Part 24 (1/2)

I didn't think so. She's a trouper, is our Zo, she'll find a way to turn this around, I'm sure.

'Maybe they've got some auditions lined up and international superstardom is just a day or two away?' I suggest, groping for some hope.

'Maybe.' Zo's not convinced.

I look down at the table. I don't know how to make this better. Hold on I wonder if Sasha kept the number for that fleshy-lobed director guy from the Hotel Del. Maybe he could do something?

'Everything okay?' A chipper waiter with a face crying out to be plastered across a billboard stops by.

'Yes, sireee!' Zo zaps herself back into perky waitress mode. 'This is my friend Lara.'

'Heyyy! I'm Todd.' He extends the hand not holding a chocolate malt shake. 'You coming out with us tonight? We're going to the Beauty Bar $10 for a c.o.c.ktail and a manicure!'

'I wish I could but I've got a flight at 7pm.'

'Oh no I don't finish till ten,' Zo sighs. 'We can't even have a proper chat.'

'Don't worry, I just wanted to say Hi!' I try and calm her. I'm beginning to regret dropping by I only seem to be making things worse for her. 'Tell you what I'll just spend the next two hours eating my way through the menu so you can keep coming back to my table,' I tell her, swiftly scanning the options. 'The '57 Ford Omelet sounds good.'

'The Elvis Scramble is better,' Todd recommends, bowing out to deliver his shake.

'I can't even show you round my hood,' Zo pouts.

'I'll be back in two days,' I say and give her hand a surrept.i.tious squeeze.

'Hey!' Todd reappears still carrying the shake. 'I just thought if you want I can cover your s.h.i.+ft till seven?'

'What?' Zo blinks.

'That way you can hang out and see your friend off at the airport.'

'Really?' Zo's face lights up like a spotlight has picked her out.

'Sure, I could use the extra cash, I'm saving up to get new headshots.'

'He's an actor,' Zo says proudly.

'Do you think it's allowed?' I lower my voice. 'You know, California Club regulations.'

I don't want to see her relegated to was.h.i.+ng dishes.

'They'll never know!' Zo starts untying her ap.r.o.n. 'Todd, you're an angel.'

'Don't I know it!' he winks. 'You girls have fun!'

We exit Mel's with linked arms and a spring in our step.

'At least it's sunny!' I rally.

'Yes it is,' Zo smiles up at the palm-tipped skyline with newfound glee. 'Really, it's not so bad. Todd keeps my p.e.c.k.e.r up.'

'And vice versa?'

'No, he's gay,' she laughs, guiding me across the road. 'You know what he said to me the other day, about my hopes for instant fame?'

'What?'

'He said I wanted the whole thing handed to me on a plate and here I am handing out plates myself! How ironic, is that?'

I smile back at her, amazed she's managed to keep her sense of humor. 'Has it made you think any differently about your superstar ambitions?'

'Well, not so much the waitressing itself but the stories the other girls tell me.' She shakes her head. 'I mean, some of them have got their heads screwed on but they can't get a break, others are totally delusional and I reckon they're still going to be slos.h.i.+ng lemonade when they're sixty. You think I've got it bad, you want to hear some of them talk they really believe that someone's going to run in one day and say, ”Our leading lady has singed off the left side of her face with a pair of straightening irons and we need you on set now!”'

I'm fairly certain that scenario has played in Zo's head a few times. I may have even dabbled in that daydream myself some quirk of fate leads you to a kissing scene with some A-list hunk, who then realizes he's been waiting his whole life for someone exactly like you.

'So how does all this make you feel?' I ask.

'Sad, I guess,' Zo sighs. 'It does happen for some but I'm fairly certain it's not going to happen for any of the girls I'm working with. At first I listened to them and thought, ”Yes but I'm different, it could happen to me!” but then I realized (a) they're all thinking that and (b) I've never even taken an acting lesson what makes me think I can just swan into this town and be discovered? What is there to discover, anyway?'

It occurs to me that Zo is already discovering a fair few things about herself, but for all her super-positivity she hates it when people get all deep and a.n.a.lytical on her so I say nothing.

'Anyway, enough about me!' Zo changes tack. 'What's going on with you?'

'Well, as you know I'm just off to see Elliot in Yosemite-'

'I mean about the B&B. Talk about dropping a bomb!'

I find myself inadvertently coming to a halt. Apparently I can't walk and lie at the same time.

'I really think it's for the best-' I begin.

'No you don't.'

I sigh. I can't fool Zo, she knows me too well, knows my heart inside out.

'It's okay,' she soothes, not wanting to make me squirm further. 'I was just thinking the other day: imagine if the first time I walked through the door there, someone said to us, ”In ten years time you two girls are going to be walking arm in arm down Hollywood Boulevard!”'

'We would never have believed them!' I finish her thought.

'How could we? How could we have seen this future for ourselves? Just like we can't see what's coming next. I mean, just cos it's looking a bit bleak now doesn't mean it's not going to get better, does it?'

'No,' I say simply.

'I know my life got so much better the day I met you,' Zo says, hitting me straight in the heart.

'Oh Zo!' I turn and give her a big sisterly hug, eyes spilling over in an instant. 'We're going to be fine!'