Variations on a Theme [Closed] - Printable Version
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RE: Variations on a Theme [Closed] - saronym - 06-28-2017
Owen was pleased with the way she reacted to him. It seemed as if the first date jitters, as he called them, had faded into a more easy comfort with one another. He laughed to learn that they apparently had much in common including ignorance of good wine. Owen picked up the sample she indicated and tasted it himself. “I think that’s…” his eyes rolled upwards, “the Riesling?” He shrugged and downed the last little bit. “I’ll get us a bottle.” He promised as he began scooting from the booth. Owen stood and offered her his hand to help her up before he led her to the bar to order the bottle she wanted.
They left the loud venue and emerged back on the street where it was already noticeably quieter despite the sounds of the party still going on below them. “I live two blocks north.” He gestured in the direction. If Julianna knew anything about the area she might have known there weren’t any residential buildings until closer to the park. Everything else was businesses.
“And beyond that is Midtown Park. So this way -” he grabbed her hand and pulled her after him, “-is where the good stuff is.” Owen gazed down at her to give her a suggestive but playful wink. He then glanced back to where his bike was parked. “Let’s walk. I can leave the bike parked there, I know the owner and he doesn’t care.”
Owen led Julianna by the hand down the street in the old downtown district that showed the wear of age on the business fronts. Many of the shops and restaurants had closed down and advertised that with For Sale signs in the windows. He stopped in front of the old Premier Theatre where the marquee still had several remaining letters of the last show performed there before it too closed. The poster display cases still advertised the last productions put on there. One held a poster urged community members to donate and support the local theatre.
“This is where I live.” He gestured grandly with the wine bottle in one hand at the greying, but venerable, theatre front.
RE: Variations on a Theme [Closed] - megs - 07-31-2017
As he led her by the hand, towards the bar and then out of the club, Julianna found herself hoping they'd return to the sassy little venue she found that she already adored. She was putting a lot of faith in the idea that there would be a next time. Julianna didn't know how long she could keep the secret of her being married from him; didn't know what would happen when the truth came out.
Julianna held Owen’s hand a bit tighter when he took her again to lead her down the sidewalk and in the northerly direction that he'd indicated he lived. She was puzzled, unsure of whether there were any residential areas this way, but didn't comment. With a few quick steps, she aligned herself so that she was walking side by side with him instead of being pulled along.
That puzzlement she had been suppressing was clear on her features as she gazed up at him. “You live here?” She confirmed, eyes skirting away from his face and towards the front of the abandoned theatre. She laughed, quick and breathless, nudging his arm with her own. “Are you just messing with me?”
RE: Variations on a Theme [Closed] - saronym - 08-29-2017
Owen watched with some delight the process of bewilderment that played out on her features as she tried to work out whether it could be true that he lived in an old shutdown theatre. “Yes, I live here.” He asserted as he pulled some keys with his free hand from his pocket and jingled them at her. Simply owning keys wasn’t evidence enough that he lived in the theatre so he pulled her up the steps to the double doors. “Technically, I’m not supposed to be residing here. It’s not zoned residential. Obviously. But - what the city doesn’t know won’t hurt them, right?” He winked mischievously at her as he inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The clicking of bolts being pushed aside followed his words. He released her hand to turn both door handles and shoved them open dramatically with his arms spread wide.
Despite his bodily flourish the inside lobby was darkened and not at all matching of the grand way he pushed open the doors. They clattered noisily against the door stops but the sound echoed in the once grand lobby.
“I’m renovating the building and living in one of the dressing rooms.” He explained as he stood in the doorway. He didn’t make any moves to step inside as he was trying to get a feel for whether she would find the whole situation creepy. A closed, dark, dusty theatre and a strange man she’d met on the street by a payphone didn’t bode well for romance.
“Would you like for me to turn the lights on and show you around the place a bit?”
