REINDEER GAMES

                        RUDY
           You Ashley?

Ashley nods. And Rudy sadly smiles.

                        RUDY
           I'm Nick.

                                                           CUT TO:

INT. TRUCK STOP - DAY

Rudy and Ashley sit at a coffee shop booth. Coats still on. Big
rigs bluster by on the highway outside.

Two untouched cups of coffee sit before them.

She's watching him in silence.

                        RUDY
           I like your coat.

Ashley says nothing. Rudy looks at his own:

                        RUDY
           This-this is just something they
           gave me at the door. Wasn't snowing
           when we signed up, y'know?

Ashley nods.

                        RUDY
           How's your coffee?

Ashley looks at it, like she's just realizing it's there. She
lifts the cup, takes a sip. Puts it down.

                        ASHLEY
           Good.

Rudy nods. Silence again.

                        RUDY
           Gotta be ten degrees out there.

                        ASHLEY
           Radio said negative five.

                        RUDY
           Negative five?

                        ASHLEY
           Yeah.

                        RUDY
           I don't think it's negative five.

                        ASHLEY
           Radio said.

Beat.

                        RUDY
           Wind chill. That's probably
           what they meant.

Ashley nods. Rudy bites his lip.

                        RUDY
           I was scared. Scared you were gonna
           take one look at me and change your
           mind. Scared I was walking into
           heartache.  All those words ...
           you put a picture in your
           mind of where they come from and
           when you see where maybe it's
           not the same as your picture.

He trails off.

                        ASHLEY
           I figured you walked outta there and
           saw me and walked right the other
           way--

                        RUDY
           No, no--

                        ASHLEY
           Saw my outfit or something, my coat--

                        RUDY
           No, hey, I like your coat--

                        ASHLEY
           Saw me--

                        RUDY
           Ashley, no. That was me, that's what
           I was scared of. I mean, be serious ...
           I ' ain't exactly looking like Mr.
           Universe here.

                        ASHLEY
           You are to me.

Rudy goes silent. Whoa. Ashley considers.

                        ASHLEY
           Thought you wrote you had a mustache.

                        RUDY
           I can get another one going. Y'know,
           hey, whatever you want me to--

                        ASHLEY
           No, no, no. Be like you want to be.

Another awkward pause. Rudy picks up a milk dispenser beside the
coffee, puts it to his lips. It gives him a wide white mustache.
He stares straight-faced.

Ashley gives a bashful smile, covers it.

                        RUDY
           Do that again.

                        ASHLEY
           What.

                        RUDY
           Smile.

Ashley smiles again, blushing now.

                        ASHLEY
           No--

                        RUDY
           One more. Smile. One more.

                        ASHLEY
                 (trying not to)
           No, c'mon--

                        RUDY
           I've been dreaming about that smile,
           Ashley Mercer. For a long time.

They stare across the table, drifting into one another's eyes.

                        ASHLEY
           You're better than the picture in my
           mind, Nick...
                 (softly)
           You're real.

Outside, another truck rumbles by, whipping up snow.

                                                    SMASH CUT TO:

INT. INTERSTATE MOTEL ROOM - DAY

And Rudy and Ashley SLAM inside, kissing passionately, limbs
intertwined, pawing at each other's coats. Rudy kicks the door
closed. Mouths devouring, hands lost in snowy hair.

They collide with a side table, knocking over a lamp, tumbling
onto the lumpy bed. Rudy tears at her silver coat and sweater and
turtleneck and capilene and whatever else's she got on, as
Ashley's lips explore his neck and body. Writhing and wrestling
and rolling off the bed. Bang.

INT. MOTEL ROOM - LATER

Rudy and Ashley fuck like lovers in R-rated movies.

INT. MOTEL ROOM - DAY - LATER

The bed sheets'lie tangled on the floor. Rudy and Ashley rest
naked amidst them. Her pretty young head on his chest, all their
inhibitions gone. Rudy strokes her arms.

                        RUDY
           Tell me something. This the first
           time you've ever done this?

                        ASHLEY
           Go to hell, Nick Mason, what's that
           supposed to mean--

                        RUDY
           No, not that, no...
                 (laughs, kisses her)
           I mean this, the whole thing. Start
           writing to a guy, guy in the bricks.
           Get a boyfriend like this. Tell me the
           truth.

                        ASHLEY
           Well. You're not the first guy
           I wrote to. But you're the only
           one I kept writing to.

                        RUDY
           Yeah. Me too.
                 (considers)
           Why? I mean I know why for me, why
           I paid for the ad. But you ... why
           start writing to some guy -- some con --
           you don't even know?

Ashley studies his face, smiles in reflection.

                        ASHLEY
           I told you, Nick. Remember?

                        RUDY
           Tell me again.

                        ASHLEY
           All the guys I've ever been with...
           they never want to know me. Who I
           am on the inside. They just want to qet
           inside. When they do, they think
           that means they know who I am.
           That I trust them. That they know me.
           That there's nothing left to learn.
                 (beat)
           A guy like you, Nick -- six months
           before you can even touch my face. I
           figure a guy in that kind of bind, he's
           gonna hafta work to get to know me
           some other way.

