Vanilla 6, chocolate 23, strawberry 3: Auditions
Title: Auditions
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors and Toppings: Vanilla 6 (dinner party), chocolate 23 ([in]security), strawberry 3 (stepping stones).
Word Count: 1753
Rating: PG
Summary: Olivia has dinner with Jake and Ivy.
Notes: Second leg of the cross-country marathon for Team Inconvienent Fire Drill. This is pre-dating for Olivia and Jake, as will quickly become evident.
Olivia got to the restaurant early, which was almost her downfall.
She thought too much. It was her besetting sin, and all her other besetting sins could be traced directly back to it. Talking too much, and too quickly? Paranoia? Low self-esteem? She thought too much, and it was always down to that.
Right now she was thinking too much about how Jake was late.
The maitre'd had taken pity on her and offered to seat her, but she'd declined. If she let him seat her, he'd bring her a wine menu, and she'd order a glass to settle her nerves a little, and by the time Jake actually got there one glass would probably have turned into four or five and being tipsy was not conducive to good conversation. Besides, Jake was chronically late, to everything except work (or so he said). Work made him late. Work always made him late. That was all.
...or a subway crash or the bus getting hijacked or terrorists again, again, again...
Olivia shivered, and twined her fingers in her scarf. She needed to think about something else, right now.
The bell over the door tinkled as a gust of cold air blew down the back of Olivia's neck. She twisted quickly, hoping it was Jake who'd just come in, but no, it was a girl about her own age unwinding her scarf and brushing snow off her shoulders. She headed straight for the maitre'd and plopped her hat down on his podium, revealing a messy bun of red hair already coming loose.
"Hi," she said. "I don't think he's here yet because he's never on time, but on the off chance he is, party name Foster?"
The maitre'd glanced at Olivia, and said, "No, ma'am, but the other young lady is waiting for him too."
"The other...?" The redhead turned around and saw Olivia, and said, "Oh! Okay, thanks."
Olivia managed a nervous smile as the other girl came over and dropped down next to her, making the seat cushion bounce. "Hi," the redhead said. "I'm Ivy. You must be Olivia."
She blinked, and said, "Um, yes. I'm sorry, Jake didn't..."
The redhead--Ivy--rolled her eyes. "Jake's playing God again. Don't mind him."
Olivia decided to leave that 'playing God' comment alone, because she had absolutely no idea what to do with it. "I guess. Um. He invited you along tonight, did he?" A new and unpleasant idea was beginning to creep up on the borders of her mind, and she evaluated the other girl in that worrying light.
Not quite pretty, she decided. Not bad to look at, just not pretty. Her hair and her eyes were fairly distinctive, a vibrant red and a deep sea-blue, and she had very fine bones in her hands. She gestured with them as she talked, large, sweeping movements that had little or nothing to do with whatever she was actually saying. Olivia thought that she could like this Ivy, if.
If. Yeah.
"So," she said, brightly, hoping to cover that unpleasant pause. "How do you know Jake?"
"He works for my mom," Ivy said, and a lot of things fell into place all at once for Olivia. Jake, who spoke of his boss in tones of near-worship and would never refer to her as anything other than 'Ms. Hirschfeld', was very close to her and her family. Olivia had never met any of them herself-- well, now she had, she supposed, and it only made sense that Jake would want her to meet his surrogate family; there were stepping-stones to intimacy and this was just another one of them. He was probably doing it a piece at a time, so she would be more comfortable.
That's all it was, then, consideration for her. So she wouldn't feel overwhelmed.
Not because Ivy was his girlfriend or anything.
"Olivia?" Ivy asked, looking seriously amused.
"What?" Olivia asked, and then blushed as she realized that she'd just missed a good chunk of conversation and probably at least one question. "I'm sorry, my train of thought missed the station again."
"That's okay," Ivy said, still looking amused. "My little sister does that all the time, so I'm used to it. I was asking how you know Jake."
"Oh," Olivia said, vaguely, "we're friends."
"Friends," Ivy repeated, looking a hair skeptical. Before she could say anything else, though, the door opened again with a chiming sound and a gust of wind blew Jake into the restaurant.
"Jesus Christ," he said, to no one in particular. "It is freezing out there."
Ivy grinned. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," she said, in a tone meant only for Olivia's ears. As Olivia choked back a giggle, she added, much louder, "Over here, Jake! Nice of you to join us."
He came over to the bench the two girls sat on and stopped across from them to give Ivy a one-armed hug and Olivia a smile that warmed her from the bones out. "Hey, now, your mom's the one who kept me late."
