Re: [Boating: Hugh and Atticus]
Hugh leaned back too, leaning into relaxing as he followed the way that Atticus was. He liked the look of the other man, all ease and relaxation, and so Hugh leaned back and relaxed too. It felt in person how it had felt on the forum that night, nerves that had shifted into something a little less anxious. And here, the nerves hadn't been that significant - maybe just lightly there because there was always the chance you wouldn't connect in person when you had in text - but still it was nice to feel at ease. He hadn't been on a date since Hannah, he'd deleted every dating ap from his phone, maybe not forever, but for now. In Seattle he'd had an entire group of people he'd grown up with or gone through school with or worked with in the theatres around town, and some of them had also been people he'd slept with or dated, but they'd all been friends, people he felt various shades of at ease being himself around, and Repose had not had that since his arrival, and so he'd recognized finally, perhaps, that sex felt secondary to creating a network of friends - real friends - people he could talk to sometimes about things that mattered to him, even if it was just work and plays and art.
"Every time I've had something- like this," he waved a hand vaguely. "I've had a project of some sort, something to distract me from it, and I didn't have that originally. My mother sent me an email with a list of auditions in the Capital," there was a bit of a rueful smile. "She knows me way too well and she's missed being my agent also, but this came out of that list, and I'm very glad of it. I need the distraction of it, and it's a good way to do it. Sometimes the roles are a therapy all their own, like I can push emotion into it, or work through things and this one..." He took a sip of the coffee.
"It's a musical, small cast, just Jessica and myself really, and it's the story of a relationship over five years time from meeting, to marrying, to splitting apart," he tapped the lid of his coffee gazing at the horizon for a moment. "It's told 'he said, she said'," he turned his attention to Atticus with a smile. "Her from end to start, and him from start to end - and despite the topic matter, it's surprisingly fun in amongst the emotional weight of it. I'm playing a flawed character, he cheats, he sleeps around, he convinces himself that there are all the reasons why he's doing so and it's okay, but you also see all the way he tried to support her, to love her, to make her laugh, the ways he feels unsupported, and she's not perfect either, there's codependency - it's... complicated and messy, and it's given me things to think. I'm really glad I got the role."
He paused, took a drink of his coffee and then laughed. "I promise no yoga," he tilted his head then. "Ferry with supplies to where?"