May Jane be with you by AnaSofia Aceves

I opened the door to find that Izzie and Morgan had arrived together an hour early to the  meeting, it was a Saturday so I figured they would be recovering from a night at Pete’s.

“How do you do?” I said as I curtsy to them, they curtsy back  awkwardly and said nothing to me, “come in”, I said as I moved out of the way from the door extending my arm towards the inside of the house, “how come you’re here so early?” “Well we wanted to help you set up”, said Morgan. Izzie was carrying a big bag, she reached into it and pulled out a large container, “I brought some food”, she said, “oh thanks you so much, here let’s go into the kitchen and chat”.

Morgan and I seat down on the chairs next to the small table, Izzie jumped into the space on counter that was free, the rest was full with containers just like the one Izzie had brought. “How’s work?”I asked them, Izzie seemed a little nervous to talk about it, she started to look around avoiding me, “what? What’s going on?” I aked, Morgan also looked a little nervous, “well to be honest…”, said Morgan, “it has been great, Leslie has changed, maybe it was the pressure that was getting to her, and, well, it seems that firing you was the last straw, she took a few days off and when she came back she was back to her old ways”, I was surprise to hear that, I had left and now everyone was happy, that didn’t seemed fair.My face was giving me always because Izzie felt the need to join the conversation “Look its not like she’s an angel, she’s still the boss”,  I  listen to her realizing that I had no reason to be mad, I had moved on, I hated that job with our without Leslie as the boss, I just never wanted to admit it  and I had another purpose now, even if it was crazy, I was involved in something completely different that made me happy, “look guys, its ok, I’m glad you guys are happy, I wasn’t happy there anymore, not even if Leslie would have found this great new personality while I was there would I have stayed, so it’s fine, in fact at the ball I asked her to stop by sometime”, everyone’s seemed more relax once I explained myself, the truth was that my life at an office seemed so long ago and for the first time in a long time I was not worried about a job, or money or any material possession, I was focusing on me and those around me, “I know this regency thing might seemed silly to you guys, but if you think about it, its really a way to focus your energy on other things other than the job” .

Soon enough more people showed up to the meeting, I had a group large enough to fill my livinroom. Morgan and Izzie were sitting front  and center on my beautiful couch, Stacy, Jane and Kristen from Elliot’s work had showed up, they hadn’t talk to me much at the ball so I was sure that Elliot had bribe them someway into coming to the meeting, Mrs. James from the local theater had showed up after Morgan and Izzie, since she was giving some of the workshops, she decided that it was also important for her to take the ones I was giving, that way she could spread the word to her students.

Everyone had been seated for a couple of minutes and since no one else had come by we decided to start the meeting, as I was about to start talking I notice the front door open, Phoebe came in with her perfect ballerina body and long blond hair up to her chest , she would make a great mermaid, all that hair would cover her in all the right places, I wasn’t sure if I should be mad or in aw of her beauty, nevertheless I had to welcome her, after all I was the one that contacted her and got her involve in my little project, “Come in Phoebe”, I said in a not so friendly voice that make her mouth change form a smile into  a neutral position, I remember that I had no reason to be mean since I had no feelings for Elliot and therefore I should have any ill will toward Phoebe, “ sorry I’m late”, she said more apologetic that I deserve to hear, “its ok , take a seat wherever you like” I said changing my tone to sound welcoming, that made her face change again to its original state.

“Welcome all to the Curtsy project” as I was saying this I distributed a pamphlet with a beautiful picture of ladies in their pastel color dresses with corsets that made their chest pop out while they were dancing, underneath the picture was  all the information of the project, “ as you can read from the guide the mission of this project  is to become well rounded individuals”, Kristen curved her eyebrows in disbelief, how did Elliot manage to get her here and to the ball for that matter, Kristen looked as tough on the outside as I suspected she was on the inside, her long black messy hair looked like it only got wet about once a week, it could be a hundred degrees outside and I would still see her in a cropped leather jacked she wore year round, I had never seen her legs since she would always wear pants, for all I know she didn’t own a raise and she kept warms all winter, and spring, summer and fall. Her presence here seemed strange, but it made me feel like I had a great challenge, what better subject to convert into a lady than Kristen.

