IC CONTACT.

[osreborn]

(555 - 888 - 3010)

"Norman Osborn. If you're calling about a job interview, hang up now and call [ business phone number ]. Otherwise stay on the line and leave a message. I'll get back to you when I can."

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Comments

[enigmaestro]

So I'll take that as a resounding no. And I'm not the one being questioned now, am I?

Any girlfriends, of your youth?

... Or boyfriends?

[osreborn]

I don't answer questions about my personal life.

[enigmaestro]

College, then? Probably college, you would have had better access to resources, would've founded your identity as an intellectual in an appreciative atmosphere.

Was it a professor, then? Your mentor?

[osreborn]

Treading dangerous ground.

I said I wouldn't answer.

[enigmaestro]

I hope you weren't taken advantage of, Norman.

That would be rather embarrassing, wouldn't it?

[osreborn]

Indeed. It would be.

If you must know, I did have a girlfriend.

[enigmaestro]

Oh? Did she know that she was your girlfriend?

[osreborn]

We got married.

[enigmaestro]

To your first girlfriend? Married?

Goodness, Norman, I mistook you for the noncommittal type. Or at least the experimental.

[osreborn]

There's something to be said for knowing what you want.

[enigmaestro]

I prefer to test the waters, really. Sample about.

[osreborn]

Of course you would.

[enigmaestro]

And what is that supposed to imply? Exactly?

[osreborn]

Good question.

What do you think?

[enigmaestro]

I'm not that fickle. I've been in committed relationships, too!

[osreborn]

Oh, good.

Restlessness can be a destructive quality when left unchecked.

[enigmaestro]

And who's to check it? You, with your own qualities so checkered?

[osreborn]

Why not?

[enigmaestro]

Come now, Norman, you're not my keeper.

[osreborn]

[ A beat. ]

Falsehood.

[enigmaestro]

Norman, you should know that isn't cute. When other people do it.

You're not my keeper, you're my opponent. On a good day. You're my favorite chess piece otherwise!

[osreborn]

Oh, I don't know. There's a certain charm to it in tasteful doses.

[ AKA, once. ]

I'm your opponent when I'm not your predator.

[enigmaestro]

As if this is a game of teeth? I'm no one's prey, no one's. Have I not proven my elusiveness? My stamina? Have I not recovered every single time?

[osreborn]

Maybe I simply haven't finished devouring you yet.

[enigmaestro]

You ought to be careful. I have poison for you, as well.