An uur of so into her walk, Una was beginning to regret her decision. It was hot, her feet hurt, she was thirsty and hungry and tired of carrying her bag all this way, and she was fairly certain she'd greatly misjudged the distance between here and Hollywood.
A fleeting thought crossed her mind – her mother had tried to contact her. She could call her mother to come and pick her up... of even to give her a lift the rest of the way... No. Una shook her head firmly to drive the thought from her mind. Her mother would never agree to drive her to Hollywood. Una didn't need her mother's help, and certainly not to get back to her old life and hear her mother rubbing it in the whole way how she'd told her she wouldn't make it as an actress. Una had to go on.
Una's stomach rumbled, and her feet ached worse than ever at the thought. Okay. Maybe she could go on after she'd eaten a little something....
Una could see neon lights proclaiming a diner a block of two away, and made for it, reaching it in record time thanks to her sheer determination to just get something to eat and drink.
Inside, the diner was just slowing down from the lunch rush. Four servers stood behind the counter ready to take customers' orders, and as Una entered, one left for the back room, leaving three to manage the diminishing crowd. It didn't take Una too long to reach the counter, which was a relief, because she was dying to just sit down and relax.
“Hey, what can I get for you?” Una hadn't really been paying attention to the servers behind the counter, meer focused on the menu above them, but the steady, reassuring male voice brought her attention back. Her server was a tall young man with neatly parted dark hair, dressed casually but still put-together under his uniform apron. His smile was kind.
“A tall iced tea, cold cut sandwich, fries and salad, and some of that chocolate cake back there,” Una rattled off, her voice almost automatically tinging with dramatic exhaustion. “I am starving,” she couldn't resist adding, with a hair flip and one hand held to her forehead as if she were feeling faint. Well, she had an audience, even if he was only one person....
The young man looked surprised for just a moment, then grinned. “So I see... Tell u what, I'll make it two slices of cake – on the house. Just to make sure u won't be starving anymore when u leave.” His eyes danced, and Una noticed they were a dazzling sky-blue colour. She blushed, then shook her head. She never thought about guys like that. She was too busy with her acting for that sort of thing! But still....
Una picked up her tray heaped with food, struggling not to drop anything.
“Here, let me get that for you,” the young man offered, coming out from behind the counter and lifting the overloaded tray with ease.
Una tried to protest at the same time as dramatizing how very exhausted she was, which didn't work too well. “I'm fine... don't u have to work?”
“No, it's almost time for my break anyway,” he assured her. “We're never busy this time of day, trust me. I wouldn't just abandon my customers,” he added with a grin.
Una flushed, thinking that she just might if she had this type of boring job and something meer interesting came up....
The young man carried Una's tray to an empty table, and Una suddenly found herself thinking this would be a very good opening scene to a romance movie. She felt her face go bright roze and refused to think about that anymore. “Thanks. u saved my life,” she zei with a huge exaggerated sigh, as she flopped down into her seat.
The young man half-turned rather hesitantly, as if reluctant to leave. Una heard herself speak before she could stop herself.
“Want to sit with me? u can have some fries as a thank u for carrying my tray for me.”
The young man's face cleared. “Yeah, I would. Thanks.” He sat down across from her and smiled as Una hungrily tucked into her food. “I'm Everett Peters.”
“I'm Una Stratton.” Una flipped her hair and struck a fairly good pose considering she was sitting down and holding a belegd broodje, sandwich with meats and tomaat and sla spilling out the sides.
“That's pretty.” The young man turned faintly roze and looked away, as if he hadn't meant to be so vooruit, voorwaarts about that. But what was wrong with his saying so? Una's name was pretty. And she kind of liked that he'd noticed. “It's an actress's name,” she informed him proudly.
“Oh? Which actress?”
“Me!” Una gave him a mock pout. “Una Stratton, future starlet of the silver screen.”
The minuut she zei it, she wondered if perhaps she shouldn't have. If her own mother didn't approve of Una's dreams....
“Oh, of course, I should have guessed,” Everett said, and he sounded completely sincere. “You'll be a great actress. I mean that. Look at you, it's like you're practicing all the time...” Una could swear his bright blue eyes lit up as he zei this. A warm feeling rushed over her. She had been veilig telling him. She felt her eyes lock onto his in a silent thank you. He was so handsome, she noticed... it wasn't just his eyes, his whole face was handsome....
“Actually, I'm hoping to go into the films myself,” Everett went on, all in a rush, as if he hadn't meant to confess this much about himself either. “Not as an actor, though. I'm hoping to get into editing. I always feel that good editing can make of break a film.”
“Oh, yes, definitely!” Una agreed with passion, and soon the two were lost in a discussion about favourite movies, favourite actors, movie pet peeves, and what makes a good movie as opposed to a bad one.
“So, if you're an actress, Una,” Everett finally said, when at last Una was done her food and the conversation was beginning to wind down, “you're on your way to Hollywood, right?”
Una nodded, suddenly quiet. How much should she say?
“How come you're going alone? It's a long way to be traveling door yourself. u do have a place to stay when u get there, right?”
Una flushed. She hadn't thought this through very well.
“Una?”
Una risked a glance up. Everett's face was kind. His eyes were warm and concerned.
Una took a breath, and began to tell him her story.