The day after the Improv show they all came together to take down everything that had built up from years in the theatre space. Everyone threw themselves right into the work in order to avoid any emotion. The troupe trickled in through the hour, as punctuality had never been their strong suite.
She and IL had bonded over a trip to the capitol for coffee, and now everyone was in full on "what do we do?" mode. At one point IL sent her and Levi to their house about a mile away to pick up and drop off a load.
He was mostly quiet in the car, and she immediately became worried about how if they had nothing to talk about now, how badly the future date would be.
"Thanks for letting me kidnap your wife for some girl time this morning. It was nice, I think we both needed it."
"Both of you are amazing women, you don't deserve to be treated like that."
Awesome. Of course he knew too. How great was this pity date going to be? "Thanks." She left it at that, and thankfully he didn't pursue it. Instead they talked about how grateful they were that many people showed up to help out instead of leaving it all to IL. It was a short drive to the house and they unloaded and he said he'd take his own car back to the space so they would have another vehicle to throw things into.
She stepped back into the space and said "You didn't want him back, did you IL?" with a smile. IL laughed and said "For real, where is he?"
"Waiting in my apartment." They both laughed, and she confirmed he had been behind her with their own car.
They all gathered around near the end and went through all the memory boards for each round of shows that they performed. Because it was Improv and everything lived and died on the stage, it was hard remembering where certain handwritten lines had come from, or even who had said them.
They went to a local diner for food and more company and reminiscing. The conversation, for once, didn't completely surround the troupe and what they had done onstage. She found herself immersed and finally engaging in that much needed conversation she had been missing the last few weeks. They joked, they made plans, everything felt effortless...which almost made it even more sad. Why couldn't it have been like this the whole time?
They took the party from the diner to the bar, with she and SD hitching a ride with Levi in his topless VW Convertible. As she got in the back she realized this is what he would be picking her up in a few days in the future. She hoped it was going to be a night free of precipitation.
She went home and started reading Levi's book so she had something to talk about during the date.
