Virtually Mine: a love story (10 page)

Samantha waltzed away. “Yes, that’s
precisely my on-going challenge, to find stupendously good-looking Imaginaries
who will never succeed in compromising their value to me by making a legitimate
name for themselves.”

His ego bruised, Eric’s eyes flashed.
“Hey, I was into three callbacks on an infomercial last week.”

Sam sat. “Was it by any chance for male-patterned
hair loss? They must have noticed that you’re thinning.”

Eric self-consciously fingered his
temples. “I have a naturally high forehead.”

“So did Ray Cooley,” Sam retorted.

“Who?”

Sam smiled tightly, her gloves off. “My
point exactly. The clock is ticking on your marketability, Eric.”

“It is?”

Samantha nodded. “Odds are I just gave
you more than you’ll see this entire year from your little thespian exploits.
So, note to self: It might be prudent to take another gander at exactly where
your bread is buttered.”

“Oh, no. Uh-uh,” Eric protested. “We have
a contract.”

Sam folded her hands comfortably in front
of herself. “Indeed. We do. One that clearly states that there are no
guarantees. Humanity is fickle, Eric. It’s only good business to maintain a
revolving door. If another new hunk should suddenly eclipse your popularity,
well—as you know—you’re paid on commission.”

“But you’ve been pushing me with the
drones!” Eric blustered.

“Have been,” Sam acknowledged. She let
out a peeved breath and started to tap at her computer keyboard. “I’m also
advertising for new faces, even as we speak. Would you care to see the size of
my inbox?”

Eric struggled to maintain his footing,
let alone his dignity. “Wait, so suddenly I’m on the outs here, just because I
dodged some extracurricular dinner?”

Samantha held her regal head high. “I
asked you to dinner to discuss the potential expansion of our business
relationship at
Virtually Mine
. Even if you’d recorded this
conversation, that’s all you could prove.”

Eric couldn’t help pacing. He could
hardly believe this was happening at all. “This... This isn’t legal. It’s not,
you know, right.”

If Samantha was sweating in the very
least, she certainly didn’t show it. Her voice remained as smooth as her
scarlet silk blouse. “Eric, Sweetheart. Morality is a relative term. Actors
perform intimate acts with people they don’t even know, much less like, on
camera for money, even awards. No matter how an agent packages it, it’s still
high-class harlotry. You’re an actor. At least you claim to be. Let’s not
pretend that you have scruples.”

Eric shook his head incredulously. He
didn’t put much stock in spiritual things, but he felt like he was dealing with
the devil himself.

♥   
♥    ♥

Waiting at Rob’s door with Freddie wagging his tail at her side could have been
much more enjoyable for M.J. if she hadn’t been so acutely aware that she had
company. Nervously, she glanced over as another Meter Mobile pulled up beside
her abandoned one. M.J. whirled back as Rob opened the door.

At
the sight of his master, Freddie wagged all over. Rob leaned down to pat his
head. “
Hey,
there, Fella. Have a good time?”

M.J. smiled congenially, covering her
concern the best that she could. “Yeah, he pretty much sniffed every blade of
grass between here and the pier.”

As Rob unhooked Freddie’s leash, M.J.
snuck a glance toward the street, just as the other Meter Maid got out to
inspect M.J.’s abandoned vehicle. M.J. knew that this big-boned matron was
every bit as humorless as she looked.

Rob nodded out toward a car out front.
“That’s not your car, is it? It’s street sweeping day.”

M.J. covered. “No, no. I walked.”

Rob directed M.J.’s gaze to the two
parking enforcement vehicles just down the block. “They’re out in force today.”

With horror, M.J. watched as the Meter
Matron reached into M.J.’s vehicle and picked up M.J.’s quickly discarded
uniform. “Yeah.”

Missing her anxiety completely, Rob
closed Freddie inside the house. “So, I’m curious. This business of yours—I’m
surprised he gets you all to himself, that you’re not walking more dogs.”

M.J. sputtered. “Oh, I have lots of
other...dogs. It’s staggering the number of dogs I walk.
 
Kind of a whole canine club I’m running
here.”

“Freddie’s pretty social,” Rob replied.
“Might do well with the group.”

Acceptingly, M.J. nodded, just as she saw
the mother of all Meter Matrons take down her vehicle’s license. “Speaking of
which, I’d better scoot. It’s a fast-paced life, this dog walking biz.”

“Okay. Thanks. See you tomorrow, then.”
Rob stepped inside and called out to Freddie as he closed the door. “You hear
that, Freddie. You’re going to be in a club!”

As soon as Rob disappeared, M.J. whipped
around to the street. Her heart leapt into her throat as the departing matron’s
Meter Mobile motored away.

What to do?

At a loss for a better idea, M.J. tore
across Rob’s front yard in hot pursuit. In moments, M.J. skidded around the
corner onto Ocean Avenue. Safely out of Rob’s earshot, she cried out to the
escaping vehicle. “Hey, wait... I was on my break!”

Under normal circumstances, M.J. wasn’t
much of a runner. But as she darted on foot past mid-day traffic, she found her
inner athlete. What she’d do when she caught up with the matron, M.J. didn’t
really know, but she’d figure that out when it came to it.

The matron’s Meter Mobile was blocks
ahead, but M.J. could tell she was gaining on her. “Please, please,
please...yes!” M.J. cried as the traffic light ahead turned yellow. Incredibly,
the matron putted through, just as it turned red. “Stop! What are you crazy?!
That was totally red!”

What she lacked in speed, M.J. made up
with determination. Dissuaded only momentarily, M.J. sprinted as fast as her
not so very long legs would carry her.

♥   
♥    ♥

Why it was that Dustin and Wissy had to squarely position themselves in front
of the only open exit to the theater, Kate didn’t know. Everything in Kate
wanted to melt into a puddle, evaporate into thin air, and quietly waft away.
Despite her longing to do just that, she still found herself fighting through
the clamor of ingénues lavishing praise upon Dustin, angling for the chance to
be his next scene partner.

Her
heart beyond flattened within her, Kate squeezed by as Wissy protectively
claimed Dustin as her own, clenching him by his sculpted bicep. It was a move
Dustin did nothing to discourage.

Finally
free, Kate burst out of the theater and into the throng of pedestrian traffic
on the popular Third Street Promenade.

A
talent scout with a clipboard called out to Kate, “
Hey, looking
for love? I’m casting for a reality dating show.”

Wordlessly, Kate blasted by him. She
fought the urge to whip back with a sarcastic retort, but she pressed her lips
together so nothing of what came to mind in the moment would dare exit her
mouth. She knew she seemed old-fashioned, but she hated herself for even
thinking the kind of things her peers didn’t hesitate to say. Her mother’s
advice rang in her ears that what came out of a person under pressure was
exactly what was bottled up inside. Sweetness or bile, the words of Kate’s
mouth would define her, and no matter how much her heart ached, bitter just
wasn’t who she was.

Instead, Kate just ran. She bolted past
shoppers, street musicians, and infuriatingly cozy couples, walking hand in
hand. She swerved around the corner onto Arizona Avenue where she found herself
in the middle of the area’s Farmer’s Market. Locals ambled along, crisscrossing
the street, browsing through booths for fruits and vegetables.

Weaving her way through vendors and foot
traffic, Kate raced toward the bluff overlooking the Pacific, heaving with
sobs. Had her eyes not been so blurred by tears, she might not have careened
into M.J. who, as it happened, was barreling down the sidewalk along Ocean
Avenue at the very same time, in hot pursuit of the escaping Meter Matron.

“Hey, watch where you’re—” M.J. startled,
realizing just who had broken her stride. “Kate! Where are you going?”

“To throw myself off that cliff,” Kate
blurted.
 
“Wanna help?”

Heaving for breath, M.J. bent over. She
took a forlorned last look at the escaping Meter Matron, as she disappeared
into the distance. M.J. stood up, offered Kate a hand, and pulled her to her
feet. “Come on.”

♥   
♥    ♥

As usual, a wide assortment of actors populated the casting co-op common area
as Dustin swaggered through. Cats
and their owners waited to audition. Impossibly
limber ballerinas stretched and rose to their toes. Senior citizens in pajamas
rehearsed. Moms went over lines with their kids.

Dustin’s chest filled as he returned to
Wissy’s now familiar studio. It felt good to be called back, especially after
the whole shirtless debacle of the first audition. What had seemed a disaster
had turned into a bit of brilliance, he decided. It had not only set him apart
amongst the crowd of contenders, it had also secured his spot in Wissy’s good
graces.

A look of dismay on her face, Wissy
looked Dustin up and down as he approached, wearing the same shirt he’d just
had on for their scene in class. “Where’s the vest? They liked the vest. They
thought you were quirky.”

His bubble burst, Dustin’s face fell.
“Well, it wasn’t mine.”

“This is a callback, Dustin. I told you
to wear the same thing.”

“I thought you meant the same thing I
wore to class.”

Visibly annoyed, Wissy slapped a size
card onto Dustin’s palm. “What are you, bush league? You always wear the same
thing you wore to the first audition. That’s how they remember you. That’s what
got you called back.”

Dustin watched, forlorned as Wissy
skulked away. He distinctly noticed how quickly she softened and preened as
Eric arrived. It wasn’t just realizing that Eric had also been called back that
ate at Dustin. It was the flirty way that Wissy sidled up to Eric, like her
interests were turning Eric’s way. Dustin listened intently for their exchange.

“Eric, hi,” Wissy cooed.

“Hey.” Eric scribbled his name on the
sign-in sheet.

Wissy cozied up to Eric. “So, I heard you
almost got that infomercial. Very impressive.”

Eric brushed it off congenially. “Well,
you know. Sometimes it comes down to a look.”

Wissy leaned toward Eric and spoke in a
stage whisper that Dustin couldn’t help but hear. “Don’t say I said so,” she
purred, “but it was probably about their has-been of a name star not wanting to
stand next to you.”

♥   
♥    ♥

Kate
and M.J. wandered along the Palisades Park path. A little air and space had
gone a long way toward calming Kate’s shattered spirit. It helped her get her
eyes off herself to hear about what had brought M.J. to come crashing into her
at exactly the right moment. The way M.J. told it, Kate couldn’t help laughing.
It was like someone above had known just what the two of them needed and just
when they would need it, someone who orchestrated everything for the best no
matter how bewildering it might seem in the short run.

Kate gave M.J.’s shoulders an encouraging
squeeze as they walked along. “You should go into the office. Explain.”

A smirk crossed M.J.’s lips. “Something
tells me they won’t go for the moonlighting as a dog walker on company time
part.”

“Maybe you could spin it somehow.”

M.J. nodded gamely. “Oh, I could spin it.
But do I really want to write parking tickets for the rest of my life anyway?”

“It’s an honest living. Pays the rent.”

A moment of silence passed before M.J.
responded. “I guess I want more than that. Yeah, you wait tables for rent; but
you’ve still got your acting. Some kind of dream to shoot for.”

“I’m never going back to that class,
again,” Kate vowed. “He could have tied her shoelaces he was so far down her
throat.”

“Impressive in some circles.”

“I mean, sure, Dustin...he’s a little
self-involved, but aren’t they all?”

M.J. kicked at a pebble in her path.
“Yeah, guys are pretty much suns and we’re like these planets, orbiting around
them. That’s the order of the cosmos.”

Kate searched her soul, sensing a
palpable change. “I was pretty okay with that, but this...with her...
 
Why do I even still want him?
 
But I look at those eyes of his and I’m,
like, sucked into his vortex again and... Blechk! I hate this! I can’t believe
I was starting to think he was the one. I really was.” Again, hot tears filled
Kate’s eyes. It was over, she realized. But she wasn’t over him.

“We always think the one we’re seeing is
the one,” M.J. sympathized. “Otherwise, why bother?”

Kate threw her head back mournfully. “For
three wonderful months, Dustin was practically perfect.”