Ivy snorted. "Please. I told her to make sure you got out the door on time. It's your very own fault you were late and you know it."
Jake made a face at her, and the gesture was so brotherly that it lifted Olivia's spirits. The look he gave to Olivia afterwards lifted them even more. "Hey, Livvy. Glad to see you found the place okay."
"It wasn't very hard," she said, for lack of anything better to say. "I mean, except for the snow."
"She was here before me," Ivy said. "Before me, Jake. I think I'm gonna lose my crown as Queen of Punctuality."
"It's not punctuality if you beat everyone else there," Jake said. "Let's go sit down, shall we?" He offered his arm to Olivia, who took it with an odd, swooping feeling of déjà vu, and escorted her to the table, even pulling her chair out for her. A gentleman of the old school, was Jake. He'd told her that a lot of girls found it irritating, which she could not comprehend; to her it was comforting, protective.
It had been so very long since anyone thought her worthy of protection.
"Stop making faces at me, Ivy," Jake said.
"I'm not making faces," Ivy said, and made a face. "How come I don't get my chair pulled out?"
He rolled his eyes. "You nearly bit my nose off the last time I tried, remember? Contrary to popular belief I am capable of learning."
"Please," Ivy said. "Anyone would think you had an agenda here."
Olivia, feeling rather embarrassed and very much in the way, flipped her menu up and studied it a little more closely than it really deserved. Beyond her comforting shield of paper and ink, Jake and Ivy bickered all the way through ordering. It wasn't until the waiter took the menus away that they seemed to remember she was there.
It happened with what she was quickly learning was Ivy's characteristic abruptness. "So, Olivia," she said, breaking off mid-taunt, "how'd you meet Jake? He was not forthcoming on the subject."
Jake rolled his eyes and muttered something, but apparently didn't feel this worthy of audible comment. Olivia was grateful, anyway; he'd distracted Ivy long enough for her to get over her surprise.
"We met in church," she said. "I mean, I don't go there, but they needed someone to play the piano because their regular player was sick, and one of the ladies there had hired me for something else, so she recommended me."
Ivy blinked, and looked at Jake. "Church? I thought you were Jewish."
He stared at her. "What? Why the hell would you... no, you know what, never mind. As it happens I'm Baptist. Mostly."
"Suddenly I'm afraid," Ivy said, her voice wry.
"No, no," Jake said. "Wrong Baptists. You're thinking Southern, I'm Northern. We split during the Civil War over pesky things like slavery."
"I think you said your father was a minister?" Olivia asked.
Jake nodded, and his expression became grim for half a second. "Yeah, he was. Actually," and here he looked more cheerful, "he's the reason I still even go to church. Felt like I owed it to him, you see. So he's the reason I met you."
Ivy grinned. "Fathers are such wonderful people, aren't they? I adore mine."
Oh dear. Oh dear. This had been the wrong subject to bring up. "They are," Olivia said, uncomfortably. "Anyway. He came up to talk to me after the service, and we went to get coffee and sort of lost track of time, and the next thing I knew it was nearly dark."
"Best way to meet friends, don't you think?" Jake said, to Ivy. Olivia was surely imagining the faint emphasis he laid on 'friends.'
This time, Ivy's grin was positively unholy. "Anything you say, Jake. Anything you say. So, Olivia, where did you go to school?"
After they'd finished dinner, after the obligatory post-prandial tussle over the check with Jake (who invariably insisted on paying for everything and, as usual, won), after they'd got all bundled up, the girls said goodbye to Jake and went walking in the silent snow. It was odd, Olivia reflected, how you could meet someone and two hours later feel as if you'd known them all your life. It had been that way with Gina, and with Jake, and it wasn't quite that way with Ivy, but she could see how it could be.
"I gotta catch the bus," Ivy said, pausing at the covered bus stop. "You taking the subway?"
"Yes," Olivia said, and added, "Hey, what are you doing tomorrow? Can we get coffee?"
The other girl broke into a smile. "Absolutely. I like you, you know. Jake has good taste."
Olivia flushed. "Yes, well, we're only friends."
Ivy's smile took on a tinge of the unholy. "Anything you say, Olivia. Anything you say."
Time to exit gracefully, before this conversation went places she'd only dared dream about. "Right, well. It was nice to meet you, Ivy." She didn't leave, though, just stood there in the falling snow with the feeling that something had been unsaid. All those questions, all night long, and Ivy surely knew everything about her that she was willing to share. What could she possibly have not said? Thank you for your consideration.
"That felt like an audition," she thought, and was surprised when she said it out loud.
Ivy, who had turned to face the street, twisted sharply to look at her. "Well," she said, after a long moment of silence, "it was."
