Love, Take One

Scene 15

Eleanor and Bo were Christmas shopping. Bo really didn't have anyone to buy for but Eleanor's family was vast, and while she'd already ordered a lot online it just wasn't Christmas without the fight over the last bath bomb hamper. Eleanor lived for waiting in line and finding the perfect bow to compliment her handmade wrapping paper. The holidays were her Disneyland. And it was Bo's duty as her friend to be her bag carrier and trusted second opinion. After a meltdown in the perfume aisle, though, she became a listening ear.

"Charlie's meeting my family," Eleanor explained. "He's coming down for Christmas. I want everything to be perfect."

"And Chanel No5 is the way to do that?" Bo took the bottle from her grasp and placed it back on the counter. "Don't make yourself poor. They're going to love him."

"I guess," she replied. "I was more excited about it when he was on course for a doctorate, though. Now I'll be introducing him as store assistant and one fourth of the indie rock sensation Youth Parade."

"You'll be introducing him as your boyfriend," Bo said firmly, not quite recognizing her friend. "Ellie, you're starting to sound like a snob."

With a sigh, Eleanor sprayed perfume onto a stick of cardboard and waved it swiftly, sighing, "I really don't mean to."

"You love him so much, I've seen it. A lot. What does it really matter whether he's a doctor or drummer?"

"It matters to my parents," Eleanor argued, dropping the stick onto the counter after a sniff. "It matters to our future. It matters if he's going to be able to contribute or provide or whether he'll resent me if I earn more than him. I mean, what if we were to have—"

"Stop." Bo stepped closer. "What's brought this on?"

She shook her head but replied, "Remember how my dad reacted to Jacey Tanner in tenth grade?"

"Jacey Tanner knew four chords on a borrowed guitar. He was not a musician. And he was rude with really bad hair. Charlie is amazing. They're worlds apart. Stop worrying, will you?"

"You're right." She took a dramatic breath in and out, smiled gratefully at her unpaid counselor, then reached for the counter. "But I'm still getting the Chanel."

When the pair was finally all shopped out Eleanor was called to drop off a new shirt for Charlie. He was about to play a gig but he'd had to work late and hadn't had time to go home to change. Bo was indifferent about making the stop on the way home until the stop turned out to be Roderick's uncle's bar.

When they arrived, Bo told Eleanor that she'd wait in the car.

"Because of Xander?"

"Yeah," she lied. Never would she have thought her spectacular break-up with her ex could come in so useful.

With the window rolled up she waited for her friend. She couldn't say why she'd been avoiding Roderick. His offer was decent. A friendship was not an absurd proposal and the last thing she wanted was to cut him out of her life. She did want some space to get over him, though, to exhaust her embarrassment in private rather than in his presence. She was not an actor and could not pretend she was wholly accepting of their changed relationship. At least, not well and not yet.

He'd tried to contact her but she'd "been busy." Her replies to his text messages had been short and to the point. Still polite, but without their usual banter. It was a difficult task to keep her distance. It went against everything she wanted, but it was probably what she needed.

It was not what Roderick needed, apparently.

She heard his voice before she saw him, walking to the car with Eleanor and chatting casually. Eleanor hadn't known the embarrassment Bo had delivered to herself the last evening they'd spent with each other. She didn't know the new terms of Bo's and Roderick's relationship and how much it bothered her friend. Had Bo been forthcoming, Eleanor would not have subjected her to this.