Chapter Six – A Spoonful of Sugar
For the rest of the evening my brain short-circuited. I watched as Rory and Tristan laughed and interacted with a detached curiosity that I found oddly disturbing the next day. I remember very little of the movies that we apparently watched; but I seem to remember vividly, the interactions of the two friends in Technicolor detail.
By the time the marathon was over, I realized that I had to ask her if she wanted to come to Italy with me, and by default Tristan had to be invited as well. Hooray. And since they both accepted, I now have to spend three days in one of the most beautiful places on earth with him. Can I say weird? I went home that morning in a daze that was a combination of lack of sleep and the surrealism of the situation that I had just experienced.
It was afternoon by the time I arrived at the office the next day. Rory and I had arranged that our activities wouldn't start until evening because of the lack of sleep the night before. I had just composed and sent off an email to Honor with the changes in numbers when Rory walked into my office dressed for the theatre.
Oh crap. I though. Mary Poppins night. This was the night I was dreading beyond all others. There were few things I would rather not do. This was certainly more Finn's bag than mine but since this was a "learning experience" and I was supposed to be the teacher; I, by default had to be the one attending the "class".
I guess it was a good thing I had dressed up for the office that afternoon seeing as it meant that I didn't have to change my clothes before leaving. I really didn't want to put any more effort into this portion of our "leaning experience" than I already was.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked me.
"Yes. I just need to send this email to Honor to let her know that Tristan is coming with us to Rome." Remembering the blond I looked up at her. "By the way, where is Prince Charming tonight?"
She rolled her eyes. "Tristan is otherwise occupied tonight. Anyways, when I asked if he wanted to come he told me he would rather have his eyes poked out."
I chuckled silently. That sounded very similar to what I was feeling and I congratulated him for saying it, even if it did put him in the proverbial doghouse. He was probably off at some bar or another with friends. That sounded like something that was much more enjoyable and I loathed him for even being able to do that, even though I was with the girl.
I rose from my chair and made my way over to where she stood by the door. "Have you eaten yet?" I asked her.
"No. I thought we could grab something after. Besides, I was too excited to eat." She said bouncing a little.
"You're really looking forward to this aren't you?" I asked amused.
"Are you kidding? I love musicals. Once my mom took me to New York to see Tony Kushner's musical and it was the most amazing thing ever. So, ever since, I've been in love with musicals. Plus," she added with a shrug. "It's Disney, and everything Disney is awesome."
I laughed outright at this. "Yours is such a happy disposition Ace, but I'm sorry to say that I am not such a huge fan of musicals as you." She shot an inquisitive glance at me and I winced. "I'm actually probably just as fond of them as your friend Tristan is."
She gave me a blank stare. "And you agreed to come with me, why?"
"Because I like to spend time with you. And I owe you this. You own my time for the week and for that reason I was obligated to agree regardless or not if I wanted to go. Unfortunately for me, Sophie decided to torture me in giving you that article; but since she did, I made a deal with myself to go through the evening with the best attitude I could. So I'm happy," I said forcing a big phoney smile on my face.
That made her laugh. "Sophie really is out to get you isn't she?"
I grimaced. "I think it may have something to do with the fact that I've been bugging her about her relationship with Finn ever since I guessed, correctly might I add, that they had slept together."
Rory scoffed. "That doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out. I mean, hello, Finn obviously has the biggest thing for her, and I only saw them together for fifteen minutes. Plus, there was no sexual tension. So the logical deduction would be that they are in some sort of relationship. And you, having previous knowledge of both of their feelings would notice those things. I mean, it's our job," she said with a blush.
That comment made me laugh because of the absolute truth of the statement. It was our job to see things like that.
"Shall we go my lady?" I asked gallantly offering my arm.
"Of course, kind sir. Just remember," she said with an amused twinkle in her eyes, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way," she sang albeit slightly off tune.
I groaned. "Please don't remind me. You are already making me sit through the real thing. I don't need a preview."
To that, she stuck out her tongue and poked me in the ribs.
"Ow! Be nice!" I yelped.
She batted her eyelashes innocently at me. "What did I do?" she asked with an angelic look on her face.
I just shook my head and led her out of the office to my car. Torture time. I thought to myself. If I was lucky, I would be able to catch up on some sleep as long as Rory didn't notice. But seeing as it was Rory who I had named Ace Reporter, there was a fat chance of that happening. I sighed and resigned myself to an evening of Disney happiness.
Three hours later I found myself walking out of the theatre with my arm thrown casually over Rory's shoulder while she berated me for falling asleep during the musical. I yawned internally just thinking about the horror of a stage production that we had just seen. I don't know how Sophie thought I would be any help to Rory whatsoever in writing this piece. She seemed more than capable of critiquing and praising it than I did.
I led her toward my car. "Where would you like to eat?" I asked as I opened her door.
She got into the car and waited till I had climbed in as well before replying, "It's a surprise. I'll give you directions but I'm not telling you where we're going until we get there." She flashed me a wicked grin.
