Page 16 of Tempted By Her

Lark didn’t take us to the usual movie theater that I went to with Layne and Joy to see the latest blockbuster or romance film. We headed onto the highway, and I was dying to ask questions, but kept my mouth shut.

“Do you like classic movies?” Lark asked, pulling into the parking lot of a theater that I’d never been to.

“Depends on the movie,” I said. “How classic are we talking?”

“This place shows a lot of old movies in the afternoons on Sunday. Very popular with the older demographic.”

She was right; the parking lot was packed.

“What are they showing today?” I asked.

“An absolute classic:Gaslight, from 1944. Seen it?” she asked.

“I haven’t, but I’ve heard it’s good,” I said. Joy and I mostly watched classics that were romances or musicals or both.

“I think you’ll like it,” Lark said as I followed her through the door. She walked up to the counter and got two tickets and handed over her card before I could protest.

“Consider this a roommate welcome gift,” she said. “You’ve literally given me a bunch of shit lately. I can swing a movie ticket and some snacks.”

There wasn’t really any arguing with that.

We got popcorn, drinks, and candy. Lark chose the sour Skittles and I selected peanut butter M&M’S.

“You gonna share those?” she asked, nudging me as we headed toward the theater.

“Maybe. I’m an only child, though. Not good about sharing,” I said.

“Just going to lean into that stereotype, huh?” she asked as I pushed the door open.

“To justify not having to share my candy? Absolutely,” I said.

I let Lark pick where to sit, and she chose the center of a middle row. Fortunately, we’d gotten here early enough that a showing had just let out so we were some of the first people. The downside was that now I had to sit next to Lark and wait for the movie to start.

“Don’t you dare eat all that before I’ve even had some,” Lark said, reaching for the popcorn that I had resting on one leg. This theater was old-school and didn’t have huge armrests for holding all the snacks and drinks.

“I’m not,” I said, even though I’d been shoving popcorn in my face.

Lark snatched the bucket from me and curled herself around it protectively.

“You look like Clementine with his wet food bowl,” I said.

Lark just growled at me.

I snorted, unable to not laugh at her.

She did eventually pass the bucket back to me and we opened our candy and shared them back and forth.

“You know, every movie now is like three hours long and they should really build in an intermission so you can get up and pee and get more snacks,” Lark said.

“Agree,” I said. “I only go to theaters if I really want to see something. As far as I’m concerned, one of the best ways to watch movies is on the big screen that Mark has and lets Layne borrow.”

Every summer we’d hang in the pool and watch movies on the big screen. Only downside was they had to be kid-friendly since the twins always wanted to join us if they were around. We saved the more adult content for when they were at camp.

“So weird that your sister wanted to be his second wife,” I said.

“Listen, no one has to tell me how fucked up my family is. I’ve known it my whole life. The second I came out as a lesbian my mom gave up on making me in her image and shifted to Honor. It’s taken a lot of therapy to not feel guilty about that,” she said, looking into the bag of sour Skittles as if she was looking for the right flavor. I’d noticed she avoided the orange and yellow ones.

“Sorry,” she said, apologizing. “I have a tendency to bring down the mood when I open my mouth sometimes.”