“Yeah, that would be nice. Let me change out of these clothes first, though, or wardrobe would kill me.”
“Oh, yeah. Me too. Meet you at your trailer?”
Ten minutes later, Samara stood outside her own trailer, waiting for Dana, and the biggest man she’d ever seen stood close by, wearing a black T-shirt that showed off all hismuscles and a tighter pair of jeans, if that was even possible.
“Ready?” Dana asked when she emerged.
“Let’s go. This is–”
“Hey, Danny,” Dana said.
“Hey. You two ready to go? I’ve got a car ready,” the security guy said.
“We’re going to walk. Is that okay?”
“Sure.”
“Can you walk, like, twenty feet behind us?” Dana requested. “I think Samara can be incognito well enough, but people will noticeyoufrom a mile away.”
Danny laughed and gave her a nod.
“So, why do you want to go to the bar?” Dana asked her.
“I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to see where it all went down. Two soulmates met, got separated, and found each other again a year later. It sounds nice.”
“Yeah, it does,” Dana replied, and they started walking.
???
“I tolerated it,” Samara said twenty minutes later, when they arrived in the Quarter.
“Tolerated New Orleans?” Dana asked.
“I was here for a bachelorette party. They made us all wear penis hats. I wasn’t exactly thrilled.”
“But that’s the party. You didn’t like the city?”
“It’s nice enough. A little too humid for me, but that’s more my… issues than anything else. It was a fun weekend. I was just really tired, and it was hard to find food for me, so I didn’t eat right.”
“Your sister knows, though, right?”
“She does. But it was her party, so I didn’t want to make it about me. I’m already Samara Barber, you know? Everywhere we go, she has to deal with people wanting pictures or autographs, and it’s been that way since we were little.”
“She didn’t want to be an actress, too?”
“Not at all. My mom asked her when I started gettingparts, but she wasn’t interested.”
“And you still love it? What you do?” Dana asked.
“I do,” she said. “If I didn’t, I’d stop. I have more than enough money at this point, and I’m sure I could find things to occupy my time.”
“Like a boyfriend?” Dana asked. “Oh, I almost walked past it.” She nodded. “Here it is.”
“This is the place?”
“Yeah,” Dana replied. “Let’s go in.”
Samara followed her into the bar, which wasn’t super crowded yet, but there were still at least a hundred people on the dance floor in front of the corner stage and by the bar, ordering drinks.
