Free Naked in LA by Colin Falconer Page B

movie at the moment. “Uppity Princess Gets Lesson in Humility From Life.””
    “Catchy title. But I think you need something shorter, it will never fit on a poster.”
    I checked my watch. I’d missed the bus.
    “Running late?”
    “Reyes, let me lay it out for you if you haven’t already guessed: I have no money, I have no prospect of making any, and my only hope of survival is the job I have at a diner about five miles from here across town. I just missed my bus, and my boss told me if I was ever late again, he’d fire me.”
    “Well I can’t let you lose a job that lets you wear such great clothes. Let me give you a lift.”
     

     
    There was a red and white Roadster parked out the front. He held the door for me. “Nice car,” I said.
    “You’re going to get a little windswept.”
    He jumped in behind the wheel and we headed out towards the Santa Monica Boulevard.
    “So why did you leave Miami?” he said.
    “Well, after Papi died, there was no more reason to stay.”
    “What about Angel?”
    “He was helping me. I’m not in love with him anymore, Reyes, despite what you think.”
    “That day at the Fontainebleau, when he said jump, you said how high.”
    “That wasn’t love, Reyes.”
    He kept his eyes on the road. I wondered what he was thinking.
    “What did he say about me?”
    “He said you stole all the money out of Papi’s safe after we left Havana.”
    I expected an outraged denial. Instead he just looked amused. “Is that the best he could do?”
    “Did you?”
    “I heard the villa got ransacked; I went round there to take a look. I guessed there would be a safe, so I took a gentleman with me who knows about these things.”
    I held my breath. If Reyes had stolen my father’s money, I was going to get out of the car right here on the freeway. “And?”
    “We got the money, fifty thousand pesos. But the Beards found out about it and raided my apartment. I had to hand it over. They gave me a receipt. Do you want it?”
    “What did you plan to do with the money?”
    He took his eyes off the road for a moment to look at me. “Give it back to your father. It was his.”
    “Why would you do that?”
    “A personal favour.”
    “To him?”
    “To you.”
    I wanted to believe him and I could see why Angel would lie about it. And anyway he was right, even if he did take it, there was nothing he could do with fifty thousand Cuban pesos except paper the walls with them.
    “Why didn’t you look for me when you came back to America?”
    “I’m not going to chase a woman who wants someone else.”
    “But I didn’t want someone else, I wanted you.”
    I couldn’t believe I’d just said that. I waited for his reaction. There wasn’t one. I guess he didn’t believe me.
    “That night of the wedding…when you saw us together. It wasn’t how it seemed.”
    “I guess it doesn’t matter now.”
    “Or maybe it does.”
    I couldn’t be plainer than that. I wasn’t going to beg.
    “So how’s life as an actress?”
    “I wouldn’t know, I can’t even get an agent.”
    “It’s a tough town.”
    “I’ve come full circle; back waiting tables in another diner. I’ve thought about maybe doing some modelling. That’s how Monroe got her start--a producer saw her pictures in a magazine.”
    “There’s lots of models looking for work in Hollywood, just as many as there are waitresses.”
    “But they don’t get guys pinching their butts every five minutes.”
    “Sure they do, but they own a magazine instead of a diner. It’s just a lot more glamorous.”
    “I don’t even know if I can act,” I said. “I guess I’m just making a fool of myself.”
    “I believe you can do anything you set your mind on. Besides, you’ve been acting your entire life.”
    “Do you know something? You’re the first person who hasn’t smiled when I told them I wanted to be an actress.”
    We talked about Cuba, and then the talk got back to Miami and some of the things I’d seen and heard