“You are going to give me back the phone one way or the other,” he said. “Just let me have my phone so we can have a nice evening without all this childish drama.”
“I want the evening to be nice without the phone in your ear. I had the ‘phone in your ear’ evening last night, Don.”
“Fine. Give it back to me and I’ll put it away. I promise.”
“Hmm.” She tilted her wine glass and drained it. “The same way you promised to pay me?”
“Gia …”
“Tonight, I’m Gina and you are Mr. Blanchard. We are a couple on a date and you are trying to woo me. Your motivation is that you are madly in love with me and you want me more than anything in the world. Now … start scene.”
Don gritted his teeth. “Damn it all, Gia, just give me my fucking phone.”
“Fucking phone?” She shrugged and stood up from the table. She reached over and picked up his glass. He reached for her cleavage again, but she backed away before he could retrieve his phone. She drank down the rest of his glass of wine and set the empty down next to hers. “If it is a fucking phone, then you know what you’ll need to do to get it back. Anything less than a head exploding orgasm won’t be enough. Bring your hands, mouth, and everything else when you are ready to pay your fucking phone bill, Don.”
“I’m sorry I raised my voice and cussed at you,” he said. “Give me back my phone, please.”
She shook her head and stepped away. “I don’t care if you are sorry, Don. Men are always sorry when they want something. You have to do more than be sorry.”
He held his hands out in front of him over the table. “You want me to have sex with you to get my phone back. Is that it? In the men’s room?”
Cameras clicked off pictures from across the room.
“Sounds good to me.” She turned and crossed the room.
“Gia!”
She didn’t look back to see, if he was following, but kept walking. People turned and watched her pass. She wasn’t sure if they recognized her or they were seeing something in her eyes.
Gia reached the men’s room door and looked around. No one was in the immediate area. She thought about a bar and dance floor where the payphones lined the walls outside the bathrooms. She wasn’t old enough to remember when everyone didn’t have a cell phone. She barely remembered seeing a phone that wasn’t a smart phone. Still, along that wall when she snuck in with a fake ID to flirt with married men over the bridge in Mount Seller, there were always one or two old, fat sad sacks on those payphones like a movie from the 1980’s. Every movie she had ever been in had some scene where the starlet lost her phone or reception was out for some reason.
She smiled and thought, you have to isolate the pretty girl with the big boobs in a world that is connected globally through the phone.
“Isolation is horror,” she said to the men’s room door.
She took up Don’s phone from between her tits and wondered; if her real life was a movie, would she be the monster that separated the hero from his phone? Don was coming toward her and was looking back and forth nervously. She liked seeing him on his heels a little. She waited until he was looking at her and she made sure she gave an exaggerated wink that he would be able to see from a distance even in the low light of the restaurant.
Cheat toward camera, she thought. And she slid the phone back into place down the front of her dress. She realized she had left her purse with her own phone back at the booth and hoped it would be okay. If he was a good negotiator, Don would have taken her phone and offered a trade. If he was a better negotiator, he would have more money and she would already be paid.
Gia pushed open the bathroom door and walked into the men’s room. It wasn’t as nice as the women’s room. She had been in their once to check her make-up since they arrived. There were couches and potted plants. The men’s room was fairly clean, but stark, fake marble. Tufts of toilet paper were wadded in the floor under the dark wood dividers of the stalls.
This was not going to be quite as sexy as she had pictured. She should have lured Don to the women’s room. They could have even used the couch. She supposed that she was less likely to get arrested going into the men’s room than he would be barging into the lady’s room. She also suspected that Don would chicken out and wait outside the lady’s room door for her, but he might follow her into the men’s room like she wanted. He had been the one to suggest the men’s room, so that thought came from somewhere. Either he fantasized about it or had banged some girl in a men’s room before.
She looked up and noticed two men standing by the sinks staring at her. One was older in a suit. The other was younger and wore a black, silk shirt with three buttons undone at the top. His chest looked smooth enough that she suspected it was waxed. If this were “that type” of movie, these guys would be joining in on the fun.
Instead, she said, “If you guys are finished, I’m going to need the room.”
The older man looked at the younger man next to him and shut off the water. He shook off his hands and walked around her without saying a word.
The younger man stopped next to her and said, “Are you in movies?”
“This is Los Angles,” she said. “Your waiter was probably in movies.”
He snapped his fingers. “You’re … ugh … Gina Nova, right?”
She patted his check. His face felt as smooth as his chest looked. “Close, baby. Get out.”
He smiled and stepped out of the bathroom. Before the door finished closing, it creaked back open and Gia turned to see Don standing with his fists on his hips like some knock off superhero. Don had his lips peeled back from his teeth so that it looked like he was smiling, if Gia did not know to look in his eyes and read the off focus that indicated anger. It was unnerving to see a man that smiled when he was angry like that.
