CHAPTER 32 #2
Dana’s first time in LA had started off way better than the time she’d planned to sleep on a friend’s couch.
Samara had taken her to the tourist traps while wearing a different wig, a baseball hat, and sunglasses, hoping not to be noticed, and they had escaped the Hollywood Walk of Fame without her being recognized.
After that, they’d gone to the Griffith Park Observatory through the back door, avoiding the crowd on the busy day, and Dana could see the Hollywood sign from just outside it.
Samara had made her take a selfie of the two of them with it behind them, just like the other tourists were doing.
They’d had lunch at a Thai place for Dana mainly, but Samara trusted the owner, and they’d made her tofu just how she liked it.
Then, Samara had taken her to Santa Monica Pier, where the crowd had been too massive for them to ride any rides or play games, so they’d walked along the beach and the Third Street Promenade, not going into any stores, but Dana hadn’t needed to shop today.
She’d been walking around the city with a woman she couldn’t get enough of.
When she was with Samara like this, she wasn’t with actress Samara Barber.
She was with Samara, the woman she was dating and definitely falling in love with.
“Sam?” she said once they were back in the car.
“Yeah?” Samara asked, looking over at her.
“Can we skip the other sights today? I’m here for a couple of weeks.”
“Too much in one day?” Samara asked.
“A little. But I also want to go home and just… hang out with you,” she replied, nodding toward the driver.
“Ah.” Samara winked at her. “Dinner?”
“Can we move up the reservation?”
Samara laughed and said, “Dana, we were doing dinner next. This is Los Angeles; it’s going to take us at least an hour to get there. We might even be late for our reservation.”
Dana wanted to reach over and take Samara’s hand, but the driver would be able to see, so she kept her hand to herself and stared out the window instead, taking in mostly the sights around the freeway as they drove to the restaurant Samara had picked out for them.
She liked LA so far. She knew she’d only seen a few places and that those places were made for tourists more than locals, but there was something about this place that made Dana feel at home.
She wasn’t sure how that was possible, but she’d always suspected it would happen.
Ever since she’d acted in her first play as a kid in school and learned about Los Angeles being the birthplace of cinema and where a lot of the studios still were, she had wanted to be there just to be around where it all happened.
New Orleans was her home, and it always would be, of course, but just stepping foot off the plane and into LAX, she had felt comfort and fear wash over her at the same time.
Fear because maybe she had been wrong this whole time, and she would hate it, and comfort because for the first time in her entire life, it felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
On top of that, she was with the person she was supposed to be with.
Dana turned to Samara then and tilted her head.
“No more wig?”
“For today, I was playing the part of Mara, the tourist from Santa Fe, but for dinner, I’m going to be playing the part of myself.”
Dana smiled at her and asked, “You’re not worried?”
She pointed to herself and hoped the driver wouldn’t notice.
“Baby steps, right?” Samara offered in response.
“But you’ll be with me. Do you want me to put the wig back on?
The restaurant is about as private as it can get, but odds are, someone will notice me and call someone else.
It could become a whole thing. You know, let me put it back on.
We’ll just have a nice dinner tonight, and I can do the whole dinner-as-myself thing with you another time. ”
Samara moved to put the wig back on her head.
“No,” Dana said. “I want you to be yourself tonight.”
“Are you sure? It might get a little crazy… People will wonder who you are.”
“Let them wonder,” Dana said and winked at her. “I’ll be with you. I’m good.”
“It’s easy to say that, Dana, but maybe we should have dinner at my place again tonight.”
“Samara?”
“Yes?”
“I like it here.”
“Okay.”
“I mean, I like it,” she said. “I know it’s only been one day, but it’s how I always thought it would be.”
“What’s that mean, exactly?”
“You know how you were worried about you and me… being long-distance friends?”
Samara nodded and gave her a smile that told Dana she knew what she meant.
“No promises, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Maybe I could make it work here.”
Samara smiled wider and asked, “Yeah? Really?”
“How does it feel like this to me?” she wondered out loud.
“Like home?” Samara guessed.
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“Because that’s how it feels to some people.
No one else understands it. Some people come here and absolutely hate it.
They never even want to visit again. But other people come here, and it’s just right.
It’s always felt that way to me. I never really feel like I belong anywhere.
I don’t know if that’s because of… you-know-what or something else entirely, but whenever I land in LA, I know I’m home.
I honestly don’t want to live anywhere else.
Vacation houses, sure, but as infuriating as this place can be because of traffic, tourists, and how expensive it is, it’s still where I want to be. ”
Dana nodded and turned to look out the window again, smiling because Samara understood.
Then, she felt it, so she looked down at her lap.
Samara’s hand had taken her own, entwining their fingers.
Dana looked at her to confirm that this was okay, and Samara gave her a soft smile before looking out her own window.