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors and Toppings: Vanilla 6 (dinner party), chocolate 23 ([in]security), strawberry 3 (stepping stones).
Word Count: 1753
Rating: PG
Summary: Olivia has dinner with Jake and Ivy.
Notes: Second leg of the cross-country marathon for Team Inconvienent Fire Drill. This is pre-dating for Olivia and Jake, as will quickly become evident.
Olivia got to the restaurant early, which was almost her downfall.
She thought too much. It was her besetting sin, and all her other besetting sins could be traced directly back to it. Talking too much, and too quickly? Paranoia? Low self-esteem? She thought too much, and it was always down to that.
Right now she was thinking too much about how Jake was late.
The maitre'd had taken pity on her and offered to seat her, but she'd declined. If she let him seat her, he'd bring her a wine menu, and she'd order a glass to settle her nerves a little, and by the time Jake actually got there one glass would probably have turned into four or five and being tipsy was not conducive to good conversation. Besides, Jake was chronically late, to everything except work (or so he said). Work made him late. Work always made him late. That was all.
...or a subway crash or the bus getting hijacked or terrorists again, again, again...
Olivia shivered, and twined her fingers in her scarf. She needed to think about something else, right now.
The bell over the door tinkled as a gust of cold air blew down the back of Olivia's neck. She twisted quickly, hoping it was Jake who'd just come in, but no, it was a girl about her own age unwinding her scarf and brushing snow off her shoulders. She headed straight for the maitre'd and plopped her hat down on his podium, revealing a messy bun of red hair already coming loose.
"Hi," she said. "I don't think he's here yet because he's never on time, but on the off chance he is, party name Foster?"
The maitre'd glanced at Olivia, and said, "No, ma'am, but the other young lady is waiting for him too."
"The other...?" The redhead turned around and saw Olivia, and said, "Oh! Okay, thanks."
Olivia managed a nervous smile as the other girl came over and dropped down next to her, making the seat cushion bounce. "Hi," the redhead said. "I'm Ivy. You must be Olivia."
She blinked, and said, "Um, yes. I'm sorry, Jake didn't..."
The redhead--Ivy--rolled her eyes. "Jake's playing God again. Don't mind him."
Olivia decided to leave that 'playing God' comment alone, because she had absolutely no idea what to do with it. "I guess. Um. He invited you along tonight, did he?" A new and unpleasant idea was beginning to creep up on the borders of her mind, and she evaluated the other girl in that worrying light.
Not quite pretty, she decided. Not bad to look at, just not pretty. Her hair and her eyes were fairly distinctive, a vibrant red and a deep sea-blue, and she had very fine bones in her hands. She gestured with them as she talked, large, sweeping movements that had little or nothing to do with whatever she was actually saying. Olivia thought that she could like this Ivy, if.
If. Yeah.
"So," she said, brightly, hoping to cover that unpleasant pause. "How do you know Jake?"
"He works for my mom," Ivy said, and a lot of things fell into place all at once for Olivia. Jake, who spoke of his boss in tones of near-worship and would never refer to her as anything other than 'Ms. Hirschfeld', was very close to her and her family. Olivia had never met any of them herself-- well, now she had, she supposed, and it only made sense that Jake would want her to meet his surrogate family; there were stepping-stones to intimacy and this was just another one of them. He was probably doing it a piece at a time, so she would be more comfortable.
That's all it was, then, consideration for her. So she wouldn't feel overwhelmed.
Not because Ivy was his girlfriend or anything.
"Olivia?" Ivy asked, looking seriously amused.
"What?" Olivia asked, and then blushed as she realized that she'd just missed a good chunk of conversation and probably at least one question. "I'm sorry, my train of thought missed the station again."
"That's okay," Ivy said, still looking amused. "My little sister does that all the time, so I'm used to it. I was asking how you know Jake."
"Oh," Olivia said, vaguely, "we're friends."
"Friends," Ivy repeated, looking a hair skeptical. Before she could say anything else, though, the door opened again with a chiming sound and a gust of wind blew Jake into the restaurant.
"Jesus Christ," he said, to no one in particular. "It is freezing out there."
Ivy grinned. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," she said, in a tone meant only for Olivia's ears. As Olivia choked back a giggle, she added, much louder, "Over here, Jake! Nice of you to join us."
He came over to the bench the two girls sat on and stopped across from them to give Ivy a one-armed hug and Olivia a smile that warmed her from the bones out. "Hey, now, your mom's the one who kept me late."
Ivy snorted. "Please. I told her to make sure you got out the door on time. It's your very own fault you were late and you know it."