“Give me my damn phone, Gia. This shit isn’t funny.”
She grabbed her breasts over the silver dress and pushed them against the phone between them. “I’m getting sweaty in there, Don. You’re lucky I didn’t oil them up for the big scene. That can’t be good for a phone.”
“Stop it. This nonsense isn’t cute. You’re not cute. You’re being a mean bitch.”
“Fucking phones and mean bitches,” she said shaking her head. “You have built quite the life for yourself, Mr. Blackheart.”
He took a step toward her and she took a step back and to the side. He stopped and held up his hands. “What are we doing here?”
“You are earning your keep, Don. Make me cum and you get to make phone calls again.”
She walked toward the open stalls. She picked one that was the cleanest and had no paper on the floor. She waved her hand in front of the sensor and flushed it anyway for good measure.
Don stepped into the doorway of the stall and stopped. “You can’t be serious with this.”
“I’m as series as a phone call,” Gia said sitting down on the front edge of the toilet seat in her silver dress.
“We are grown adults,” Don said. “We can just have sex at home instead of in some dirty bathroom like a couple of drug addicts.”
“You can use your phone at home,” Gia said, “if you get it back.”
He sighed, but she leaned forward grabbing him by his belt and pulling him into the stall with her. The toilet flushed behind her. She started undoing his belt and he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, real sexy, Gia.”
She started to unzip his fly and he pushed her hands away. He reached for her chest and she thought he was going for it, but then she remembered the phone there. She shoved his hands away and stood up. The toilet flushed again.
Gia pushed him up against the divider across from her. He spread his hands out to brace himself and keep his balance. Don’s finger tips hit the toilet paper roll spilling a streamer of it out onto the tile under them.
“This is so stupid,” he growled. He refastened his belt.
She hiked one leg up onto the edge of the toilet seat. It flushed again and she felt dro
plets hit her ankle and her cheek. She tried to ignore it.
Gia took one of Don’s hands from his belt and fed it up under her dress. “Make me feel good, Don.”
His lips pulled back in his odd smile again. His eyes seemed focused, but he didn’t exactly look happy. His fingers brushed over the material of her thong between her legs and she gasped. He rubbed up and down and she shifted position slightly. The toilet flushed and she felt the drizzle on her exposed skin that came with the deafening roar of the water echoing off the marble tiled walls.
His fingers curled inside her thong and teased her flesh to flesh with his knuckles. She bit her lip and closed her eyes as he pressed in deeper.
His face moved in close to hers and she tilted her chin up. As he spoke, she felt his lips brush against her neck and the warmth of his breath on her skin.
Don whispered, “Does that feel good?”
His fingers slid through the full length of her wetness. The toilet flushed again roaring at them and sprinkling her.
She breathed out. “Yes.”
He grabbed his phone out of her cleavage and pulled his hand away from her out from under her dress. She opened her eyes to see that he was already scrolling as he walked away from the stall.
“Grow the hell up, Gia.”
“Are you kidding me?” she said.
He stopped at the sink and washed the hand he had used on her. Don looked at her in the mirror as he pulled a paper towel out of the dispenser. “I’m getting my dinner delivered and I’m going home. You are welcome to stay and eat alone or come home with me, if you can behave yourself. I’m getting too old for this Hollywood bullshit.”
She stepped out of the stall and there was one more flush behind her. Gia spoke above the roar. “You are all in the bullshit, Donald. It’s just got to be all about you.”
“Call me when you get over whatever has got you in this mood,” he said as he walked toward the door.
“Pay me for acting in your stupid, fucking movie, you deadbeat.”
“Wow.” He shook his head without turning back toward her. “You are a piece of work since you got a little bit of attention thanks to me.”
“How about you get me a ring for our engagement too?”
He opened the door. “Let me make some calls and earn some damn money then, you psycho.”
As the door swung closed, she screamed, “Fuck you!”
Her voice split the air in the bathroom. It was a sound that would have challenged the editors of one of her scream queen classics. She had a technique for bringing the noise up from her diaphragm to keep from hurting her throat. She had not used it for her scream in the bathroom though. That had been all raw anger and her throat hurt making her swallow over and over to soothe it.
By the time she returned to the table, he had left. Don had paid, but he had left both meals. Whatever he was having delivered, it was not the meals he had bought for their wonderful engagement dinner. She boxed them both up and called for a ride.
