You chat up Tatiana

It starts innocently enough. At some point Louise takes a moment to stand up for the couch and go get herself a new beer and you, very casually sit down in her place, leaving you side by side with Tatiana. For a moment you regard each other.

Sitting next to her, you can smell the distinctly medical smell mixed with the scent of cedarwood.

“So,” she says, uncrossing her legs and recrossing them while rotating to face you sitting next to her.

“So?” you reply, giving a slight smile.

“Um,” Tatiana says, pausing to take a drink of beer, “how do you like Poly State?”

“I mean,” you shrug, “it is definitely different from my junior college, for sure.”

“I bet,” Tatiana scoffs, “how did you get into Anthropology?”

“Well,” you start, taking a swig of beer from your can, “It was kinda just out of my high school classes that I took, found the right thing for me at the right time, you know?”

“Oh yeah,” Tatiana chuckles and takes another sip.

“Yeah?” you reply.

“I got into film when I was in High School,” Tatiana says, “we had our own film class that I got super into, right?”

“Sure,” you reply, “and did you do your undergrad at Poly State or?”

“Yeah,” Tatiana says, “graduated with my bachelors a couple years and been working on my MFA since,” she shrugs, “same as her,” she adds, pointing to Louise, standing in front of you and looking at you with beer in hand.

“Oh hi,” you smile up at Louise.

“You know you're in my seat,” Louise replies, raising an eyebrow.

“And?” you reply, leaning back into the well worn leather of the apartment couch with an audible creak.

Louise looks at Tatiana for a moment.

“Sorry, Boo, you snooze, you lose,” Tatiana says with a shrug.

“Fine then, I’ll talk all my juicy gossip with Victoria, if that’s the way that you’re going to be,” Louise huffs at you and Tatiana.

“You can tell me it later,” Tatiana scoots a tad closer to you and pats a place between her and Victoria for Louise to sit down at.

“So, film class?” you ask.

“Yeah,” Tatiana chuckles, “just little student films, I mean all my stuff is still student films, but just short five or ten minute short films about stuff.”

“About what kind of stuff?” you ask.

“Oh God,” Tatiana chuckles, “I don’t even want to remember, they were just―,” she pauses, “you know that feeling where you go back and look or even just think about your old art and you just sort of die of embarrassment?”

“Sure,” you reply.

“It’s that sort of thing,” Tatiana says.

“So I take it that you aren’t going to tell me, then?” you smile.

“Oh I will, but first,” Tatiana says, taking your hand.

Without the moment to prepare, you jump slightly at the contact and the flood of sensations that invade your mind yet again, trying to make sense of unfamiliar information. One hundred and seven seasons old. Twenty six years old. Sexually active. Anxiety. Bad for fertility. Desperation. Good for fertility?

Your brow furrows as Tatiana nonchalantly leads you through the threshold into the kitchen as more information surges across her hand to yours.

There are unknown, mixed signals lost in translation. Isolated from family. Irreverent. Disinterested in breeding for the purposes of procreation. Protected by contraception. Suppressed menstrual cycle. A womb that has been graced by sperm a few times before, mostly by accident.

Then Tatiana lets go of your hand as she opens a cupboard, and you grab the countertop to steady yourself on your own feet. Trying to walk and hold her hand gave you the oddest case of vertigo that you did not expect.

You breathe, looking Tatiana up and down in the relative isolation of the kitchen. From behind, you notice that her dress has what looks like a series of shoestrings going up her back that pull it taut to her chest, hips, and waist in a surprisingly alluring way.

As she gets up on her toes to grab something from the top shelf, your eyes are drawn to her pale legs, which are narrow and coltish from the hem of her dress on down.

You hear the pop of a bottle.

“Are you getting into my liquor cabinet already?” you hear Louise call from the living room.

“Perhaps,” Tatiana replies.

“Are you planning on pouring for the rest of us?” Victoria adds.

“Do you want me to?” Tatiana laughs.

“Do you really need to ask?” you hear Louise laugh, and then go back to chatting with Victoria.

Tatiana looks over her shoulder at you, waving a bottle of something clear. “Want some?” she asks.

“Sure,” you reply with a grin.

“Here, carry these then,” Tatiana replies, as she hands you four unmatching shot glasses filled halfway with the same clear liquid before taking her own and leading the way back into the living room.

A space is cleared at the coffee table, causing a few empty cans to go toppling to the floor with a series of metal clangs barely audible over the rock music, and you set the shot glasses down. Tatiana, Louise, Victoria, and you raise your glasses together.

“Cheers!” the four of you say in unison, clinking your shot glasses together before knocking them back.

The **** burns slightly as it drops down your throat, but has a surprisingly sweet aftertaste that leaves you licking your lips.

You see Louise look at the one remaining shot glass. “Where’s Andrew?” she asks.

“Still stuck in traffic on Main Street,” Victoria says looking at her phone, “so not much longer but still,” she chuckled.

“Once he gets here we can go out,” Louise states, “Greek Row?”

“Sure,” Victoria smiles, eyes a little hazy.

Tatiana looks at you and rolls her eyes.

“So what about these student films of yours?” you ask Tatiana.

“Oh God,” Tatiana sighs and leans back onto the couch.

You raise an eyebrow and her eyes meet yours.

“Have you ever heard of the Cottingley Fairies?” she asks.

“No?” you say.

“Ok, so, like,” Tatiana sighs, “I was super into fairies and fantasy when I was younger, like really into it, ok?”

“Sure,” you say.

“And so most of my first films were about that sort of thing; magical worlds, magical things, and,” she laughs, “it was so bad.”

“Don’t you lie,” Victoria interjects, laughing, “I’ve seen your bookshelf, you’re still into magic and witch stuff.”

“Oh my God,” Tatiana laughs back, “that’s totally different,” she looks back at you, “I was so much worse when I was a kid.“

“Why?” you ask.

“Well, I mean,” Tatiana chuckles, “like, I was just so sincere about it, and there’s only so much you can do with a film budget that is a dollar sign with a bunch of zeros, bunch of nerdy goth kids out in the local woods living out their fantasies and having the poor judgement to record them so that we can watch them back when I'm older and more self conscious, but it got me into film so,” she shrugs.

“So what are you doing now?” you ask.

“With film?” she says.

“Yeah,” you reply.

“Well,” Tatiana sighs, “I’ve got a film project that I am working on for class, I hope to hear back from the local public access station in town about an internship through them, and I have a personal project that I am working on to make some cash on the side.”

“Nice,” you reply with a smile.

“Wait, Tatiana, is it one of those kind of side projects again?” Victoria asks with a cheeky grin.

Tatiana opens her mouth as if to reply, closes it, and then rolls her eyes at Victoria in front of you, to a chorus of giggles from Victoria and Louise.

“Is it still a solo project?” Louise asks.

“Yeah,” Tatiana replies, picking up her beer can again and finishing it off, “I plan on keeping it that way,” she adds with some venom in her voice.

“Sure, sure,” Louise replies, her and Victoria still giggling.

“So what kind of project is it, then,” you say, ”if you don’t mind me asking that is.”

“Do tell, Tatiana, do tell,” Victoria says with a sly smile.

“Well,” Tatiana laughs, rubbing her neck, “if you are really interested, I’m-”