                        RUDY
           Had some bad relationships, didn't you.

                        ASHLEY
           Not bad. Just regular.
                 (smiles)
           You wrote me wonderful things, Nick.
           Personal things.

She turns to him, kisses his chest--

                        RUDY
           Well, wasn't all me, y'know.

                        ASHLEY
           Yes it was all you--

                        RUDY
           Guy I was in with ... he helped sometimes ...
           some of the romantic stuff, actually ...
           you'd like him--

                        ASHLEY
           I'm talking about the heart, Nick. I'm
           not talking about the words.

                        RUDY
           Y'know, some of the heart mighta been
           his too...

                        ASHLEY
           Then he shoulda signed his name.

She turns over playfully, eases herself back atop him. Ready to
make up for lost time. With a kiss:

                        ASHLEY
           And he'd be here right now.

INT. SHOPPING MALL - DAY

Ashley runs through an Xmas-decorated megamall, dragging Rudy
behind her. Both of them laughing, as she hauls him over to some
cookie bakery company:

                        RUDY
           Where the hell are you going?

                        ASHLEY
           Provisions! We are not leaving that
           motel room again till after New Year's:
           we need ten days worth of provisions!
                 (to cookie matron)
           What's good?!

                        COOKIE MATRON
           Oh my, we've got a special on our
           chocolate crunchie elves, they're
           shaped like little helpers--

                        ASHLEY
           THIS MAN ... has not had a cockie in
           two goddamn years! Get him two
           of everything!

                        RUDY
           Ashley, Jesus--

                        ASHLEY
           Can't survive on our bodies alone, Nick.
                 (to cookie matron)
           Hurry up!

                        RUDY
           Ash ... didn't you write me that you
           don't eat chocolate?

                        ASHLEY
           Yeah, well you wrote me you were
           six-foot-four, baby.
                 (teasing smile)
           So don't talk to me about little white
           lies.

INT. J.C. PENNEY'S DEPARTMENT STORE - DAY

Teddy bears with nightcaps, green bows, red ribbons. Ashley's
tearing through men's clothing racks, all love and confidence.
Rudy's got a bunch of purchase bags weighing him down:

                        ASHLEY
           You need a COAT!

                        RUDY
           Ash, you've gotten me enough--

                        ASHLEY
           No boyfriend of mine is going to
           walk around in negative-five degree
           wind chill without a goddamn
           good-looking coat!

She pulls out a hellacious black leather fringe number.

                        RUDY
           Baby, c'mon, all this stuff ...
           I haven't gotten you anything--

                        ASHLEY
           You got out, Nick. You're here.
           You're my Christmas.

She puts the jacket against his chest, smiling. Rudy sighs.

                        RUDY
           It's two hundred dollars, Ash--

She whips a Penney's card from her purse, grins wickedly:

                        ASHLEY
           You forget where I work?

                        RUDY
                 (beat)
           Beauty and fragrances.

                        ASHLEY
           Fifty percent off, motherfucker.
           Ho ho ho.

She runs off with the jacket. Rudy turns to a dressing mirror,
left to stare at his reflection. An ex-con in rags, with a half-
dozen holiday shopping bags. To himself:

                        RUDY
           Just for the holidays, Nick. Then
           we'll tell her. We'll let her...
           have her holidays ...

Rudy nods till he convinces himself. Can't help but smile.

INT. TOY STORE - DAY

Puzzles, Barbies and dinosaurs. KIDS scurrying, PARENTS chasing.
Rudy and Ashley with a scared TEEN CLERK:

                        TEEN CLERK
           You can't find ... what?

                        ASHLEY
           Toys for adults. Where are your
           toys for adults?

                        TEEN CLERK
           Toys for ... adults?

                        ASHLEY
           C'mon. How old are you, sixteen? C'mon.

                        TEEN CLERK
           We sell children's toys--

                        ASHLEY
                 (slams money down)
           I got fifty dollars to spend in your
           store, Jesus of Nazareth. Can you
           help me or not?

The clerk glances around, then, low:

                        TEEN CLERK
           Slinky's in aisle five, Twister's in
           aisle one, Moon Mud's in aisle four.

                        ASHLEY
           Thank you.

INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY
CLOSE ON CONVEYOR

As bottles of wine, vodka and rum, cartons of egg nog and orange
juice, and countless prepackaged sandwiches come scrolling past.

                        ASHLEY (o.s.)
           You know what I was thinking, after our
           holiday hideaway? Instead of going back
           to Detroit, maybe we could go gambling.
           Y'know? Drive up to that Indian place
           you worked at. Wouldn't that be fun? I
           haven't gone gambling in forever!

EXT. SUPERMARKET PARKING LOT - DUSK

Light snow falls. Rudy, in his new black fringe eyesore, and
Ashley carry grocery bags across the icy asphalt:

                        RUDY
           Well, I don't know about that--

                        ASHLEY
           Blackjack, Nick, blackjack I am
           good at. I mean, they'd give us
           some free games or something,
           wouldn't they? Since you worked
           there?

                        RUDY
           Security, Ash, I just worked security.
           They wouldn't be rolling out the red
           carpet--