Cover Page

Seconds of Pleasure

Also by Neil LaBute

Plays

bash: latterday plays
The Shape of Things
The Distance from Here
The Mercy Seat

Screenplays

In the Company of Men
Your Friends and Neighbors

Seconds of Pleasure

Stories

Neil LaBute

Copyright Page

Copyright © 2004 by Neil LaBute

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

Printed in the United States of America
Published simultaneously in Canada

Some of the stories in this collection have appeared in the following publications, sometimes in slightly different form: “Maraschino” in Black Book; “Time-Share” in British Esquire; “Grand Slam” in British Esquire and Nerve.com; “Wait” in Shout; “Layover” in The New Yorker; “Look at Her” in Harper’s Bazaar under the title “You Captivate Me”; “Ravishing” in Gear; “Los Feliz” in Arena and Zoetrope: All Story; “Whitecap” in Harper’s Bazaar.

Lines from “something for the touts” from Burning in Water, Drowning in Flames: Poems 1955–1973 by Charles Bukowski, Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers, 1983, used by permision.

FIRST GROVE PRESS PAPERBACK EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Labute, Neil.

Seconds of pleasure : stories / Neil LaBute.—1st ed.

p. cm.

eBook ISBN 13: 978-0-8021-9919-5

1. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. 2. Psychological fiction, American. I. Title.

PS3612.A28S43 2004

813’.54—dc22                                2004049137

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Dedication

This book is for Elvis Costello

Contents

Perfect

Maraschino

Time-Share

Boo-Boo

Opportunity

Spring Break

Wait

Layover

A Second of Pleasure

Look at Her

Ravishing

Open All Night

Full Service

Loose Change

Switzerland

Los Feliz

Some Do It Naturally

Grand Slam

Whitecap

Soft Target

Acknowledgments

some do it naturally
some obscenely
everywhere.

—Charles Bukowski

“Who in this world knows anything of
any other heart—or of his own?”

—Ford Madox Ford

Seconds of Pleasure

Perfect

Look, I’m not perfect. That’s the important thing here, that you know that, before we begin. I am not perfect. Not even close. In fact, I’m barely average, if anything. I’m just this extremely basic guy who goes pretty much unnoticed most of the time. I say “most” of the time because of course there are moments in a day when I stand out; of course there are, everybody has those. But usually, I mean, for the most part, I’m nothing special. I just go along, doing my thing, no problem.