A Dialogue

Since it's been a few weeks since I posted anything and I don't have anything new written, here's an odd little dialogue that I wrote a couple of years back. It was unfinished so I added a few more lines. I was tempted to leave it open-ended or to extended it even further, but in the end I decided to give it a real closing, for better or for worse.

"If you really want to do it, then, fine, we'll do it."
"Look, if you aren't really willing...."
"I just said I was."
"You don't sound very willing."
"What do you mean? I said, okay, let's do it."
"But the way you put it...."
"'Okay' means 'okay.'"
"You said that if I really want to, then you'd go along. That sounds kind of reluctant to me."
"You said you really wanted to."
"I do, but I want you to want to, too."
"'To to too?' You lost me."
"I just mean that if you're only doing it because I want to, then it's not like you really want to."
"It was your idea."
"But the point is you don't seem very enthusiastic about it."
"What do you want me to do, jump up and down?"
"Of course not. It's just that...."
"Anyway, just because you really want to do it doesn't mean you have the right to expect me to want to do it as much as you do."
"It'd be nice if you wanted it at least a little."
"I said I'd do it."
"But that doesn't mean you want to do it; it sounds like you're only doing it to make me happy."
"Trust me, if I really didn't want to do it, I wouldn't."
"Not not wanting to do it isn't the same as wanting to do it."
"'Not not wanting?'"
"You know what I mean."
"Not really."
"Don't be obtuse."
"I'm not being obtuse, I really don't know what you're talking about."
"Look, you said you were willing...."
"Right, so what more do you want?"
"But you don't really want to."
"Like you just said yourself, I said I was willing."
"But willing doesn't mean you want to."
"What else could it mean?"
"It only means that you don't absolutely refuse. It's reluctant acquiescence."
"Did I say I was reluctant?"
"You sounded reluctant."
"In what way?"
"You just did."
"So you think you know what I'm thinking just from the way I say things?"
"Sure, I can tell."
"Well, if you can read my mind, then why bother ask me what I think in the first place?"
"I didn't say I could read your mind, I said I could guess."
"You said you could tell. That doesn't mean you guess, that means you know."
"Now you're nitpicking. Fine, I can't read your mind. So tell me, do you really want to do it or not?"
"I told you a hundred times, if you really want to do it, then fine by me."
"Arrgh, here we go again. Look, I don't want to feel like I'm forcing you to do it."
"You aren't forcing me. I wouldn't let you force me."
"But you wouldn't even do it if I didn't want to do it."
"Of course not. Why should we do it if you don't want to?"
"That's my point too. Maybe we shouldn't do it if you don't want to."
"I never said I didn't want to."
"But you never said you wanted to, either."
"Look, maybe I don't want to do it as badly as you do. Is that what you want me to say?"
"Then maybe we shouldn't do it at all."
"I know you really want to do it. So if we don't, you're going to act all moody."
"No, I won't."
"Yes, you will. You're acting that way already."
"I am not. If you don't want to do it, I can live with that."
"Ha! So you say now, but you'll mope about it forever. Anyway, I didn't say I didn't want to."
"You're sure acting like you don't."
"Oh for crying out loud, just set up the chess board and let's play."