How It All Goes Down
Amy Elliott Dunne—April 21, 2009
- "Poor me," writes Amy at the beginning of this latest time travel diary entry. Ouch. Knowing Amy, this could mean one of two things: she's either (a) an emotional basket case, or (b) goofing with us. Let's find out.
- On this particular night, Amy goes out with her friends Campbell and Insley (there're some preppy names for you). While this is initially supposed to be a girl's night out, they decide to invite their husbands to join them for drinks. To pass the time while they wait, they engage in petty small talk about their weeks, but it's only Tuesday, so there's not a lot of conversation material.
- Campbell and Insley's husbands arrive and obviously resent having to be there. Insley's husband, George, got held up at work (so he says) and makes a passive aggressive remark about being sorry for making money for their household instead of heading out for the social gathering. John, Campbell's husband, is totally faking how happy he is to be driving across town for a drink, only to go right back home. Nick is a no-show, which doesn't bode well for Amy's emotional state.
- Hold on, though—Amy's actually not mad at Nick for being the lone holdout on the triple-date drink night. To her, it means that they both feel secure in their marriage and that Nick doesn't feel like he has to do pointless acts of kindness to prove his love to her. They secretly call husbands who cave in to their wives' every desire "dancing monkeys."
- When Nick comes home, Amy doesn't freak out on him for skipping out on the drink night—instead she tells him how "lame" the evening was. Nick tells her how much he loves her, which leads to drinks and sex. Amy's "poor me" comment turns out to be ironic.