY
One thing you can say: now everyone in the 18th district knows who their congressman is.
