Renovating a house usually brings with it tons of people, and mass chaos. Renovating a house for a TV show makes it twice as chaotic and triples the number of people involved. Yet somehow the blonde home owner moved about the crews, offering sandwiches, lemonade, iced tea, all in all redefining "gracious" on a whole new level. Then putting the tray down, she sat with the host of the show.
"So Vella, you call your house the Love Shack? I assume not just because you and Lucky are huge B-52 fans." Stephanie Woods sat on the back of a pick up truck, with Vella on the other side. As host of "Home Work" she had talked to many people, all over the spectrum of America's society. This time though, something was different. Lucky and Vella were not the typical home owners. The women had a passion for each other, for their family, for life itself that seemed to resonate off the walls. They had been nominated for the renovation by several people from the Author's Hangout, and Stephanie found out about them from the board. Even as Vella explained the reason behind the name, Stephanie felt it.
"Basically, if you are invited here, you are loved. As a friend, as family, coming here is not just an experience in acceptance. And its a little ole place where we can get together!" The spontaneous shimmy to accompany the line from the song made the host laugh, which spread to the camera crew, which caught the eye of the workers, and finally Lucky up on the roof. Over the years, outbursts like that were expected, so she blew a kiss to her wife and went back to repairing shingles. Vella winked and blew back, a gesture that was pure video gold.
Three days later, the house was finished, better than ever, and the crew was packing up. Stephanie noticed there was hesitancy. Usually everyone is anxious to pack up and go but this time people milled, chatted, packed a little here and there but mostly no one wanted to leave. She felt it herself, and as Vella and Lucky gathered everyone together for a group photo in front of the house, she wiped a tear from her eye. The myriad of hugs followed and then they all drove off, waving and beeping until they were out of sight.
For the ride to the airport, and all the way home, Stephanie kept thinking about how she felt at the Love Shack. She wanted to recount it all to Brad, snuggle up in his arms and relive every moment with him. Her shoes in one hand, she opened the door to their condo and called out to him. No answer greeted her. "BRAD? BRAD? Where are you?" She rounded the corner to the kitchen, and found the note on the fridge. He left while she was gone; using lines like he loved her but was not in love with her, wishing her well, but very much leaving for good. They had had problems, but she thought they were working them out. Her tears caused the ink to smear on the page, as she sat on the floor and cried. The break up would be hard, but because he was her producer, she feared for her job as well. It was time for a change, change of scenery, change everything.
Her bags were still packed, there was nothing holding her here, she only had to figure out where to go. She saw the photo of her and Vella and Lucky. She would go back to the Love Shack. At least it would be a good place to start over again. A few days there would give her a break to get her head together.
"Lucky, this is Stephanie, Stephanie Woods." Her voice broke a little as she spoke.
"Hey Short Shorts! How's it going?" She had been christened Short Shorts the first day. Vella had pointed out that her legs were made to be shown off, and when she changed into work clothes for the prep work, she put on a pair of cut offs that were cut a bit too high. The name made it around the crew in under an hour.
"You said that once someone comes there, they're always invited back right?"
"Sure, always. Why?"
"Brad left me. The bastard left while I was there. I just need to get my head straight for a few days and well, I know we just met but you all were so sweet and wonderful I just ..." She broke down again.
"Come on down sweety, I'll pick you up at the airport." Even over the phone that tenderness, that acceptance was so evident. Stephanie grabbed her bag and headed right back to the airport.
True to her word, Vella and Lucky were waiting at baggage claim. Both of them wrapped her in tight hugs, and once again the tears ran down her cheeks. This time they were tears of joy and relief. "Ok girl, the first step towards getting over a man, is to overload your system on death by chocolate ice cream, and knock you on your ass margaritas. It's a proven medical and psychological fact." Lucky nodded as Vella explained. "And we'll watch obscene amounts of The L Word and curse men up and down and if by Monday morning you're not laughing and dancing then we have to admit you into the intensive care unit; which is mostly chocolate chip cookie dough and straight tequila."
Lucky drove while Vella held Stephanie in the back seat. The host cried, ranted, yelled and vented all her emotions. The betrayal, the hurt, the frustration, everything streamed out as they made their way back to the Love Shack. Parking the car, Lucky climbed in on the other side and once again, the two surrounded Stephanie with deep warm affection. The tears and sobs soon ended and all three headed inside.
Not long after, they were settled in the living room, watching television, eating ice cream and drinking frozen green concoctions. Periodically, Stephanie would pipe up with "Oh I met her once at the studio" which lead to tales of how one actress was so sweet, the other was such a bitch, yet another being completely wild. Night fell without notice, and the margarita pitcher had to be refilled for the fourth time.
Vella was blending the drinks when Lucky said "You know Stephanie, your crew put in a great new hot tub for us. You never even got to try it out before you all had to leave."
"Ummm I didn't pack a swim suit though."
"And that's a problem how?" Lucky's t-shirt came off even as she stood up. The trail of clothes leading out back to the hot tub told Stephanie that modesty was not a concern here. Vella was already approaching the tub with more margaritas, and naked herself, as if some clock chimed time to be naked and Stephanie was the only one who didn't hear it.
"Come on Short Shorts, if you've got something we've never seen, then by god we want to see it now!" Vella poured three more drinks before climbing in next to Lucky.