Another sad tidbit about America’s Leading Lady, as one site had called her when I pulled up a search on my phone. I didn’t have Wi-Fi here, but I wasn’t above doing the occasional internet search over my wireless. I’d scanned maybe three articles this morning before I stopped, realizing that pretty much everything written about Tori was either a lie, a salacious rumor, or both.
“Since you can’t have dairy, I won’t offer you any cereal,” I said. “But I could make you a piece of toast.”
Tori shook her head. “No thanks. I can’t eat this early in the morning.”
“What’s your plan today?” I asked, sitting across from her and sipping my coffee.
She’d invited herself to stay here last night, but we’d never discussed how long it would be before she headed back to L.A. I assumed a woman like Tori could only slum it with the common folk for so long.
“I don’t have one. What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Well, the weather is going to be nice, so I was planning to go hiking before we get back to nonstop rain. Then I’ll come home and do some laundry.”
“I’ll go hiking with you, if that’s okay.”
I frowned. “You don’t have any clothes or hiking boots.”
She was already thumbing something into her phone. “Don’t worry, Pepper will have what I need here in an hour.”
Sure enough, less than an hour later we heard a knock on the door. When I opened it, there was a box on my stoop, but it was addressed to me not Tori. I opened it, pulling out a couple days’ worth of casual clothes, two bras, a three-pack of bikini underwear, hiking boots, a lighter jacket, two wigs, a trucker hat, and a pair of oversized sunglasses.
I stared at everything in amazement. “Pepper works fast.”
“She’s the best,” Tori agreed.
“The place we’re going to is pretty secluded,” I told Tori. “It’s a little too far out and too hilly for a lot of casual hikers so hopefully no one will bug you. But it’s definitely not an easy trail.”
“That sounds perfect, I can get a workout in at the same time. Burn off some of the calories I ate yesterday.”
“Does everyone do that in Hollywood?” I asked.
“What?” She cocked her head, the motion endearing.
“Talk about food and weight all the time.”
She paused, and I could practically see her rewinding the conversation. “Huh, I guess I do talk about that a lot.”
“You’ve mentioned something related to weight or calories at least half a dozen times in the twenty-four hours I’ve known you,” I said. “There are way more interesting things to talk about than women’s bodies and weight. I understand you’re trying to meet some impossibly high standards for your career, but maybe you can try going a day without worrying about it.”
She stuck her hand out to shake. “It’s a deal.”
After we shook, she held onto my hand, her eyes fixed on where our skin touched. I knew she could feel that now-familiarbuzzing between us. When she leaned towards me, I met her halfway, pressing a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth before I pulled back. She looked disappointed.
“We’d better not start that,” I said, feeling equally disappointed. “Then we’ll be making out all morning instead of hiking.”
“There are worse ways to spend the day,” she grumbled, but she pulled on the athletic jacket Pepper had sent over and then tucked her hair under the trucker’s hat. “Let’s go before we change our minds.”
Tori
Hailey was the most fascinating person I’d ever met. Astute too. She’d picked up on things I hadn’t told her and hadn’t been afraid to call me out on the weight and body talk. I appreciated it. That kind of talk was so standard in Hollywood I hadn’t even realized that I was doing it until she pointed it out.
How much of my brain space was taken up with thoughts of calories and fat counts, I wondered. It would be easy to blame my mother for that, and it certainly had started with her, but she was just repeating what everyone else in Hollywood was saying. Thin was in and always had been, despite a few token ‘inclusive sizing’ models and stars.
I wondered what it would be like to eat what sounded good, without any thoughts of weight or calories. I’d certainly enjoyed it yesterday, at least until all the dairy hit my belly.
I resolved to work on breaking free of the internalized diet talk that had plagued me most of my life. Now that I was aware that I was doing it, it left a bad taste in my mouth. No pun intended.
We drove for about half an hour before Hailey turned onto a Forest Service road, her little sedan kicking up rocks as she carefully maneuvered up the road to a spot where several cars were parked in a tiny parking lot.
