Rebecca Gilman's "Boy Gets Girl" I Quiz

Answer: beer

They'd agreed to meet for drinks and when Theresa arrived, Tony went to get her a beer. He returned with a Miller High Life, about which she made a joke. Tony missed the joke completely, though, in one of many awkward moments in the first meeting. However, Theresa did agree to meet Tony again on Saturday night for dinner.

Answer: no

Tony leaned in for one but Theresa extended her hand to shake goodbye instead. This was an early indication of Tony's misunderstanding of boundaries and the nature of Theresa's interest.

Answer: flowers

Her boss asked about them, so she had to tell him a bit about the date. Then Tony called to arrange their Saturday dinner and Theresa's boss chided her for not obliging Tony's desire to be "gallant."

Answer: no

Tony assured her that he did, though, and told her he thought one person in a couple should be able to cook. When he noted that "more and more women don't cook these days," Theresa countered that "more and more women have other things to do these days." This led to Tony's classically awkward query, "So are you like a, feminist?"

Answer: intimacy

After Theresa very clearly told him she didn't like him and didn't want to be friends, Tony concluded that she was afraid of intimacy and was one of those "women who really throw themselves into their work [because] they're afraid of their own sexual desires or sexual powers." Theresa assured him that was not the case, but Tony wouldn't let it go.

After he'd finally left, Theresa made sure her assistant knew to never let anyone up to see her without her explicit permission.

Answer: women's bodies

He told Theresa in their interview that he made movies based around women with "gigantic breasts." Theresa questioned the merits of a career making "movies [that] encourage men to objectify women" but Les countered that his movies "celebrate" women.

Answer: at work

She was already disturbed that he'd gotten her unlisted home phone number, but then he called as soon as she turned the light on in her apartment and seemed to know she was lying about where she'd been. Theresa suspected Tony was following her, and he persisted in sending her flowers even though she'd expressly asked her not to! If her alarm bells hadn't been going off before, they definitely were now.

Answer: cook her dinner

She ignored the first message but when he called right back to ask if she was sleeping with someone else she lost control and picked up the phone, yelling at him to stop calling her. Then she pulled the phone cord out of the wall and, when he cell started to ring, turned that off as well.

She turned off all her lights, blocked the door with a chair and armed herself with a kitchen knife before resuming her work. Theresa obviously felt concern for her safety since Tony so clearly didn't understand her disinterest and what should have been the social boundaries between them.

Answer: she should call the police

When he couldn't get through on her home or cell phones, Tony called Theresa's work number and left 20 messages that escalated in anger. He was upset that she'd been home screening his calls and professed a desire to hurt her and make her suffer as he had. Theresa asked Mercer if he thought she should be scared and he told her she should call the police.

Answer: take self-defense course

Theresa was understandably displeased with the idea of having to restructure her life because of Tony's harassment. She particularly didn't want to change her name because she was a writer and her name had professional recognition. She also pointed out that she'd had an unlisted phone number but Tony had gotten it anyway. Beck wasn't very reassuring about how much help the justice system was going to be, though, pointing out that all they could do was take out a restraining order.

When Theresa asked what was the worst that could happen, Beck tried to avoid answering.

Theresa persisted, asking if she'd seen people killed, and Detective Beck confirmed, "I've seen that." Theresa correctly deduced, though, that murder was not the "worst thing" Detective Beck had seen result from stalking situations, which was understandably unsettling!

Answer: he slept around

Les told Theresa that Kathy had warned him that she'd leave him if he didn't stop, but he didn't believe her. The fact that she had "stuck to her guns" apparently earned his eternal respect. Theresa was annoyed, though, and saw Les as just another man who didn't "take women seriously" and complained to him that, "when a woman talks, a man just sees her mouth moving."

Answer: her name

Her name was Deena Delite, which Les proclaimed "cheap." He said he didn't have a new name in mind, but that he usually thought of them while mid-coitus with the lucky woman. Theresa cut the interview short when Les started to riff on what exactly he found inspirational about that particular situation.

Answer: yes

Mercer said he wanted to write an article "about Tony and Theresa. And why the boy thinks he should get the girl, and why the girl thinks she's something to get got." Howard clearly didn't quite understand what Mercer was getting at with it, but gave the okay on the idea.

Answer: The Yankees

Howard could see from Theresa's article on Les Kennkat that she didn't like writing about stuff she didn't respect. Howard said they'd "sit down and decide on a new direction" and Theresa said she wanted to write about the Yankees because they were "the only good thing in [her] life" at that point.

Answer: letter

Theresa got a letter from Tony in which he threatened to rape and sodomize her. Mercer called Detective Beck and offered to let Theresa sleep at his home (while assuring her he was married). Theresa was terrified and took out some of her anger on Mercer for thinking to write an article about her predicament, telling him, "You don't get to make something theoretical out of my life. [...] I'm not theoretical. I'm real."