Re: the lake -> inside to the bar
She would have laughed if she was privy to his contemplation. She had a stomach for liquor, she drank it steadily and without flicker of eyelash to suggest strong drink was an anomaly for the night. She tossed her cookies for the little bottle at the front but not for anything served behind the bar. She couldn't remember nausea inspired by fruit floating on a sea of brandy and she felt it warm her in a trivial but by no means unwanted way.
She made a small sound that was probably laughter. Her mouth had twitched out of tight lines and into something with a little more curve to it. She didn't look severe in that moment, but she was tired of severe. She was tired of teetering on an edge that was entirely imaginary and she wondered if she drowned the bottle in brandy, whether whatever had been in it would sink.
He didn't laugh. She wondered if he was that serious, or whether this was a day off from mirth. It could be he had picked something worse than her choice and it was probably impolite to ask. It was a new rule, discretion at parties like this one and she thought about it long enough to make her smile warm with insubordination. It would be ruder to ask what you'd decided to pick for, she determined and she thought all this without a word.
"You were," she allowed this to be true. It suggested a dislike of the party but possibly parties in general. She caught the half-turned endorsement of the present set-up and she inclined her head a little to say that she had. "I think it's doing it more for other people." People back-stroking in the pool or in the lake, maybe. "Is it unusual for you?" She meant the dislike of the party. He could interpret it some other way.