***
Gia stood on the curb in the same silver dress from the Hellmouth premier holding her two Styrofoam boxes. Sunlight cut at a harsh angle along the buildings across the street. Photographers snapped pictures of her as she stared forward trying to pretend everything was fine. Even they got bored of waiting and turned their attention to other people.
A silver Prius pulled up and Gia narrowed her eyes. She climbed into the passenger’s side balancing her trays and closed the door. It was the same girl from the previous night. She had her auburn hair in two cute pigtails that made her neck look skinnier. She wore jeans and a faded t-shirt from a band that Gia didn’t recognize. Sound May Suffer was printed over the distressed picture of the band. Gia wasn’t sure if that was the band name or the album name. The jeans were just plain, faded denim. Gia thought they might even be boy’s jeans, but on the girl’s thin legs they looked like skinny jeans. She wore leather sandals with her toenails painted black.
Gia sighed as photographers brought their attention back around to snap a few more shots. She bet that this girl never got turned down for blowjobs or left at restaurants.
She pointed to the seatbelt buckle beside Gia’s seat. Gia fought to balance the food on her lap as she reached for the belt. The girl reached out and held them in place, so that Gia could use both hands to buckle in.
Gia took back hold of the trays. “Thank you.”
The girl smiled and took hold of the wheel with both hands as she pulled away from the restaurant. “No problem. This is nicer than the parking lot behind the bodega. Moving up in the world?”
Gia laughed and adjusted the strap of her purse on her shoulder. “More like moving sideways … or in a vicious circle.”
She said, “Back home this time?”
Gia looked forward and sighed. “Yeah.”
“Did you have a bad night or evening or afternoon, I guess? It is still daylight so it can’t be that bad already, can it?”
Gia shook her head. “I crash and burn fast. Plenty of time to go home and eat two dinners.”
“See. You got two dinners out of the night. That’s something.”
Gia slid her phone out of her purse. There were already tweets and grainy pictures of her going into the men’s room. Half of them said she had banged Don for an hour. The other half said they had fought and stormed out separately. Instant media was a fickle “frenemy.”
“I’m Gia, by the way.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m Susan.”
Gia looked at the girl driving for a while, but her eyes remained forward on the road. Gia asked, “Do you recognize me then?”
Susan gave a slight wince. “Nothing personal. I have your name from the Uber call. You could have gotten my name from there too. I’m sure you are great in whatever you are in.”
“Yeah, okay.”
There was already a blog post on the Horror, Whores, and Fandom site. It had a picture of her climbing into the Prius with the headline “Trouble in Paradise?” Gia exited the site without reading it. That dude did not like her or her work. She had not even seen him tonight. He had thick eyebrows and always wore purple.
She scrolled through her messages. The bottom tray was burning her knees through the Styrofoam. Don texted to apologize and said to call him tomorrow. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“I’m going to end up marrying the jerk anyway,” Gia whispered.
Susan laughed. “I wouldn’t put that in the vows.”
Gia saw a message from Jack the Liker and her thumb hovered above the button for the thread. “He doesn’t find me funny. That line would probably fall in that same category.”
“You should find a guy that appreciates you,” Susan said.
Gia tapped the button and saw the message: You look good. I’m not stalking. There are pictures online from you going to the restaurant with your fiancé. That’s the perfect dress for any occasion. Enjoy your night. You deserve it.
Gia blinked to keep tears from rolling down. She said, “I’d just be satisfied with a guy that pays me on time.”
Susan laughed. “Oh, it’s like that, huh?”
Gia lifted her eyes and looked out at the road as she thought about what she had said, “No, not like that. My fiancé was the director of my last movie … so I guess it is almost exactly like that. And I will probably marry the jerk anyway.”
Susan made the next turn. “Well, you have your vows half written at least.”
Gia looked back down. She typed: I’m in a weird place right now and in a weirder mood. I want to do something crazy. Do you want to play a little game with me, Jack?
She added a purple, horned devil. If she could find one with thick eyebrows, she would have used that emoji. Her thumb hovered again and she prepared to backspace to delete the whole comment.
“What did he do to upset you tonight?” Susan asked.
Gia paused for another beat and sent the message. She slipped her phone back into her purse. “He wouldn’t stop looking a
t … ugh, he wouldn’t pay attention to me. I started teasing him and he got shitty about it.”
Susan pulled up to the curb and Gia climbed out. She paused staring up at her second floor apartment thinking about the hat. She smelled onions and had a strong urge to ask Susan to come up and eat with her. Between inviting a potential online stalker into her life and inviting an Uber driver stranger up to eat with her, it was like she was trying to get herself killed. Still, eating alone was no fun.
Gia turned around and leaned into the Prius. Susan smiled. “You are all paid up. Good luck with your jerk. I have to get to another pick up.”
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