I groaned internally. This was probably some form of perverted payback for attempting to fall asleep during Mary Poppins. Reluctantly, I started the engine and followed her first driving direction. Head North. What kind of directive was that? Regardless, I followed her directions even when I started seeing landmarks twice.
When I finally parked the car we had driven out of the city entirely and I had no idea where we were at all.
"You're seriously going to tell me that you made me drive around in circles for half an hour before making me drive an hour outside of London for food?" I asked incredulously.
She giggled. "Well, the driving around in circles was purely by accident. This drive however, was not "just for food" as you put it. Shame on you for that. You'll learn," she assured me. And we're not just anywhere," she continued. "We're in Oxford."
My mouth dropped open. "You made me drive all the way to Oxford for dinner? How the hell did you get me here without seeing any signs?"
Rory was grinning like the cat that got the cream. "I have my ways," she said mysteriously climbing out of the car. "Follow me," she called. "Unless of course, you came all this way to sulk in your car? Because the food is this way." She walked away from the car towards a small red-brick building with a white awning.
I sighed and followed her retreating figure. There really wasn't much else I could do. Unless of course I wanted to drive back to London alone and on an empty stomach; which was not something I wanted to do at all.
When I stepped into the small restaurant my nose was immediately filled with scents that made my mouth water.
I was just about ask Rory what we were waiting for, when a short plump woman hurried out of the kitchen and embraced Rory.
"Rory!" she exclaimed. "We weren't expecting you at this time of year! Aren't you staying in London this summer at your grandfather's apartment?" she woman questioned.
Rory just laughed. "I am staying in London, but I was at the theatre tonight with Logan and I had a craving for your cooking!"
The woman beamed. "Then I will cook for you, love. Now sit yourself down and I'll bring something out for you to start." She then turned to me. "Don't think I've forgotten you," she said. "I'll get to you after I bring some food out for you both." And with that she bustled off to the kitchen to start concocting something for us to eat.
"And that was?" I asked.
She laughed. "That's Annie," she said. "I eat here all the time and she's become somewhat of a mother figure for me. It also helps that she's an awesome cook and this place is just around the corner from my place here. She keeps me alive during the school year. Good food and even better coffee."
After that, everything else made sense. Although, it still didn't quite explain why I had to drive out here with no warning and since it was already past ten in the evening, I had no idea where we were going to stay for the night either. I decided to just forget about it for the time being. Rory had planned this so far and I was still following her lead.
When we finished eating, I finally brought up the question that had been plaguing me all evening.
"Hey Ace? Where are we going now? Because as lively as I seem I don't think I'm in the right frame of mind to drive back to London in the rain at one thirty in the morning."
She gave me a weird look. "Who said anything about driving back to London?"
"Well, seeing as I live in London and so do you for that matter, the logical deduction would be that we need someplace to sleep and that seems to be an hour away at the moment."
"Did you totally miss the fact that I said I go to school here? Therefore that means I generally need somewhere to live. Granted, it's not as big as the London apartment but it can house two for the night."
It was my turn to look at her with a weird look. "If you have an off campus apartment, why didn't you sub-let it for the summer if you knew you weren't going to be staying there?" I asked.
"What makes you think I didn't sub-let it?" she asked me curiously.
"Well, generally when you have other people living in your apartment you can't live there as well." I said, talking slowly.
She grinned at that. "So that's what's bothering you! Don't worry about it. The tenants don't move in till next week so technically, the place is still mine."
I just shook my head, slightly exasperated. She couldn't have told me that earlier could she? Anyways, by this point I was almost ready to crash anywhere. After the movie night last night and now Mary Poppins and driving to Oxford in the rain, I was ready to crash.
"So how far away exactly is your apartment?" I asked jogging to the car as not to be drenched completely by the rain.
"It's literally just around the corner, but we should probably move the car so that it's parked in my space by the building." I nodded, putting the car in gear. I pulled out of the spot and drove as directed to her apartment.
When we arrived in the apartment, I was directed to the couch with an armful of blankets and pillows and by the time I had flopped down on said bedding I was already asleep.
Okay, so again I decided to forgo putting two chapters into one because the next one wont write. Possibly because I have no idea how to conduct an interview for a newspaper. But no matter, I'm sure I'll figure something out. So! Happiness comes soon in the form of ITALY!! Yays! What kind of drama will sprout up in Bella Roma? Teehee… I am so mean. Well, I am totally planning on putting Jake in the next chapter for my best friend Dky. Although she hates the fact that I'm so bored that I've started writing fanfiction, she adores the fact that I've created her a character. And he is rather hot. I mean, what's better than an emo, music loving Italian? I'm not exactly sure that he's my type but he sounds pretty damn fine. Well, happy reading! I'm going to now bug my muses and try to get them to give me something other than utter crap. But then again, I'm not exactly sure how the write the bloody interview…
SingingSailor