A Goode Life

Chapter 8

It has been several months since Mother had taken the job and it had reached its conclusion. All the scenes have been shot; it's now up to postproduction and editing. The role had given her satisfaction and she knew that she delivered. All good things come to an end and now she found herself in a café just a few minutes off set, wondering about what to do.

"Pardon, but is this seat taken?" said a stranger.

"No, but you can see that the whole parlor is empty, can't you?" replied Mother.

"I can and I choose to sit here, across an aged flame," replied the stranger.

"I have to go."

"At least let me know your name."

"Genevieve."

She found that around this side of the city, people were more likely to approach each other. She wished she spent more time here back when she was single. It would have made for interesting stories to tell.

As she walked back to the set she was appraised by another man.

"You look gorgeous madame, can I make you mine?" said the man.

"I don't know, can you?" she led on.

"Would you care to take a ride with me?" the man offered.

"I take pride in the fact that I've never been sexually assaulted, and I maintain that by not getting into cars with strangers," she said as she passed him.

What a dangerous proposal. She could see the ulterior motives of men from a mile away. It's like she had a superpower. When she was a little girl, her mother and elder sisters would tell their tales of men groping and toying with them and their hearts. It left her with utter contempt and disgust of the other sex. That's why she knew better, and she knew how to pick them. Father was the upright man that she pursued.

They met fatefully one night after shooting an episode of Monsters. To her, it was just any other day and night. The episode they had shot was content heavy, so she was on heavy duty that day and didn't have the energy to spare to make dinner. That led her to decide to eat dinner at an eatery by her apartment. By the time Brad was born, the place changed ownership. She doesn't know what shape it's in these days. But she was fond of the memories she and Father had there. Had she not decided to eat at that diner that night, she would have never met the gentleman that she would raise her children with.

It was a time before the city had fully automated. There were still busboys and human servers. It was like fate had mixed their drinks up. Sat at booths right next to each other, sitting with their backs to each other. They simultaneously requested their drink orders, her straight vodka and his gin and tonic. Hearing each other's drink orders, they turned to see what to the other was a picture that they haven't quite seen before. To her there stood a man, just three-at-most inches taller than her. He looked quite built with the coat on but would discover later that night how scrawny his build was. She was dazzled by his eyes, not because of the color, but by the depth and the kind of gaze he gave her.

To him stood a tall woman in heels. She stood at eye level with him. He was immediately star-struck. She looked like she had stepped off a Hollywood set. She wore thin-framed spectacles that underlined her eyes. It was the eyes that shook him. He was transfixed at her gaze, she looked like she was studying him under a microscope, the way her eyes lingered. He held out his hand.

"Gregor," he said with his hand outstretched.

"Genevieve," she replied shaking his hand.

And they were entwined from then on. He asked to sit at her booth and carried her drink over to her. The servers, welcome to the change of having to only serve one booth as opposed to two, served them delightedly.