Jake made a face at her, and the gesture was so brotherly that it lifted Olivia's spirits. The look he gave to Olivia afterwards lifted them even more. "Hey, Livvy. Glad to see you found the place okay."
"It wasn't very hard," she said, for lack of anything better to say. "I mean, except for the snow."
"She was here before me," Ivy said. "Before me, Jake. I think I'm gonna lose my crown as Queen of Punctuality."
"It's not punctuality if you beat everyone else there," Jake said. "Let's go sit down, shall we?" He offered his arm to Olivia, who took it with an odd, swooping feeling of déjà vu, and escorted her to the table, even pulling her chair out for her. A gentleman of the old school, was Jake. He'd told her that a lot of girls found it irritating, which she could not comprehend; to her it was comforting, protective.
It had been so very long since anyone thought her worthy of protection.
"Stop making faces at me, Ivy," Jake said.
"I'm not making faces," Ivy said, and made a face. "How come I don't get my chair pulled out?"
He rolled his eyes. "You nearly bit my nose off the last time I tried, remember? Contrary to popular belief I am capable of learning."
"Please," Ivy said. "Anyone would think you had an agenda here."
Olivia, feeling rather embarrassed and very much in the way, flipped her menu up and studied it a little more closely than it really deserved. Beyond her comforting shield of paper and ink, Jake and Ivy bickered all the way through ordering. It wasn't until the waiter took the menus away that they seemed to remember she was there.
It happened with what she was quickly learning was Ivy's characteristic abruptness. "So, Olivia," she said, breaking off mid-taunt, "how'd you meet Jake? He was not forthcoming on the subject."
Jake rolled his eyes and muttered something, but apparently didn't feel this worthy of audible comment. Olivia was grateful, anyway; he'd distracted Ivy long enough for her to get over her surprise.
"We met in church," she said. "I mean, I don't go there, but they needed someone to play the piano because their regular player was sick, and one of the ladies there had hired me for something else, so she recommended me."
Ivy blinked, and looked at Jake. "Church? I thought you were Jewish."
He stared at her. "What? Why the hell would you... no, you know what, never mind. As it happens I'm Baptist. Mostly."
"Suddenly I'm afraid," Ivy said, her voice wry.
"No, no," Jake said. "Wrong Baptists. You're thinking Southern, I'm Northern. We split during the Civil War over pesky things like slavery."
"I think you said your father was a minister?" Olivia asked.
Jake nodded, and his expression became grim for half a second. "Yeah, he was. Actually," and here he looked more cheerful, "he's the reason I still even go to church. Felt like I owed it to him, you see. So he's the reason I met you."
Ivy grinned. "Fathers are such wonderful people, aren't they? I adore mine."
Oh dear. Oh dear. This had been the wrong subject to bring up. "They are," Olivia said, uncomfortably. "Anyway. He came up to talk to me after the service, and we went to get coffee and sort of lost track of time, and the next thing I knew it was nearly dark."
"Best way to meet friends, don't you think?" Jake said, to Ivy. Olivia was surely imagining the faint emphasis he laid on 'friends.'
This time, Ivy's grin was positively unholy. "Anything you say, Jake. Anything you say. So, Olivia, where did you go to school?"
After they'd finished dinner, after the obligatory post-prandial tussle over the check with Jake (who invariably insisted on paying for everything and, as usual, won), after they'd got all bundled up, the girls said goodbye to Jake and went walking in the silent snow. It was odd, Olivia reflected, how you could meet someone and two hours later feel as if you'd known them all your life. It had been that way with Gina, and with Jake, and it wasn't quite that way with Ivy, but she could see how it could be.
"I gotta catch the bus," Ivy said, pausing at the covered bus stop. "You taking the subway?"
"Yes," Olivia said, and added, "Hey, what are you doing tomorrow? Can we get coffee?"
The other girl broke into a smile. "Absolutely. I like you, you know. Jake has good taste."
Olivia flushed. "Yes, well, we're only friends."
Ivy's smile took on a tinge of the unholy. "Anything you say, Olivia. Anything you say."
Time to exit gracefully, before this conversation went places she'd only dared dream about. "Right, well. It was nice to meet you, Ivy." She didn't leave, though, just stood there in the falling snow with the feeling that something had been unsaid. All those questions, all night long, and Ivy surely knew everything about her that she was willing to share. What could she possibly have not said? Thank you for your consideration.
"That felt like an audition," she thought, and was surprised when she said it out loud.
Ivy, who had turned to face the street, twisted sharply to look at her. "Well," she said, after a long moment of silence, "it was."