As Much Love as Possible, by Nora Carranza
“As Much Love as Possible” explains an apparently eventless evening when two old friends, Alec and Bill, spend a few hours drinking whisky.
Alec invites Bill
to come home and share a bottle of an old and appreciated Macallan, considering
that his wife Sue would be out with her friends. Bill was also alone, his wife being
away with her parents.
When Bill arrives,
Sue is about to leave, and looks fantastic, it seems she has a kind of shine in
herself. She welcomes Bill with a generous hug.
Years ago, Bill
didn’t try to make any move to approach Sue, he considered she was the right
girl for Alec, and gave the precedence to his good friend. It was a good decision and, in a short time,
he met Sophie, they got married and had two kids.
Alec and Sue took
some years before they had twins, probably they enjoyed that time just for them
together. By now, the twins were 4 or 5 years old, Bill wasn’t sure, although he
was their godfather.
Alec had forgotten
to call the taxi for Sue, but Bill offered himself for a ride to the
restaurant.
But when Bill drove to the restaurant, he felt as if he and Sue were a couple having a date.
Sue was grateful to Bill, explained about her two friends, they all had gone to
the same hair academy, and now each one had her own salon, financed by Alec.
Bill asked himself
when he and Sue will be together in such an intimacy and exclaimed, “I love you,
Sue. I love Sophie, but I love you. Don’t you think there could be as much love
as possible”? As an answer to that, Sue approached and gave Bill a soft kiss.
They say formal goodbyes,
but Bill remarked, “I can see down your top when you lean”.
Later, Bill and
Alec spent the informal evening drinking the Macallan and eating the pie Sue
left for them.
Bill knew he had
to stop drinking alcohol, he wanted to go back home driving his car, and avoiding
having to sleep in the spare bedroom in that house.
Nothing notorious
seems to have occurred during the facts described in the story.
Finally, Sue
returned home at about half past eleven, not very late in Alec’s opinion. She
looked as before, with her natural inner light, after the “girls” night out.
When Bill asked
Sue about her evening, she replied she had the “most wonderful evening”.
I think that, as
in many other stories of this author, we can imagine different motives for the
actions of the characters. Perhaps Bill was moved by old feelings, hidden in
his heart, that reappeared at that moment of unexpected proximity with warm
Sue.
Bill was moved
when he saw the twins sleeping, remembering his own children. Was he resenting
his words to Sue? Was he thinking about his friend Alec, who ignored what had
happened?
And Sue, why was she
so happy, because of her time with the girls, or because the feelings she
provoked in her husband's friend?
QUESTIONS
-There is a word repeated several times, “decent”.
What does this word mean for you?
-“Girls night”, “boys night”: what do people do in
these nights? Why are they different?
-Alec says that the bottle of whiskey fell off the
back of a lorry. Do you think it’s true? If not, why does he say that?
-Do women tend to dress more carefully than men (they
are only wearing “woollens”), more “decorated”? In this sense, do you think
women use more icons than men on the whatsapp conversations?
-Why didn’t Bill marry Sue? Don’t you think he excused
his decision with poor arguments? So, why does he feel something for her now?
-Usually, people get less attractive when they grow old
(they say). How can they reverse it? Or is it the way we see people?
-What made you suspect that that night she had tender
feelings for Bill?
-Bill felt attracted by Sue’s attire (she shimmered).
But there was also something in her personality that seduced Bill: what was it?
-We’re having again a question we’ve debated before:
is it possible to love two girlfriends / boyfriends… at the same time?
-Why do you think she kissed him when he told her he
loved her? Was his love for Sue platonic? Was it a loving kiss, or a
compassionate kiss?
Why wouldn’t Bill like to spend the night in their
spare room?
What do you know about the film Un rencontre
(“Reencontrar el amor”, in Spanish), starring François Creuzet and Sophie Marceau?
Why do you think she wasn’t awkward in any moment?
Do you think she came earlier from her dinner because
she wanted to see him?
In your opinion, her wonderful evening was because of the
girls’ night or because what Bill said to her?
VOCABULARY
ushered, soldiered, yersel, cardiganed hug, shepherd's
pie, dastardly, woollens, ditzy, shrewd, best man, hitched, shimmer, puffa, tumblers,
quandary, breast-beating, sparko, buster, contritely, scoffed at, bogus, rueful,
bubble, sloshed, cane, mop it up, waxing, Caledonian, haggis, mon, schoolmasterly,
slobs, garbled, wee, smarting, blunder