Chapter 100: ‘More’ With A Twist

Friday, February 21, 1986

I hadn’t come up with a movie suggestion by lunchtime, so I stopped by Hullabaloo Cafe and checked with Amy. She hadn’t either. Given the lack of one, we decided on a new plan. I’m not sure if it would have worked even a couple of months ago, but it seemed to fit now.

First off, we weren’t going out to dinner. Instead, we were going to visit a video store, find something we both wanted to watch, then watch it at the house. We planned to pick up some to-go pizza slices from the Flying Tomato Brothers after picking movies.

That meant some of the housemates might join us on our date. Amy was comfortable with them, though, so it should be fun to have them there.

Jas and Monique were going out to see ‘Out of Africa’. I had last seen it roughly thirty years ago and felt that was still too soon for me to want to watch it again, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they both enjoyed it. Plus — if they were so inclined — there were plenty of good points to snuggle and smooch. The theater probably would be empty enough that no one would notice.

This was something of a gamble for them. They were testing the waters to see if there was more to them than ‘You’re hot, I’m hot, let’s fuck!’ It could go sideways, but it could also be a really good thing. They already had a more ‘let’s fuck!’ date planned for tomorrow night, so my guess was tonight would just be the movie, no more.

I also checked with Amy about Rendez-Vous Houston. She was initially hesitant, but promised to listen to some of Jarre’s music (which I would loan her) and then decide. ‘Concert’ was probably scary, especially ‘really, seriously, ridiculously big concert.’ I couldn’t be as reassuring about the volume as I wanted to be (since, obviously, I couldn’t have seen it already!), but I did what I could. I also mentioned earplugs, which made her happy. That, and ‘preferred seating area, unlikely to be super-crowded.’

During the rest of the day, I checked with the others. Those who would be at home decided pizza sounded better than what they’d planned, so I had an order for quite a few slices.

I met Amy at her dorm room at six-thirty. Both of us were in more or less our usual dating attire. Meg waved and called out, “Have fun!”

Amy and I kissed, then held hands for the walk to the car. As we were entering the stairwell, she said, “That just goes to show you, I think.”

“Mmm?”

“Most things become normal with time. At first, Meg had a great deal of trouble believing I was dating someone she found handsome. Now, it simply is...”

She waved her other hand and finished with, “ ... what is. She still finds you handsome, but now that’s something I do. It’s entirely possible that I’ve changed a bit, too. I mean, who I am around her. Some of what I’ve done with you, with my engineering group, with Hullabaloo, and other places is ... bleeding over. I don’t think the core of who I am has changed, but I present myself differently.”

I nodded and said, “As long as it’s working for you, that sounds like a good thing to me.”

She snorted a bit, squeezed my hand, and said, “Oh, it’s very much working for me! The engineering group is proof of that. I find myself with ‘work friends.’ Colleagues who like me and whom I like. People who follow my lead happily. It’s ... eye-opening, really. I very much didn’t know I could do that! Now, I do. Maybe...”

She trailed off. I squeezed her hand and just waited.

The waiting lasted until we were in the car. Once we were both settled, she said, “I think ... even if I’m a bit different with you than I was, I’m still all me. We can easily talk about gray rainbows and sickly unicorns. You enjoy all of me, and I enjoy all of you. That frees me, I think. I don’t feel like I’m conforming simply to conform. That, and my team doesn’t mind the purple hair, the cuffs, or anything else. I’m still myself, and I still feel authentic.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” I said. “And I’m glad about that. All of it, and most importantly the part about the two of us. You’re a wonderful and fascinating person, Amethyst Finch, and my life is richer for having you in it.”

She blushed at that. After a second, she squeezed my hand and said, “That is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. And ... mostly so because I know you are simply being honest. I can say the same thing. You, Steve Marshall, are a very special soul, one I am very lucky to have met.”

“Luck matters,” I said. “So many things wind up being influenced by luck. But, while luck brought us together, neither of us let it pass us by. That part isn’t luck, it’s making good choices.”

“Indeed,” she said. “Very much so!”

I took us to the closest video rental store. We headed in, again holding hands. It took us nearly twenty minutes to pick a movie, largely because I wanted Amy to take the lead. She was happy to do so, just indecisive. We looked for ‘The Last Unicorn’, but they either didn’t have it or it was out.

Eventually, though, she landed on her choice, and it was one I highly approved of: ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’.

“I have always loved this movie!” she said. “I think it would be wonderful to see it again, together.”

“It’s a long-time favorite of mine,” I said, smiling.

A much longer time than I would admit to, too!

“It is...” she said, then paused and waved a hand.

When she continued, she said, “Perhaps it is a children’s film in its way, because there’s nothing in it that children can’t see, but I always saw it as aimed at children like me. It is bright and colorful, but those colors are sometimes a lie, with things that look bright and happy tinged with a great deal of gray. Wednesday would love it, I think.”

“Very well put,” I said. “Willy Wonka is interesting not because he’s good, but because he maybe isn’t, as a rule, but can be situationally.”

“Yes!” she said. “Oh, this will be fun!”

We were headed to the checkout when she spotted the ‘adult’ section. She hesitated, then said, “Might we browse those?”

“I’d be happy to,” I said.

She tugged me over into the curtained-off area. Her eyes went a bit wide when she saw how graphic many of the boxes were.

“Oh!” she said. “I ... did not know they were this ... descriptive. I mean, with the ... advertising.”

“It is surprising, I think,” I said, chuckling a bit.

She pointed at one, with a ridiculously well-endowed guy and a very small-looking girl.

“That looks ... painful,” she said.

“Angie has opinions about some of the guys in porn,” I said, chuckling.

“I ... will have to ask,” she said.

We browsed for a bit before she settled on ‘Sex Wars’, a ‘Star Wars’ parody.

“This looks awful, but amusing,” she said.

“I think most of the others will like it, if they’re watching,” I said. “To mock, but still.”

She snorted a bit.

“I am surprised they would watch it.”

“Well ... Candice and Sherry, no. That’s ... yeah. Cammie and Mel would. They’re not allergic to seeing straight porn. Angie and Paige are both bisexual, so...”

She nodded.

“I haven’t watched any,” she said. “We might only watch for a bit — looking at you is likely much more exciting! — but it seems fun.”

We checked out, with the clerk smirking just a bit, then headed off to pick up pizza. Parking was a pain in the butt, but they had our order ready quickly once we placed it, and it took us little time to get home.

The tricky part was that we had two study groups going on. I’d forgotten about that. The Math Mercenaries were happy to move out of the living room, though, and we wouldn’t disturb the Engineering Ensemble, who were working in the basement. It wasn’t my problem that some of the study group people were jealous of the pizza slices. Those in the groups could have mentioned it.

After I’d put ‘Willy Wonka’ into the VCR and started it, Amy had me sit in one of the nicer chairs, then settled into my lap. We munched on the pizza while watching. Angie came through the living room twice, griping a bit about missing it. I pointed out that we had the videotape until Sunday. That made her happier.

Amy and I talked off and on during the movie, something that we couldn’t have done in a theater. That alone was probably worth it. Both of us knew the movie well enough to know when we could talk.

At one point, she said, “I understand why Dahl dislikes the movie, but I think he’s wrong. The movie is right for what it is. It isn’t a perfect movie of his book, but it’s a perfect movie nevertheless.”

I nodded, and said, “I’ve always thought that, too. It’s unfortunate when that happens. Steven King has the same problem with ‘The Shining’. He’s right, too — it’s not a good movie of his book. It’s a very good movie, though.”