“So you are romantic,” she said. “I pretty much figured you would be, and that’s good. Especially for what I have in mind.”
* * *
I looked at her. What was she talking about? I mean I had been really careful all evening not to do anything like I had done the night before, so I didn’t think I had done anything wrong.
“Last night, after I went back to my bedroom,” she said, “I spent a lot of time thinking about things. And no, I wasn’t mad at you then and I’m not mad at you now. But there was just this big problem to deal with. You’re Brandon and I’m Ellie, and well, we grew up together. We played together, we took baths together when we were kids, we were best friends. And, we were family. Brother and sister. That’s a huge no-no. And that doesn’t change, no matter how much wine we drink or anything else.
“But I also started thinking about something else. When I was in college, I got into acting for a while. I had some bit parts in a few plays, but my big break was getting to play the female lead in a production of ‘Miss Julie,’ a one-act play by Strindberg. And one of the big things I had to learn was that acting wasn’t just about memorizing lines and reciting them, it was about sinking yourself into the role, about disappearing into this other person. You weren’t you anymore, you were the person in the play. You were someone totally different. I wasn’t Ellie anymore, I was Miss Julie. In a way, it was kind of liberating. You could stop being you and step into some kind of completely different reality. And that was the only way it would work.
“You see, as long as you’re Brandon, it’s completely wrong. We grew up together, we took baths together when we were kids. But if you were someone else, someone completely different, well… And, of course, if I was someone completely different as well…
“Suppose you weren’t Brandon and I wasn’t Ellie. Suppose I was Lara and you were Yuri. Suppose what was between us was this incredible epic romance. Do you see what I’m saying?”
I thought about it, and I thought about all the people I had seen in movies and plays and how they became other people. And then you had Omar Sharif and Julie Christie becoming Yuri and Lara. I mean I knew they had both been in lots of other movies, but in this movie, none of that mattered. This is who they were. And it was the hottest and most moving love story I had ever seen.
“Yes, I said, “it makes a lot of sense. That’s what you have to do for the play. But it also gives you the chance to step outside of yourself and be someone else. And most people never really get to do that. I think that’s a beautiful idea.”
* * *
Ellie stood up. “When I went shopping today, I had that very idea in mind. There was a store that sold vintage clothing, and I found something for each of us.
“I couldn’t find everything for you, but this should be a start.” She went back into her bedroom and came out carrying a black formal jacket with tails. It was the kind of thing that a gentleman would wear at Ascot and at Royal parties and stuff like that.