Free Naked in LA by Colin Falconer

asking him where it was, he would have torn it up and tossed it away. It seemed Angel was finally jealous of someone.
    I left the diamond necklace he gave me on the table.
    “Goodbye, Angel,” I said.
    “You’ll be back.”
    “No, I won’t.” I said, and this time he must have known it was true.
     
     
     
     

Chapter 16 

     
     
    It was a bright, warm day when we buried Amancio Fuentes.
    Statues of angels stood guard above those who could afford them, those who couldn’t made do with a few words of praise in Spanish or Italian, some sculpted marble and perhaps a photograph. Family crypts extended like a city street along a narrow walking path.
    I had an umbrella to keep off the sun. I was touched by how many of Papi’s old friends had come, though a few of them looked as if they weren’t doing that well themselves. One of them used to own one of the best restaurants in Havana, now he was the janitor at a high school.
    The priest said a few words and we lowered him into the ground. Lena held tightly onto my arm during the committal.
    Afterwards I told her I wanted to be alone for a while and she said she’d wait for me by the gate. I stood in the shade of a cedar out of the Florida sun, listening to the whisper of the leaves overhead, the call of a jaybird.
    When I left, Angel was waiting for me in the back of his Chrysler. His driver wore oversized sunglasses and stood in the shade of the trees smoking a cigarette. I saw some men out on the road watching the car through binoculars, taking photographs. Either press or the police, I supposed.
    I stopped by the car. He wound down the window.
    “Thank you for coming.”
    “This doesn’t have to be the end,” he said.
    “I’m leaving tomorrow morning. I’m going to Los Angeles.”
    “Still this acting shit?”
    “Yes, Angel. The acting shit. ”
    “You’ll end up a stripper, they all do.”
    “I’ll take my chances. I’ve got dreams, Angel.”
    “Everybody’s got dreams, what they end up with is reality.”
    “Well some realities are better than others.”
    “Fuck you,” he said and wound up the window. Then he wound it down again. “I ever find out you’re with Reyes, I’ll kill you both.”
    And the limousine drove away, out of the gates.
     

     
    I took a last look at the flat. It had been home for three years, ever since we arrived in Miami. All I had ever dreamed of was to one day get away from it. Now I lingered, couldn’t tear myself away.
    There must be thousands of girls out there like me, I thought, who dreamed about becoming a movie star. Angel was right, most girls ended up as waitresses or strippers. But I was not going to think about them, or the odds stacked against me, because I knew I was going to be the one dreaming the hardest.
    Besides, whatever happened, I would have my self-respect, and that was going to be important because now, whatever I did, Papi would be watching me. When he was alive I could lie to him; now that he was dead, he could see everything I did.
    I couldn’t get Angel’s voice out of my head: I ever find out you’re with Reyes, I’ll kill you both . He hadn’t scared me, he had given me hope, suggested the possibility of finding Reyes again. But surely that was over after he’d seen me with Angel in the Fontainebleau.
    Lena was waiting outside in the car, she had offered to give me a ride to the bus station. I shut the door firmly behind me, picked up my suitcase and walked away from Miami.
     
     
     
     

Chapter 17

     
    Los Angeles
     
     
    It was a hot day in the Valley. It wasn’t even summer and I was sweating as soon as I stepped out of the shower. I stood in front of the fan, naked, to put on my make-up. The last thing I did was shrug on my uniform and check my purse. I would just about make rent this week; the photographer who took my folio shots had cost a lot damned more than I had counted on. I knew this was going to be hard but not this damned hard. I didn’t even have an agent