Samara nodded and said, “Sit, please.”
She motioned to the table where she had left her phone and script.
“Okay.”
“Drink?” Samara asked.
“I’m okay.”
“Really? You’re sweating a little. It’s unseasonably warm today. I saw it hit eighty, and I thought it was supposed to be in the sixties this time of year here.”
“Yeah,” Dana said, but offered nothing else.
Samara pulled out two cold sparkling waters and placed them on the table.
“Okay. Well, I’m going to eat as we talk, if that’s okay.”
“I don’t think I have much of an option,” Dana replied.
“You haven’t been kidnapped, Dana. If you really want to go, you can. I’m not trying to keep you here against your will.” Samara sat down next to Dana with her food and took her first bite of the grilled eggplant. “Perfect,” she added with a smile. “Thank you, by the way.”
“What for?”
“Bringing it here in that ridiculous warmer. Why is it so large?”
“It’s all we had, and you didn’t want your food to touch anyone else’s. I thought that would be the safest way. I asked my boss to buy one of those warmer bag things so that I can just carry that next time.”
Samara smiled at the thought before she remembered that Dana wasn’t doing that for her. She was doing it to keep her job, or at least her boss’s job. Samara wiped the smile off her face and took another bite, chewing before she said anything else.
“So, you’re an actress?” she asked.
“Uh… Yeah,” Dana replied. “Bryce said this morning that you were the one who recommended that they get me to audition.”
“I was,” she said, feeling proud of herself.
Then, she tried to open the screw top on her sparklingwater, but Dana took it from her and cracked the top open for her without a word, setting it back down in front of her.
“Why?”
“Why what?” she asked, a little taken aback and shaking herself out of Dana just opening her bottle like that.
“Why did you recommend me? How did you know I acted?”
“I overheard you talking to Grace yesterday,” she said. “And I thought that since you were here already, it might be a good idea.”
“Got it,” Dana replied. “Convenience thing.”
“Technically, I’ve also seen a little of your work,” she said and swallowed.
“My work? Huh?”
“Well, I overheard you working with Grace by the catering tent. I know you were playing my part, but I thought you were decent. I only overheard a piece of it, obviously, so I suggested to Bryce that if you have some acting experience already, we should just audition you and see. Then, when I went back to my dreadful hotel last night, I found some of your plays on YouTube and watched a few snippets.”
“The community theater stuff?”
“Yes,” Samara confirmed and took another bite.
“It’s just local community theater.”
