Jupiter knew he wouldn’t want to watch it with her so she didn’t even ask. It was French and technically a musical. Both were stupid, in his opinion. She pushed play and settled into the cushion ,a plate with a steak fajita at her side and a cold beer nestled between her legs. He walked in the room and saw opening credits flash on the screen, block lettered surnames.

“Hey! Why are you watching a movie without me?”

“It’s French…and I guess it’s a musical.So I hear”

He wrinkled his nose and uttered an “Oh”, flavored with distaste. “Fucking Frogs. I hate the French.”

She’d heard it all before. He held a grudge against the French from WW2,even though he hadn’t even been alive then, and was completely in favor of Freedom Fries. It was simply unAmerican to patronize anything they put forth as art.

“If it helps, it’s about a guy with two girlfriends and a boyfriend.”

This peeked his interest and he took a seat next to her on the sofa.They watched together as Boy & Girl & Girl sang their songs of love, with an abstract scene that only alluded to the menage a trois. Jupiter thought it was brilliant in it’s subtlety. Although she was all for gratuitous sex, she thought it was better in this case for it not to be there at all.

Jupiter reached for the remote, her finger finding the rubber pad for the pause button. The two parallel vertical lines appeared on the screen. She turned to Max and blurted out,”You know, I don’t care how many Top 100 of All Time lists they end up on – I still hate Nine Inch Nails and I always will.”

Lost on what Nine Inch Nails had to do with French Pop stylized songs, Max looked puzzled. But he was used to Jupiter’s seemingly random thought processes and patiently waited for her empty her head.

“I fucking hate that song “Closer”. Fucking HATE it!”,she growled. “I mean, everyone seems to like that song because …I don’t have a clue why. Is it because it’s some big fucking deal to want to fuck like an animal? It’s not. It doesn’t make it a good song. It just means you have the mentality of a 12 year old because you’re all like,’Ooooh…..he says fuck!’. Besides that, it’s all just so aggressive and abrasive. All it does is irritate and anger me and make me feel like ripping someone’s head off.And Trent Reznor is a fucking dick. I don’t fucking care that he cried like a baby when he met Sharon Tate’s sister. What the fuck? Does he want a fucking cookie for finding his sensitive side?God!”

Her finger found the play button on the remote. Rain falls on Paris streets as the angel watches over Bastille Square.Jupiter hits the pause button again.

“Ok,so maybe Trent Reznor is a goddamn genius. If nothing else, he evokes a huge emotional response from me. I give him that much.”

Play resumed the rain and French love songs. Max sighed ,”There’s no actual sex. And it’s in goddamn French.” He got up and walked across the room to the computer,abandoning the movie.

Jupiter mused out loud,”Someday I’d like to live in France.

“You have fun with that”, he said over his shoulder before losing himself in World of Warcraft.

Inside her head, she answered ,”Why thank you…I think I will.”