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.
CHAPTER 24
Samara had changed hotels that morning. The thought of spending one more night with that AC unit making sounds that she was certain meant it was about to die soon, seeing the stains on the sofa in the living room, or listening to the freezer make sounds as well, was just too much for her to deal with after the previous night when she’d hardly been able to sleep.
She had kissed Dana in Dana’s car after a non-date that had felt very much like a brief double date between them and Dana’s friends. She had even put her hand on Dana’s thigh after Dana had wrapped her arm around Samara. Well, Dana had wrapped her arm around Samara’s chair, but everyone knew that when someone did that, it meant something. And maybe Dana had just been trying to protect her, but that meant something, too.
In the car, she had wanted to say more. She’d wanted to tell Dana that she liked her, but that she had never been with a woman, so she might be bad at this. She might need Dana’s patience as she tried to figure out what she wanted to do. Liking someone didn’t mean Samara had to go for it. After all, she had really just wanted to have sex with a woman for the first time; she wasn’t looking for a girlfriend or a lifelong commitment. Her plan had been a simple one: star in this movie, hopefully get an award nomination or two or, at least, someone telling her she was believable as a gay woman, and then, come out if she was ready to tell the world that she was bisexual. Then, she would date and maybe actually commit to someone if someone had her interested enough to consider that. If not, at least she would’ve done it: been brave and told the world that she liked women, too.
