“I thought that was what I said,” Rita said and smiled. “The trick is to stand out. Remember Chris Pratt and the things he did?”
“You mean running in high heels and screaming?” I asked.
“Exactly. He showed his fun side and stole the interviews. Everyone was talking about him the next day, not the girl he was on with,” Rita said.
“I honestly can’t remember who he was on with. I do remember liking her in the movie, but I can’t remember her name,” Tracy said.
“My point exactly. Just be your goofy self, and you’ll do fine.”
We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the California weather. Halle, Pam, and Tracy were going sailing tomorrow on one of Halle’s friend’s boats. Mom and Dad planned a trip to Napa Valley. Sandy was going home.
I would be on a plane to New York with Frank and Caryn. Adrienne had called and said I could stay with her and Tyler while I was there. The studio had provided me with two rooms for New York and Chicago, so I would only need to pay for an extra room when we were in Chicago.
When the evening was done, I returned to the main house with Rita. Halle stayed at the beach house with Tracy and Pam. When we returned home, Bandit was waiting by the door, looking for his mom.
“Halle isn’t coming home,” I explained to him as I picked him up.
“Can he sleep with you?” Rita asked.
“Sure,” I said and took him to my room.
Bandit helped me pack for my trip. He’d been alone all day, so he was a little wound up. He brought me his squeaky mouse. I threw it for him, and he would chase it and kill it. At least it should be dead, from all the noise it made. For a kitten, he was a lot of fun.
◊◊◊ Saturday January 2
Caryn and I made the trip to LAX in silence. I was deep in thought about the coming week. My concern was over how it would change my life. I had a stupid idea of just skipping the whole thing because I was afraid of what this coming week would do to my life. I was about to step out onto a much larger stage. Yeah, I’d flirted with it, but in my gut, I knew this was different. If our movie was a hit, and what Saul and Frank were telling me proved correct, I would be famous. Not Rita James famous, but enough so people would recognize me when I walked down the street. I wasn’t just talking about LA either, which was a world in and of itself.
My theory had always been that everyone at home would treat me the same. I’d started to wonder if that was true. I wasn’t worried about my friends. It was everyone else who concerned me.
I was jerked out of my self-contemplation when we pulled up to the curb. Caryn started to get out, but I stopped her. She’d forgotten Fritz’s rules. He came around and let us out. We’d parked next to baggage check. We all had our boarding passes on our cell phones. I had a small bag with my tablet in it that I’d take with me on the plane. I checked a garment bag and a suitcase.
Next stop was TSA. I did the whole ‘hands up’ pose as I was scanned.
“Sir, you’ve been randomly selected to have a full check.”
Great! They took me off behind a screen, and I was told to put my arms out so they could run a hand wand over me. Then I was patted down. I didn’t appreciate being fondled. That was just the beginning of our problems at the airport.
Next, some dimwit left their car running at the passenger pickup area. That caused the airport to go on terror alert and shut down, which only took two hours to straighten out. Then there was even more entertainment. We were all boarded and backing out of the gate when an alarm suddenly rang and there was a commotion in the back of the plane. An elderly woman had thought the latch for the emergency door over the wing was a coat rack, or that was what she decided to use it for. I never realized that if you pulled the latch, the door just falls into the cabin.
They simply shoved it back into the slot and closed the door. Wow. I guess if the alarm quit ringing, we were good to go. There was no reason to check a door that would just fall out like that on a flight from LA to New York. What could possibly go wrong?
◊◊◊
I dropped Frank and Caryn off at the St. Regis Hotel. I received texts from Craig Wild and Bree Steno to let me know they were also staying at the St. Regis. They wanted to get everyone together for dinner to talk about tomorrow’s interviews.
When I arrived at Adrienne and Tyler’s, neither of them was in. They’d left me a key with the doorman and a note saying they’d gone to a shoot that was in trouble. I also had a note from Kara telling me that I was to call her as soon as I arrived. She made the trip up to Adrienne’s condo.
I smiled as I let her in.
“Come here,” I said, pulling her into my arms and kissing her.
I never got over how attractive she was. I think what made her special, other than her incredible body, were her eyes. They seemed to pierce your soul. It was something that put her into a whole different category in comparison to other models.
