Day 8: 15,110 Words

I have really enjoyed writing 1,520 words per day instead of 2,000. I'm grateful that I got my writing done today, really! It was of course accomplished with plenty of help from a certain line of summer sips that Indigo drew our attention to. 

Today I wrote about Isla going to see a stage adaptation of Portman's Complaint (which you may remember from last year's novel!) with her friends from the Regency Movie Club. Of course, Theo is the star of the show. This is what happened just before the performance, with Isla sitting in the front row of the theatre.

“Mary!” Isla hissed. “That jerk from the panel is in the play!”

“I thought you would be excited to see him!” Mary replied innocently. “Isn’t it cool to say that you know one of the actors?”

“It would be if he wasn’t a pretentious dick!” Isla said as angrily as she could in a whisper. 

“That’s not the kind of thing you’re attracted to?” Dwayne asked.

Isla couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Obviously not!” she retorted.

“I thought that you two had a lot of chemistry,” Chae-Won piped up. 

“Chemistry?” Isla wheeled around to face Chae-Won, who was on her other side. “How could we have chemistry? We didn’t talk!”

“His eyes did plenty of talking,” Chae-Won grinned.

“His eyes did plenty of rolling,” Isla responded icily.

“His eyes did plenty of swooning,” Lisa added.

“Not you too, Lisa!” Isla cried, shooting Lisa a look of betrayal.

“We call it like we see it,” Dwayne said, unhelpfully.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. He seemed to hate every second that he was there. He couldn’t leave quick enough,” Isla complained.

“It sure was nice watching him go,” Lisa said, earning nods from everyone in the party.

“He was clearly trying to impress you with all those big words,” Mary said. “I don’t know why she had to talk about theatrical linimility so much, though.”

“Liminality,” Isla corrected. She couldn’t help it. She sighed at the self-satisfied faces that were looking back at her.

“See?” Mary said. 

“No!” Isla almost shouted, “I do not see!”

Mary shrugged her shoulders.

“From here on out I’m banning any viewings of Pride and Prejudice in the Regency Movie Club,” Isla said decisively. “You guys are confusing Theo with Mr. Darcy. Sometimes men are just unpleasant. They usually are, in fact.”

“Mmhmm,” Mary said incredulously. 

Isla just sighed. There was no point in fighting them anymore.

Their conversation was cut short by the lights in the theatre dimming. 

“Thank god,” Isla thought to herself. But then she remembered that she was going to be treated to a multiple hours long performance by Theo, and she sunk even further into her seat.

Of course, once the play started she was immediately engrossed despite the vow she had made minutes before. Theo’s subtle and vulnerable performance made her see him in an entirely different light than she had seen him when he had deemed the Regency Movie Club not handsome enough to tempt him. She knew that he was an actor, of course, and it was their job to take on other people’s lives and personalities convincingly. How could this unpleasant, overconfident, and judgy person even come to embody the confused, broken-hearted, and closeted Abe?

After the performance, Isla’s group was standing in the large, ornate theatre atrium, discussing the play. Much to Isla’s surprise—but not anyone else’s, based on their earlier conversation—Theo came running out, to greet them. He was still wearing his stage make-up but had put on a Liverpool F.C. sweatshirt over his costume.

“I’m glad I caught you before you left,” he said, breathing heavily from the exertion.

Isla was so puzzled, she couldn’t do anything except look at Theo gormlessly. This gave a fly the opportunity to fly into her mouth, which caused her to sputter and cough in a decidedly unappealing manner. It was decidedly Kafkaesque. Or was it? She would have been firmer in her decision that it was Kafkaesque if she had taken the 20^th century Jewish literature that was offered at her university. 

“That behaviour aside,” Mary said, rolling her eyes at Isla, “why are you glad that you have caught up to us?”

“A local winery is hosting a post-show cocktail party tonight and I was hoping that all of you would attend as my guests. Since you were so gracious to host me as a guest last week,” Theo said. “I guess the winery wants to promote their three ready to drink signature summer sips.”

While Isla was once again extremely surprised—by both the invitation and his casual use of the term “summer sip,” which somehow didn’t have any hint of irony—she managed to keep her mouth shut this time. 

“We would love to attend,” Chae-Won said rather quickly. “All of us,” she added, emphasizing the word “all” and looking pointedly at Isla.  

She probably spoke so fast and so authoritatively so as to not give Isla an opportunity to decline the invitation. Which she surely would have. Isla was tempted by the summer sips, of course. And attending a fancy cast party thrown by a local winery. Isla thought that she might as well go along with it, so she wordlessly nodded.

“It’s in the garden next door. I’ll see you there, after I’ve changed,” Theo said as he walked towards the backstage area.  

Isla was completely and totally perplexed. The evening was clearly not going at all the way that she had expected it to.

* * *

The garden in the restaurant adjacent to the Royal George Theatre was already set up for the party when the Regency Movie Club arrived. The party organizers had set up antique furniture, fairy lights, bunting with the winery logo, and numerous high circular tables with light pink tablecloths and white peonies in mason jars on top. The winery had put up large posters to advertise the two signature ready to drink summer sips: Gin FIZZ-tival and Dip a Moji-TOE in.

Isla was certainly ready to dip more than a toe in. This was definitely a cooler party than what Isla was used to attending. 

The five members of her group approached one of the barrels that had been set up as a bar. Upon closer inspection of the cocktail bottle, she found that the gin fizz did not actually contain any gin, and the mojito did not contain any rum. An odd choice, to be sure, but none of them were going to turn down a free beverage. 

Isla ordered the Dip a Moji-TOE In cocktail, even though she did not like the mental image of mixing a cocktail with feet. The description was evocative: 

“Saturday afternoon, you’re strolling in the neighbourhood. You notice your friends, who are having a picnic. They offer you a drink. Is it too early? Not today! It’s fruity as you please—it tastes like rum, strawberry, lime and mint. It tastes… like the beginning of a good night.”

The label also boasted natural notes of rum, strawberry, lime, and mint. Isla wondered how something could have natural notes of rum without containing any rum, but she decided that she should stop wondering and start drinking instead.