MARIA

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“ARE YOU JUST GOING to stand there or are you going to go and get me a drink?” Fin’s girlfriend said as I walked up the stairs towards the front door.

For a second I thought about how wonderful it would feel to slap her right in the face, but then I realized I was not raised like that.

Still, I was feeling defiant so I said, “I’m sorry, but Mister Bradley specifically asked me to serve all of the people inside the house and you are standing outside, so I guess you’ll have to go and get your own drink.” I walked right past her.

I knew she wanted to say something nasty, but for some reason she couldn’t get anything out and I was back inside the house before she could recover.

Even though it felt good to have denied her my services I knew that she would be back inside the house soon and that I wouldn’t be able to avoid her the entire evening.

I looked around for Rockwell and realized how much I’d come to rely on him to provide me with some kind of cover and conversation.

Now that Fin had decided to go walkabout outside I needed Rockwell’s company.

I had seen Fin in this state before and I knew that when he got really upset he liked to take long walks outside which would sometimes last for hours.

Just as I was about to start panicking I saw Rockwell sitting on a couch in the corner. I walked over and sat next to him. I knew that I would be overstepping my boundaries if I asked him about his trip upstairs with Fin’s girlfriend so I didn’t say anything about it.

I was just glad to be in his presence again and felt slightly safer.

“I’ve been wondering where you disappeared to after our magnificent dance together,” Rockwell said.

“I was serving guests some drinks,” I said and gave him a broad smile.

“Well I’m glad you’re back. I was looking for a place to lie down for a second and just catch my breath so I asked that blonde woman, Fin’s friend, to show me where the upstairs bedrooms were.”

I realized that Fin had formed a totally false impression about what Rockwell and his lady friend had been doing upstairs, but for some reason I didn’t really care.

That woman was just trying to manipulate Fin. She didn’t really care about him the way I did.

“My my, you really are getting cozy with this beautiful woman aren’t you?” a middle-aged man with snowy white hair said and sat down right next to me and Rockwell.

“I’m sorry, I’m forgetting my manners. I’m Michael Stone from pyramid pictures in Hollywood,” the man said and held out his hand.

I flashed him a smile and shook his hand.

“My name is Maria,” I said, not knowing whether Mister Stone was going to request that I fetch him a drink or whether he wanted to have a conversation.

He started talking to me about movies and asked me if I’d ever considered becoming an actress. It seemed that Mister Stone was very impressed with the way I moved and the way I’d danced with Rockwell, apart from the fact that he also thought I had ‘the very unusual kind of dark beauty which would look magnificent on the big screen’ as he put it.

I just smiled as the Hollywood man kept on and on about how beautiful and talented I was.

Rockwell was looking a lot better and I could see that he’d sobered up some.

I was still worried about Fin and what he was doing outside.

I noticed Fin’s girlfriend looking in my direction once or twice almost as if she was trying to decide whether or not to come ask me to get her something.

“You’re not listening to a word I’m saying,” the Hollywood producer said.

“I am listening, but I really think you are exaggerating about all of my talents,” I said with a smile.

“I’m not exaggerating and to prove it I’m going to arrange for you to come and do an audition for my next movie!”

It all sounded wonderful and in the back of my mind I started forming a picture of what it would be like to see myself on the silver screen, dancing with some Hollywood hunk in a blockbuster movie.

The more I thought about it the more I pictured myself and Fin together in the movie. I was being silly but I couldn’t help it.

I looked up and saw Fin standing in the doorway. He was looking a lot more relaxed and I realized that he had recovered from the stupid stunt which his blonde girlfriend had tried to pull on him.

I considered getting up and walking over to ask him if I could get him anything, but then decided against it. I didn’t want to pressure him and besides, the blonde woman was on her way to him.

I was kind of curious to see how Fin would respond to her.

Fin just smiled at her. And listened to what she was saying which of course, I couldn’t hear.

Jealousy rushed through me and I resisted the urge to stand and go steal Fin from her.