Autumn 2018.
One thing about the Lodge that I always thought was part of the appeal for those that came to it, was the fact that it could fulfill so many specific purposes. Anya Taylor-Joy originally came because she wanted to be somewhere off the beaten path. Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner came because they wanted somewhere private to fuck each other, as did Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen. Emilia Clarke wanted some no-strings-attached sex without fear of the paparazzi getting photographic glimpses of her dating life. Natalie Dormer was invited by Emilia Clarke, purely on the basis that she knew Natalie Dormer loved sex and would have fun, and oh boy did she.
Natalie Dormer was the type of guest at the Lodge that I found hard to believe until we actually interacted for the first time. It's strange. You see these gorgeous women in films, tv, in photos on the red carpet, and you think to yourself that despite how gorgeous they are, there's no way they could ever live up to the fantasy you have in your head. Then I met Natalie Dormer, who knew exactly what she was getting into, and loved it. Sex with her was intense, to say the least.
But back to my original point, which was the reasons why they came to the Lodge in the first place. It was Natalie Dormer who brought up the subject of Jennifer Lawrence to me. Natalie and Jennifer, having met on the set of the Hunger Games sequels, had a special type of friendship. One that was based on them keeping each other apprised of their sex lives. Natalie showed me the text thread they had going. It went back years. They would text each other whenever one of them got laid, even if it was just regular sex with a boyfriend or something. Better yet, it got into detail about what they did. Some of the texts were very blunt, consisting of nothing but "He ate me out, doggy style, I sucked his cock and he came." or "rode his cock to wake him up." Some of them were more elaborate conversations about things like the female orgasm, tantric sex, what acts they considered degrading and wouldn't do (spoiler alert, there weren't many).
But, after the topic was originally brought up, Natalie got into more detail about it. Jennifer's problem in all her relationships? She had major jealousy issues. To the point that she didn't even want her boyfriends to watch porn, because then they'd be looking at another girl. Natalie and Jen had talked about it at length, and Jen knew that it was a problem she needed to finally get over. And so, Natalie and Jennifer brainstormed a solution that would help Jen work through the issue. As you might have guessed, it involved Jen coming to the Lodge. It also involved Natalie coming to the Lodge at the same time, but more on that later.
Natalie and Jen planned everything between themselves, and then ran it by me to make sure I was cool with it and I could play along. The way the plan was explained to me by Natalie was that Jen needed something akin to a roleplay to help her work through her feelings on the subject of her jealousy issues. So, we were going to act out a scenario where she was forced to confront these things head on. The plan was laid out with the following steps.
Step 1: Jen and I meet at the Lodge and make sure we hit it off and are comfortable doing this.
Step 2: Jen and I begin to "play" boyfriend and girlfriend. Pretending we're a happy couple. This helps Jen get into her role so the next part is more effective.
Step 3: Natalie comes in, playing the other woman that I "cheat" on Jen with.
It sounded so simple when put like that, but when the time came the actual interactions became much more complex. If you remember anything I previously mentioned about Jen, you might already have a sense of what this means. But I don't want to tell the whole story up front.
Jen came up on a Friday, when no one else was scheduled to arrive at the Lodge. I was waiting for her arrival at the time Natalie said she would get there, and right on time, I spotted a green jeep pulling up the driveway towards the house. As soon as Jen stepped out and I saw her in the flesh, I began to get even more excited than I was before. I took a long look at her as Jen looked up at the house, shifting her keys from hand to hand. She was wearing tight black jeans, gray sneakers, and a loose-fitting gray v-neck. Her blonde hair was let down, and left to its naturally curly state.
When I opened the door and waved, Jen immediately smiled and waved back. Then she quickly scooted forward toward me.
"Hi," she said with a genuinely genial smile. She walked right up to me, extending her arms before she got there, and then came in for a very friendly hug.
"Nat told me loads about you of course," she said as we pulled away.
"Under the circumstances, I'm glad she did," I said casually.
Jen's mouth cracked into a knowing smirk as she looked at me like she knew me, "Yeah."
She trailed off for a moment, seemingly in thought, until I guided her into the house. We walked inside, her jingling her keys back and forth between her hands as she looked around the entryway.
"Nice," was all she said as she walked in.
"Do you want to go somewhere? That we can talk?" I said, for lack of a better idea.
"Yeah let's," Jen said as we started walking.
The two of us went to the lounge, where I poured from the first bottle Jen pointed at, making her a gin and tonic with lime, and myself a bourbon. Then, we both sat on barstools right next to each other, turning our heads to the side to talk to each other.
Then we started talking. Jen was so easy to talk to it was like we'd already met. We weren't even discussing what she was doing here yet, we were just shooting the shit about things like life in LA, where we had traveled to, what we do for fun, etc. We talked all through the first drink easily, never losing steam in the conversation. It was when the conversation turned to her filming X-men that things took a shift.
"And then I'll be done wearing that blue shit forever..." Jen summed up as she began to take the final drink in her glass.
"Until you star in the live-action remake of the Smurfs," I said with just enough smarm to make her laugh. Jen snorted into her glass and had to take a second to keep herself from laughing her drink out of her mouth.
When she stopped laughing, she put her glass down, and then rested her head on her hand as she turned to look at me.
"You're cute," she said, not holding back her smile.
"You're cute," I said back with more insistence than she did.