Solitary Man

Roles

• Ben Kalmen - Senior (>50), Male

About this piece

Ben Kalmen's college story

Summary

Ben Kalman is approaching 60. He has health problems, he is divorced and he has lost a lot of money doing shady deals with his former business, car dealerships. Now he is dating a woman, Jordan, because of her father's business connections. As a favor to his girlfriend, he escorts her daughter Allyson to a college interview as he happens to know the dean. There, he hangs out with Daniel Cheston, who gives them a tour of the campus. Cheston is an insecure freshman who got dumped by his girlfriend. Ben and Cheston go to a party and Ben notices him eyeing a girl. As he doesn't have the courage to go talk to her, Ben tells him this story that happened to him when he was in college. He tells Cheston he used to be intimidated by girls too and in particular he liked this girl who was in one of his classes, Jennifer Angel. He didn't have the courage to talk to her until one day as he was tending a bar he heard a story from a guy of squash team who had had sex with Jennifer. He tells him he had asked him for some Jack as his back was hurting because the previous night he had sex with her so hard that his bed broke and he twisted his back. Ben tells him that story freed him to talk to her, knowing how she wanted it...the next week it his bed that was almost broken...

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