“I know you’re here, bitch” the voice yells. I look around for the angry woman, ready to watch the catfight that is clearly coming.
“MIA, where are you, bitch?”
Mia? She’s looking for me! Still clutching my drink and plate, I scan the crowd. From the sound of her voice, I’m thinking of ducking into the bathroom.
It’s exactly like an after-school fight. All the ritzy philanthropists and art lovers in Long Beach are forming a circle to watch. “Excuse me, but would you hold my wine?” I ask the person next to me. I don’t want to spill it when the fight starts.
I toss my hair like a pony as my attacker enters the circle. It isn’t a woman, though. It’s JP.
I gasp in horror and lean against the deli counter to catch my breath.
“Ma’am!”
I blink and look again. No table of raw oysters on a bed of ice. No artfully arranged rolls of sushi. I’m back at Vons where the sushi is prepackaged and ready to go.
The guy behind the deli counter repeats himself. “Ma’am? Do you need something? Are you okay?”
I answer without looking at him. I’m looking for Max. “Sorry, I’m fine.”
“So you don’t want the three-roll combo?”
“No thanks. Sorry!”
I spot Max. He’s in front of the Naked juices thinking way too hard about something. “Max!”
“What is it?” he asks. “Did something happen?” He sets down a Green Machine juice.
“I just remembered something. A woman was calling me a bitch and talking about her man, but then she disappeared and JP was standing there, but he was angry. I don’t know…it was confusing.”
“Just sit down for a minute. You’ll probably start having more of these, especially when you talk about the events. It sounds like your mind is putting pieces together but still working out what should go where.”
He steers me toward the front of the store and we sit in the in-store Starbucks. I drink a whole bottle of water and swallow some meds while Max waits patiently. I’m reeling from the vision, not to mention the headache. Thank God Max is here. Knowing that I’m not going through this alone is everything to me right now. I reach out for his hand and he gives mine a supportive squeeze in return. Tears of gratitude start to well in my eyes. I can’t believe I have this man to help me through this.
For his part, I think he might just be waiting out my recovery,which is confirmed when he says, “That double bacon sandwich looks good.”
I can’t help but laugh at the wholeMen Are from Mars, Women Are from Venusaspect of this moment. Either way, I appreciate the support. A moment later, I let go of his hand because I’m totally buying this Martian a double bacon sandwich.37
I’m not sure if he notices that I’m sort of crying in line while I get him a sandwich or if he’s just pretending not to because—tears, I get it. No judgment either way. Do I do tears? I doubt it.
When I hand him the sandwich, he must notice that I look a little off. I mean, I am crying in a grocery store where we’re buying headache medicine because of my traumatic head injury and we just left the police station where I belatedly reported an assault.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I’m fine,” I say with a smile that probably looks as fake as it feels.
Max unwraps his sandwich and says, “Great. Do you still want to go to that casting call?”38
“Do we have a choice?”
“I still think it’s a dumb idea, for the record.”
I don’t mention that it’s not my first choice either. Barely holding back tears at Vons says that loud and clear, but whatevs. I decide to be as fine as I told Max I was. “It’s the only idea was have. Let’s go make some wannabe actress’s day and cast her as Crystal.”
35Ha!
36Brilliant, right?
37More like letting JP buy him a sandwich if we’re doing proper accounting, which obviously isn’t my thing.