RE: Variations on a Theme [Closed] - megs - 09-29-2017
“What are you? The Phantom of the Opera?” She joked behind his back as he moved to unlock the doors. "Am I your Christine?" She continued, with forced drama, tone breathy as she followed it up with a gasp. "Is there a wax mannequin of me in there?" She could hardly finish her sentence, too busy laughing at herself. He released her hand and she leaned slightly to the side, bending at the waist to observe the inside of the building. It was...dark. That’s all the could tell from where they stood. Admittedly, it should have been creepier, but Julianna found it all very exciting. Intriguing even. “Are you working on it to reopen it? Or are you going to keep living in it?” Julianna asked before she grinned at him and stepped across the threshold, because she could tell that he was waiting for her reaction.
“Yeah, you better show me around.” She playfully huffed at him, pushing at her wild curls with the back of her hand. “You can’t tell me you live in a rickety theatre and not give me the grand tour.”
RE: Variations on a Theme [Closed] - saronym - 12-01-2017
Owen snickered at her musical reference - the epic score immediately playing in his mind when she invoked the title song. “Gee, I don’t know.” He teased. “Shouldn’t you serenade me first?” She seemed curious enough to enter of her own accord, so he took her hand again, and let the doors fall closed behind them. The space was immediately shrouded in darkness. He led her by the hand several steps, knowing his way by feel. He jokingly hummed the melody to "Music of the Night" as he led her. His hand felt along a wall until he found the lobby lights.
When they came on he turned to her with one hand covering half of his face. “Shall we proceed to my mysterious subterranean lair first, or would you like to see the stage?” He laughed, shoulders shaking, as his hand fell away from his face. “I think I’ll reopen it at some point.” He shrugged. “But I kind of like living in it too. The acoustics are phenomenal.”
He led her to the control room first. He kept humming the tune he had begun. There he turned the lights to the grand chandelier that was suspended, glittering from the ceiling in the center of the theatre. It provided just enough light to illuminate several rows of wine red seats. Many rows had been torn out and it appeared that he was in the process of replacing them. Power tools, spare rolls of carpet, and seats waiting placement were scattered about where the side rows would have been.
A gleaming black grand piano was set center stage.
Owen lead her out into the theatre. “Watch your step, okay?” He pointed out a drill laying in the aisle they took down towards the stage. “Damn that song is in my head.” He complained as they mounted the stairs. He began singing out loud as he approached the piano. He began at the stanza leading to the grand crescendo “Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world.” He sang unselfconsciously as practiced fingers found chords to accompany himself. He pounded out a grand chord leaning back as he did so, eyes closed, seeming to revel in the sound of it. The keys and his voice singing “...where you long to be” rang out hanging in the air, suspended almost like that chandelier, until silence enveloped the theatre again. He was smiling and exhaled when he could no longer hear any remnants of the chord except for in his own mind. He finished the stanza a capella and then smirked at her leaving the rest of the song unfinished.
“Okay, I’ll stop. I just wanted to prove the acoustics were as good as I claimed.”
RE: Variations on a Theme [Closed] - megs - 08-04-2019
"I'm not a serenade on the first date kind of girl," she joked and winked at him playfully. She picked her way carefully through the space as he led her by the hand. It had been too long since she'd been to a theatre (both functioning or non-functioning). She used to go all the time, until..She didn't want to think about it.
Julianna's laughter punctuated the pauses in his performance. She wasn't laughing at him, necessarily, but she was very swept up in the surreal evening. She'd ridden on a motorcycle and gone dancing with a near perfect stranger, and now she was in an abandoned theatre with him. One that he claimed to be renovating and living in. She watched his profile as he wrapped up his show and she could feel a big stupid grin on her face. Owen was fun, and kind of a dork. She liked that.
She looked up at the chandelier he had illuminated. Still stunning despite disrepair. Julianna was having a wonderful time, but she couldn't stop thinking about to aforementioned it.
"Owen, I-" she paused to prepare herself for the immediate conclusion of the evening that would like follow her forthcoming confession. "I need to be honest with you about something." Her gaze dropped from the lighted fixture and back to his face. He was very handsome and she very much liked the reflection of the light in his storm-grey eyes. Her sights dropped further to where there hands were still linked together. "I'm married," she said with a flippant half-shrug. As if it was a bland and boring detail. Not that is eased the potential shock of her admission.