Friday, Day 1
Ian and Lori were sitting together in a picturesque town square chatting and eating lunch on a beautiful Friday afternoon in spring. They showed every appearance of being two people in love sharing a moment together, oblivious to passersby and to the historic setting the town was so proud of.
The town square where they were having their picnic was in the middle of a small city that locals proudly proclaimed was the first settlement in a two-hundred-mile radius when homesteaders had raced west to build their homes on the surrounding land over 160 years earlier.
At the north end of the square was city hall. The original white wooden town hall from the 1860's had been incorporated into a much grander red brick building in the early 1900's, but locals still claimed the city hall was as old as the town.
At the south end was a white wooden church with an incongruously large steeple. The church also dated back to the first days of the town. When the town became a city and expanded their city hall, the church fathers had decided their humble fifty seat church building didn't look right facing that grand edifice across the square, so they added wings to the back and sides that doubled the size of the building and put a 150-foot-tall steeple on top of it.
Ian and Lori were not locals. What brought them to this remote rural city were the two walled campuses to the east and west of the square that were the real reason this one-horse town was noteworthy in the 21
st
century. On the east was a renowned private math and science college that counted at least one Nobel Prize winner among its alumni. On the west was an equally famous fine arts school. The entrance hall to the administration building was lined with miniature replicas of Oscars, Tonys, Grammys and every other performing arts award you can think of that their alumni had won over the years, as well as replicas of artworks that were on display in places like MOMA and the National Gallery.
Lori attended the fine arts school, majoring in vocal performance and minoring in theater, aspiring to be the next Idina Menzel. Some of her earliest memories were listening to the Wicked and Rent cast recordings and trying to imitate her idol. Her high school had a well regarded theater program that sealed the deal for Lori's career plans.
Ian was studying applied mathematics at the technical college. As a nerdy middle school student, he'd read about the work of mathematicians in the space program long before the movie 'Hidden Figures' was made. When he got his first laptop in middle school, he'd found an open-source copy of C# and wrote a program that let him calculate the optimum line through the BMX courses he loved to ride. Since then, he'd been hooked on the esoterica of mathematical modeling.
An observer watching them together on this day would certainly notice when an abrupt change in the mood of their conversation occurred. This is where the story gets interesting.
"You want me to go to a party where you know guys are going to hit on me, and you want me to pretend I like it when they do?
"There'll be straight and bi women there too. They're just as likely to hit on you."
"Why does it seem weird to me that my girlfriend wants to throw me into the midst of a bunch of lecherous men and women who she knows are almost certain to proposition me?"
"I thought you said you'd support me in my career?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of being flexible about where we live and being willing to support you financially while you try to break into the theater. Pimping me out never crossed my mind."
Changing tack, Lori said, "You know a lot of LGBTQ people gravitate to performing arts."
"Of course I do. I've met a lot of people at your school and it's hard to miss the fact that the LGBTQ demographic skews quite a bit higher than in the population at large. And you know I like and respect your gay and bi friends and classmates. I didn't even freak out when Gary kissed me at that wrap party."
"Then why are you freaking out about this party? You just admitted you're comfortable around this kind of crowd."
"Because when I said, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' to Gary, everyone was cool with it. It sounds like that answer won't fly at this party."
Lori had never come right out and said that, but she knew it was the truth. The party they were discussing was an annual gala where the college invited successful alumni for two purposes: to ask for donations, and to give graduating seniors an opportunity to do some networking.
Over the years networking had come to mean something similar to the notorious casting couches of the past and had gradually come to include the significant others of the students. It was a black mark against any student who was known to be dating if they showed up alone. The reason given was, "We want to see that your partner supports you and our community." Lori suspected it had more to do with maximizing the pool of hot college students attending, but she wasn't going to say that to Ian.