Since The Moment Of His Confession, She Had Wanted Something To Make It Better. Some Word, Some Revenge,

"I agree," she hummed, "they're just...majestic." Smiling as Elise mentioned cats, she admitted, "you have cats? How many? I've been spending more time than a normal person should at the cat cafe. If I'm not careful, I'm going to take one home." Leyla could talk about animals all day. People? She wasn't so sure about most times, but animals? Animals were trustworthy. "That makes sense, sounds like something you'd have to really dedicate too, like no other jobs. Doesn't sound like a bad sports career option, though. I bet it was fun as a kid though, to grow up that way?"

"There's a large and quiet elegance about horses," Elise said, nodding along. "I have cats and those are...fake elegant, whereas the horses are the real thing." She smiled at the interest, most people did not care about dressage in the least. "Nah, you have to be really good and have the time to do it as an adult, it's kind of like many other sports, except it's hard to do for fun if you're not competing."

"They are," Leyla assured, "I've sampled them all myself before putting them on the menu, so you can't go wrong." She was leaving nothing to chance, putting her whole being into making this concept work. There were a couple of bars in the area, so she had competition but no one was doing exactly what she was doing. They might have non-alcoholic options, though. That's why she had to work extra hard to make her place stand out as something special. "Great choice!" She replied, beaming, "I leave that menu then." As she began to make the drink herself, she decided she should probably strike up a conversation like any other bartender would do. What would Sam Malone do? "So what do you do?"

"They all sound kinda good," Che said, eyeing up the menu. He'd often spend time like this at bars with alcoholic beverages, but it was early and it was a work night and he was trying not to be the worst. "Go with the strawberry basil one, then." He smiled over at Leyla. "And then maybe something more smoothie-like afterwards for my second drink."

Leyla agreed, offering a smile, "that's the worst, right? When you just want to enjoy a night out and someone plastered decides that's a good time to bug you." It truly was a beautiful place, and she really couldn't imagine having her business anywhere else now.

"I do," she replied, keeping her answer short and truth close to the chest. As with most of her truths. But the idea of getting to work with kids and offer them positive experiences was very appealing to her. "Physical therapy? I can see how those sort of correlate in some cases. Have you always been an animal lover? I feel like you sort of have to be to volunteer at a place like this."

Livvy nodded her head with understanding as Leyla explained her reasoning for anting to open the business, knowing that it made complete sense. "Sometimes when I want to go out after work, I don't want to worry about being hit on by someone who's been drinking all night, or deciding who wants to be the designated driver," which was always a challenge, one that no one wanted to take on, most of the time. "Besides, you have some really gorgeous views, which makes it all the better." Getting to kick back and relax with friends, have a drink, admire the views? Perfect evening activity.

"Oh!" she brightened instantly at the mention of a similar program, "then you have a basic understanding of how everything works. And how great it can be, too," not that she needed to sell it to anyone; once they spent an afternoon around laughing, smiling kids, they normally caught on to how important it was to them. "I'm a physical therapist, so when the mother of a patient mentioned her daughter getting involved in the program, I asked if I could tag along. Things sort of went from there."

"Sentences with technically don't usually end well," she murmured, knowing 'but' was coming. Leyla chose to live with roommates, so she had expected they might actually want to be her friend. It didn't make it easy for her to let people in, feeling like that always came with a big sign that said 'I'm broken, please find out why.' With a sigh and only a hint of a smile, she set her book aside. "Okay," she relented, placing her hat down on her chair to hold it before putting her hair in a low ponytail. "I'll play frisbee with you if you don't laugh when I'm bad at it."

"I mean, technically it is a beach activity." One she could see herself doing on a more quiet day, but on a day like today, she preferred more lively activities. "But there are a few more fun things to do. Maybe we should build a sandcastle? Or wait no- how about we toss a frisbee around?" she suggested, with a grin. She knew Leyla often kept to herself, but it wouldn't stop Aisha from trying to get her to hang out with her. She'd win her over and befriend her, eventually.

theboldtypetv everything the light touches is our kingdom. happy 20th anniversary @thelionking broadway. 🦁 #lionking20

She still hadn't quite gotten used to running into Dr. Lane, and every time she half-expected him to yell 'hey, I know you from therapy!' Which was ridiculous because he was a professional as all her many therapists had been, and this only had to be weird if she made it weird. "The Autumn Spice is probably my favorite. The cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg really make it taste like the holidays," she suggested, "but we're also doing a special for Creek Fest. It's a flight I've curated, it's just $5 and has that one, our Pumpkin Pie, Apple Cider Mule, and Ginger Pear mocktails. And we're actually donating those proceeds to Harmony Healers this week."

WHO: Josh & @leyla-tehrani

WHERE: Creek Fest

WHEN: September, 2023

"So, what do you recommend?" Josh asked as he looked over the menu, eyes scanning the drinks. Not much of an alcohol guy, Josh had to admit that he was pretty excited to see the Mawk Tales set-up, liking the idea of having something booze-free to drink, but still feel fancy about. Other than the eighteen million hot apple ciders he planned on drinking that week, on top of the hot chocolate, coffee and tea, since they were bound to find their way to him, too. "Honestly all of them sound good, I'm not sure where to start!"

For all her lack of festiveness, Leyla really did love the view here. If you could drown out all the other noise, the sound of the ocean waves was nice. Looking up from her book as she had company, she smiled warmly, "not at all. Make yourself comfortable. You guys really do make a big thing of the end of summer around here, huh?"

WHO: Rafael & @leyla-tehrani

WHERE: The Beach

WHEN: End of Summer Beach Bash

Rafael did love the beach. Normally, he preferred the quiet afternoons through the week, when there wasn't quite as much noise and fuss, when people could pitch a canopy, lay out a towel, not worry about the world around them. But he couldn't deny that the beach party was still a good time, even with the laughing, screaming kids hanging about. As he took stock of the people nearby, he saw a woman sitting with a book in hand, and figured it was a safe spot, stopping nearby and offering a polite smile. "Mind if I take up a little space next to you?"

Give me a number. What?

- Lady Bird (2017), dir: Greta Gerwig.

WHO: Leyla & @docolives WHERE: Harmony Ranch

At one of the treatment centers, Leyla had gone through some equine therapy, and she found so much progress and help in it. When she learned that Merrock had a similar sort of program largely geared toward kids, it was all she could do not to run all the way from the coast to the countryside to see if there were any opportunities for her to do something.

"Excuse me," she asked the blonde she spotted, knowing she'd seen her around before, "do you have any spots for a volunteer? Like an application or something I could fill out?"

"Well, I was born in Canada, but spent a lot of years down in New York. Made some of my best and worst decisions there as one does. Spent a summer in Iran and a year in Paris. So this is very very new. I'm used to busy and 'hey watch where you're going'" She mimicked the last part in her best attempt at a New York accent. "It's an amazing location for those exact reasons. I had worried a bit about the bars in the area, but when you're close to the coast, something refreshing can compete a bit with something that will ultimately be dehydrating." She nodded, "good. It's a standing offer whenever you want it. Have you ever gone anywhere or are you a lifelong Merrock..ian? Merrockite?"

"Where have you lived before?" Rafael asked, genuinely curious. It wasn't as though he expected everyone he talked with to have lived in one tiny town only to come to another, but he found it interesting to hear about how they came to be in Merrock, none the less. How different it was from where they called home. "I was going to say, if you're set up on the coast, you're set up well, because you can't go wrong with the views. And I can imagine when people just want the chance to kick back, relax, have a drink, it's great for that." When she offered a drink on her, he grinned, "I might just have to take you up on that."