“The goal of this project is to teach all of those abilities that woman in the eighteen hundred were obligated to know in order to be called accomplished we will have…” I was about to let them know about the workshops when Leslie showed up to the meeting, she slowly made her way into the room moving towards a chair that was in the back of the room making it impossible for everyone to not turn around since the chair made the loudest screeching sound. Kristen took advantage of this interruption to let her opinion be known “aren’t we regressing a couple of  centuries here, what would the women of the liberation movement think about this”, she said in such a convincing tone that it made me for a second wonder if I was doing a disservice to woman all over, what would Jane Austen do if she was in my place, so I answer “here’s the truth, maybe we are regressing a little, but only if you want to, why is it that a woman has to have value only if she sits in an office or revels against society, why can be have value if we know how to keep a house or play the piano or read, why can we be value for all we are, our opinions, our abilities and our hearts”, I spoke with such a passion that without any intention I was as defiant as Kristen, silence filled the room, I could see my friends looking down, the girls from the shop stare at each other and then another hand interrupted, “yes Leslie”, I was ready for another uproar from the working woman, “ can you tell us about the workshops?” she asked, I didn’t know if she was doing it to save me or because she was genuinely interested, but to he honest didn’t care I was glad to be moving on with the meeting, “yes, I can”, I sounded relief.

The meeting went by with no other interruptions “Are there any questions before we start eating?” I asked with hesitation since I believed that Kristen might have a handful of questions for me, she was definitely turning up to be a big challenged and we hadn’t even started the classes; I had a long road with her. To my surprise Kristen seat silently staring at the food, but I did notice another hand, “So are we going to dress like the woman from the eighteen hundreds?” asked Izzie my own personal Kristen , “no we wont, it would be rather difficult, but I recommend you study the period, bring as much of it as possible into your lifes, at the end of your pamphlets you can also find the language of the time, study it , that way you wont be lost in the conversation”.

People moved quickly around all the food, Izzie’s potato salad was a hit, people kept asking her for  the recipe, which she very honestly answered “ it’s the famous recipe of  grandpa Vons”, which won her the crowd immediately. In honor of the English customs I had put out lemon ice tea to serve the whole block twice and tons of cookies and scones. As the hostess I walked over to every small group, the girls form the shop, Stacy and Jane were listening intensely at what Kristen had to say, Stacy was very quiet, she rarely talk, her voice was low and sweet, I figured it was due to the lack of usage, she gave the impression of being very delicate, she had really white skin, like porcelain and was very petite, making her look weak next to the equally petite and porcelain like skin but leather jacket black hair Kristen, Jane was a happy fusion of the two, I though that her name suited her perfectly, I could se her spending time with Stacy doing the social girly thing and then being sarcastic about it when she could revel her true feelings to Kristen.

“Are you guys having fun?”I asked sarcastically, “actually we are”, said Kristen again not letting anyone else have a word, “I know I have a lot of question, but I do think this is a very interesting experiment”, she said with not a single drop of sarcasm in her voice which surprise me and made me very happy, maybe this wasn’t going to be so hard after all, I nodded and smiled at her. I turned to Stacy “hey Stacy there’s someone I’ll like you to meet”, I said to her grabbing her by the hand before she could refuse, “excuse us”, I wanted everyone to know each other and for a sort of sorority so I walked her over to Morgan, I knew she would ask her about herself and actually let her talk, maybe that way Stacy would actually feel like being like herself and not agree with everything someone else said, which was her personality when you pair her with someone as dominating as Kristen.

As I walked over to Leslie, Izzie and Morgan it felt like old times, outside of work we could all be friends, and the truth was the only was this was possible it was because I served as an escape goat, office politics got in the way, bit at least for me , those no longer applied. I interrupted their laughter to introduce Stacy, as I had suspected I left the group with Morgan asking question and Stacy giving long, detail answers.

As the day moved closer to night the guest started to leave, Elliot would be home soon so I encourage people I the most lady like way to find their ways to the front door, I didn’t want to put Elliot thru another one of regency activities.