“She liked it.” Deep sigh.
I said, “You never saw this guy at any of the openings?”
“No way,” said Bethany. “He’s not what they want. For girls they want you with a face, for guys it’s famous or super-rich.”
“Situation like that,” I said, “you could get hassled.”
“Oh sure, we got hit on all the time,” said Tori, “but that’s guy-nature, you have to know how to smile them away.”
“It never got messy,” said Bethany. “We know our thing.”
Tori said, “Talk to the hand, walk to nowhere land. Also there was always plenty of security and to be honest, the old rich guys were kind of cute. Winking and making jokes. Not taking it seriously, know what I mean?”
Bethany said, “Like it was a game. Some old rich guy would be like ‘Hey, gorgeous,’ and maybe you’d listen to him for a minute. Then you’d like give him a nice smile and move on.”
Milo said, “How’d Marissa get on the list?”
Dual shrugs.
Tori said, “Maybe something she saw online or inVariety? I really don’t know.”
Bethany said, “Could beVariety,it’s stupid but she’d buy it because she wanted to act and sometimes they’d have cattle calls. I looked at one of her copies once, this Mr. Hollywood column, really dumb.”
Milo said, “The acting scene.”
“She was always into it. In high school she tried out for plays but she never got parts because she had learning problems—had trouble memorizing lines. So they put her on the stage crew.”
Tori said, “She criedsomuch about that.”
Bethany said, “She really, really did. But then she got over it. And into it. Being in the crew. She did lighting and was pretty good at it.”
I said, “That didn’t stop her acting ambitions.”
Bethany said, “That’sexactlywhat it was.Ambitions.This…wanting…trying…putting out so much energy even though you’re not getting anywhere. One time she told me, ‘I’m on a treadmill, Nee, but treadmills can be good exercise for you.’ ”
She began to cry.
Tori hugged her. Bethany’s head lowered to Tori’s shoulder.
Milo held up a napkin. Tori took it and dabbed her friend’s eyes.
“Marissa was so sweet,” she said. “She liked taking care of the old people, it really made her feel good. We’d say why don’t you do more of that, like become a nurse or something, you’re great at it. But she was like I’m not ready to give up my passion. I need flexibility for cattle calls.”
Bethany said, “I’m like why would you want to think of yourself as a cow? But I didn’t say it, I just thought it.”
I said, “She get any parts?”
Tori said, “Nothing with lines, just a few crowd scenes. She’d get like a hundred bucks and the on-lot catering, which she said was incredible. But she wouldn’t eat the catering because she didn’t want to look bloated just in case someone noticed her.”
“Like a producer.”
“Anyone who could help her. Hey, maybe that’s where she met him, a cattle call.”
Bethany said, “Maybe. He’s nothing but a lot of bull.”
Weak smile from her friend.
Milo said, “Those openings. How often did she attend them?”
