Deja vu all over again. (that, from Yogi Berra, I believe)
By Kevin Canty, the short story Sleeping Beauty features Andrew, a bachelor, holding a dinner party for two married couples who are all old college friends.
There is that underlying sense of something wrong that you get in Facade‘s apartment of Grace and Trip. Andrew is feeling the outsider as a single who has just broken up with his girlfriend, and we follow his mood as he attempts to maintain his control over the evening. In the meantime, there appears to be something brewing among the two couples as well. One of the women holds onto Andrew a bit too long in the kitchen while he is preparing the meal. He remains clueless. (Facade: Kiss, Kiss, Hug, Hug, either Trip or Grace, depending on your persona until you get tossed out on your ass.)
This same woman faints, then under some rather awkward interaction (VERY much like when attempting to interact with Grace and Trip), it’s decided that after she goes in to lay down and recover, that she just stay put for the night since she fell asleep (we don’t really get out of the main room in Facade). When she wakes, the secret that both couples knew but Andrew wasn’t privy to is revealed.
The story isn’t great, but there is conflict and it’s written fairly well. It reminds me of several movies that were along the same path of old friends getting together and finding out that nobody is really as happy as they appear.
But this never happened in Facade: The visitor never ended up with Trip!
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology