CHAPTER 23
“Care to explain?” the actress playing Stevie said with her arms crossed over her chest.
“You smell like a dumpster and horse poop,” the one playing Maggie added.
“Ladies, let’s back off for a second. Bray here spent the past few hours in the slammer,” the actress playing Kristie said and walked around to face Dana. “Did anyone make you their bitch? Did you have a carton of smokes to trade?”
Stevie laughed at the joke and said, “I can’t believe you had getting in a bar fight on your bucket list, Bray.”
“I didn’t get into a bar fight,” she argued.
“Those idiot guys started fighting. I was just trying to find a way out of the bar for Stella and me, but I got pulled into the damn crowd. Then, the cops grabbed everyone into an alley and took us to the station, where they sorted us all out. When they realized I wasn’t drunk and didn’t know any of the idiots who’d been fighting, they let me go, thankfully. ”
“Good, because our trip is almost over, so I don’t have any money left to bail you out,” Kristie said.
“Yeah, but I lost Stella, and I couldn’t leave the damn station until they let me go, which took forever.
By the time I got back to the bar, she was gone.
All the bars here look the same, too, so it might not even have been the right one.
I wasn’t paying attention to the name of the place when we walked into it. Why didn’t I get her number?”
“The girl you were talking to when we left?” the actress playing Maggie asked.
“Yes; Stella.”
“She’s just a local girl in a bar, Bray,” Stevie said.
“She’s not just a girl, Stevie. You don’t even know her.”
“And neither do you,” Stevie replied. “You spent, like, what, a couple of hours with her? What’s the big deal?”
“I saw them,” Maggie said. “They stared at each other how they do in romantic comedies, when they realize they’re in love.”
“In love? They just met at a bar for, like, an hour.”
“Stevie, come on…” Kristie said. “And I’d put my arm over your shoulders to comfort you, but you stink, Bray. Take a shower or two, and then we can all catch up on your night in jail.”
“I wasn’t in jail,” Dana, playing Bray, said and stood up. “And I cannot believe what an idiot I was. You always get the phone number.”
“She lives here, Bray. And you’re here on vacation, that is almost over. Did you just want to hook up with her? You said you weren’t about that when–”
“Stevie, calm down and let the woman shower,” Kristie interrupted. “She’s smelling up the whole room. The maid will be searching for the vomit we’ve somehow managed to hide if Bray doesn’t get the stench off her soon.”
“She’s just a–” Stevie started.
“Stevie, I mean it. Stop now,” Bray said this time, and Dana was trying to convey all the conflicting emotions Bryce had put into the script about her real-life friend and former girlfriend, Sean, who had still been in love with Bryce at the time she’d met Sophie.
“What are we doing today?” the actress playing Maggie said to change the topic. “We’ve got one more full day here.”
“Shit,” Bray said.
“What?” Kristie asked.
“She doesn’t know I’m leaving tomorrow. We didn’t get to that part. I was putting it off because I didn’t want her to leave. I didn’t tell her.”
“Not that big of a deal,” Stevie replied. “We are leaving tomorrow. The most you would’ve had is one night anyway, and you don’t want that.”
“Let’s go to Café Du Monde again,” Maggie suggested. “We can have a late breakfast or early lunch.”
“I’ll skip it. I think I want to go find the bar from last night. I got all turned around with the cops and the stupid alley, but I want to find it and wait. Maybe she went back. I don’t know.”
“Bray, she’s not going to be there. You know that, right? The odds that she’d show up there again just to see if you do aren’t good,” Kristie reasoned.
“Not when I get there, maybe. But if I wait, she might show up. I have to try.”
“And what if the night was awesome for you, but not as awesome for her?” Kristie asked. “I’m not saying that to be mean or anything. You just don’t know her well at all. She’s a local. Maybe her thing is hooking up with tourists.”
“It’s not,” Bray said.
“How do you know for sure?” Maggie asked.
“Because I know. You guys weren’t there. I’ve never–” Dana paused to give a sympathetic look to the actress playing Stevie. “I’ve never felt this before. I know there’s something here. Maybe you guys should drive home, and I’ll fly back in a few more days. I need to find her.”
“What? Bray, come on,” Stevie said. “You can’t stay here just in case she happens to show up at the bar.”
“I can’t just leave.”
“Don’t you have that interview about your blog with that magazine coming up?” Maggie asked.
“It’s a local magazine. I can skip it or ask them to postpone.”
“You were so excited about this,” Kristie said. “This is your first real interview. It’s a big deal.”
“Well, Stella is the first woman I’ve been excited about in forever.”
“Bray, come on,” Kristie said. “Let’s get donuts, and we can talk more, but you have a life to get back to.
I get that it was an amazing night, so you wish it had ended differently, but maybe that was all you were meant to have with her: one amazing night to help you get ready for the woman you’re meant to be with or something. ”
“I’ll go for lunch, but I don’t know – this feels like more than one night with someone I was only meant to know for that long.”
“And cut!” Reed said loudly. “That was great, everyone. I think we’ve got it.”
“You don’t want to run it again?” the assistant director asked.
“No, I think we’ve got it. Let’s break for lunch now and reset.”
“That’s lunch!” one of the PAs yelled.
“That was great, Dana,” the actress playing Maggie said.
“Thanks,” Dana replied. “You too.”
“My part is easy. You have to act like you just lost the love of your life in a bar.”
“True,” Dana said with a laugh.
“Are you grabbing lunch?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “I want to run through the script for my next scene, so I was going to eat in my trailer.”
“Want some company? I’ve noticed you usually eat with Samara, but she’s off today, right?”
“She’s off, yes,” Dana said.
Every day of the shoot so far, Samara had been her scene partner, but today was Samara’s first day off.
It also happened to be after they had kissed in Dana’s car before Samara had gone inside the hotel.
Samara had asked her to text her when she got home, so Dana had, but while they hadn’t talked after that, they’d texted a few times before finally saying goodnight.
Dana still didn’t know what was going on between them.
She had a good idea what Samara’s comment to her about going to bed alone had meant, but she didn’t want to assume.
They still needed to talk, and they needed to decide what this was between them.
Were they friends and co-workers? Were they trying to be something more?
It was clear that there were feelings on both sides.
Hell, even Jill and Willa had noticed. Dana knew that they had because Jill had texted her that morning asking Dana if Samara Barber was into women, and the next text had asked if they were dating.
Dana hadn’t replied yet, needing to talk to Samara first. She could just deny both of those things, but Samara had made things difficult by putting her hand on Dana’s thigh.
“So, lunch?” the woman playing Maggie asked her.
Dana was usually really good with names, but she was struggling to put a name to the face at the moment.
Having two names for every actor and meeting them right before shooting with them for the first time was proving to be too much for her brain to handle, but that was probably because her brain was mostly preoccupied with Samara and not as focused on the rest of the cast.
“Sure,” she replied.
They took the golf cart to the catering tent because her companion didn’t want to walk, and within minutes, they had their food and were taking the cart to Dana’s trailer.
“So, how are you liking it so far?”
“The movie?” Dana asked.
“Yeah. I mean, the work on it. You’ve never done this before, right?”
“No. Plays and musicals, but no movies. You?”
“I’ve got about ten under my belt, but this is my biggest part to date. Mostly, just background characters for me so far. I’ve had a few sidekick roles in rom-coms. So, are you thinking about your next role?”
“Me? No, I’m thinking about not screwing this one up.” Dana laughed as the cart arrived at her trailer. “Do you have something lined up?”
“Not yet. I’ll go back to LA after this and audition until I find something, though.”
“Do you like that?” Dana asked, opening the door.
“Auditioning? No, I don’t think anyone likes auditioning, but it’s part of the process.
I make enough money doing a movie or two a year, along with some small TV spots here and there, to do this full-time and stay in the union, which provides benefits, so it’s good enough for me.
You’re good, Dana. You should make a real go of it. ”
Dana sat down at her small table, and the woman she thought of as Maggie sat down next to her.
“I might. I haven’t decided yet.”
“Hey, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” she said as she opened her bottled water.
“Are you seeing anyone?”
“Um… Not officially,” she said, hoping that answered the question as honestly as she could.
“Is that another way of saying it’s complicated?” Maggie, who was not really Maggie, asked as she laughed.
“I guess so,” she said. “Why do you ask?”
“I was going to ask you out.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.” The woman laughed again. “Is that weird?”
“Why would it be weird?”
“I don’t know. It’s kind of forward of me, but I don’t know for sure if you’re into women. I took a chance.”
“I am. I’m bi.”
“Oh, cool. I’m pan,” Maggie told her. “I’m also poly. I hope that’s okay.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Dana said and finally took that drink.
“Well, it tends to be an issue for people, but I like to be upfront about it if I’m going out with someone.
I have a boyfriend and a girlfriend. We don’t live together or anything, but I usually split my time between them unless one of us is dating someone else, too.
Right now, my girlfriend is seeing another woman, but my boyfriend doesn’t have anyone else.
It confuses some people, but it works for us. ”
“That’s cool. I don’t judge. Do your thing; you know?”
“Yeah?” Maggie opened a water bottle for herself. “Do you maybe want to go out tonight, then? We could just grab a drink, and if that goes well, we can talk about doing something else.”
“Oh,” she said. “I can’t.”
“You can’t?”
“I’m working, and then, I have plans,” Dana lied.
“With the person you’re not officially dating?”
“We’re trying to figure things out,” she said.
“Okay. Well, if you change your mind, let me know. I’m here for the next two months, you know? Not looking for anything serious, but it would be nice to have some fun or get to know someone in New Orleans while I’m here.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Dana replied, knowing that she wouldn’t.
After Maggie-who-wasn’t-Maggie left her trailer, Dana threw her trash away and sat back on the sofa, wishing she had some clarity on the Samara situation but already knowing she didn’t want anyone else.
She decided to text her to see if maybe they could make some plans, after all, since she’d just lied to someone about having them to begin with.
Dana Sterling: Hey. How’s your day off going?
Okay, so she’d chickened out about the whole making plans thing and gone with a lame intro text to see if Samara would respond.
Samara Barber: It’s great. How’s your non-day off going?
Dana smiled and typed.
Dana Sterling: It’s great? Really? What are you doing?
Samara Barber: I took your advice and went on a tour. I had Rory as my guide. Jill wasn’t running one today.
Dana Sterling: You went to NOLA Guides?
Samara Barber: You recommended it the other day. It was fun. I did the French Quarter one. I thought about doing the food one just to try a few new things, but that gave me anxiety, so I skipped it.
Dana Sterling: Did you wear the wig and glasses?
Samara Barber: I did, yes. I’m Mara, a tourist from Idaho, today. I have three cats and no love life.
Dana laughed and typed a response.
Dana Sterling: Do you even know anything about Idaho?
Samara Barber: No, but no one’s asked me anything yet. I’m about to go on another one. We’re doing a historical tour next. It’s two hours long, and I’m going to take pictures like a real tourist. I’m going method for this performance.
Dana Sterling: That sounds like fun.
Samara Barber: How’s it going there? Everything okay?
Dana Sterling: Yeah. We’re actually on schedule, if you can believe it.
They are resetting right now, but we’re about to get back to it.
Hey, do you remember the name of the actress playing Maggie?
I feel like such an asshole, but I’ve been calling her Maggie in my head.
We just had lunch, and I genuinely could not remember her damn name.
Samara Barber: Kathy. I heard Reed call her name the other day. You two had lunch?
Dana smirked and typed.
Dana Sterling: Yeah. She just left.
Samara Barber: Good. That’s good. She’s good.
Dana laughed to herself at that, knowing Samara might just be a little jealous.
Dana Sterling: I’ve got to get back out there. Have fun on your tour.
Samara Barber: When are you done tonight?
Dana smiled again and typed.
Dana Sterling: Who knows? But I’ve been told we should wrap up around eight tonight because we only have the location until nine anyway.
Samara Barber: Want to have a late dinner with me? My place?
Dana Sterling: You mean your hotel room that you hate?
Samara Barber: I checked out of that one today. I’m in a new place. I’m paying for it myself because I wanted a decent bathtub and a gym that’s operational. This place has actual room service, and there are vegan options for me and meat options for you.
Dana Sterling: Send me the hotel info, and I’ll text you when I’m leaving here.