Lila looked out toward the audience, the golden highlights in her dark hair shimmering in the overhead lights. She looked like a star as she took her bow, her costume highlighting the slenderness of her waist. Her hands raised up, waving to the crowd as the cheers met her smile in a glorious union. They loved her. They truly loved her!
The crowd threw flowers and stuffed animals on stage for Lila, which she gathered in her arms. She held them tightly as each actor took their turn bowing for the audience during the curtain call. The crowd screamed the loudest for her, and she took her final bows. The curtain fell. It was back to her solo life again. The loneliness saturated her as she walked to her dressing room to pack up her belongings. This was the last night of the tour, and they were finally back home in Hollywood.
Lila didn't know where she would go from here. She lovingly packed her costume into her rolling suitcase, then tucked all of her fan mail into one of the pockets. Lila took down her hair and dressed in her street clothes. Her hair fell down in cascading tendrils of dark brown and golden highlight, which she swept back behind her shoulders as she took one last look around. She didn't know when she would be cast in a play again. Usually, she was in movies or commercials, but she loved live theater more than all that. She would have gladly traded her silver screen fame for a chance to do live theater every day.
"Are you going to the party, Lila?" she heard a voice from behind her. It was Lynn Clendenning, a famous actress who mostly did Broadway tours. She was much older than Lila, although Lila wasn't sure of her actual age. She had the kind of career Lila had always envisioned for herself before she landed the face wash commercial that had changed everything. Lynn's smile was contagious. She had the lightest blonde hair, and her eyes were a shade of sea green that made Lila envious.
"Yes, of course! I just need to pop home and slip into my red dress. I forgot to have my assistant bring it here, and she's off duty now."
"Well, I can accompany you if you like," Lynn offered. "I have everything I need in this bag," she pulled the handle on a rolling suitcase that was embossed with a very expensive brand name logo.
"Oh, you don't have to do that. People are waiting for you." Lila felt herself flush. She had no idea why she suddenly felt shy around Lynn. They had been working together for almost two years by then.
"People are waiting for you too! They will wait for us, and we will make a grand appearance together. It'll be quite the showstopping entrance!" Lynn laughed conspiratorially and placed her hand on Lila's arm. Lila felt a sensation that she had never experienced before. She felt a chill work its way up her arm and to her neck where it tickled her ever so slightly.
"Okay. I was just about to leave. My driver is waiting for me at the back entrance."
"Let me call my driver and tell him to meet me at the party," Lynn agreed, and they walked side-by-side with their phones to their ears until they reached the back entrance where a line of vehicles waited to pick up actors. They were cut to the front of the line since they were the most famous stars.
Lila allowed Lynn to climb into the backseat first. She had a traditional Limousine, nothing fancy. She knew plenty of other stars who had much more extravagance, but she didn't like to draw too much attention to her wealth. Lila raised the partition that separated Lynn and her from her driver.
"Wow, this is a really classy limo!" Lynn remarked as she looked around. "I love the privacy we have here in the back. Now we can talk about all our co-stars!"
"You want some shrimp?" Lila asked Lynn as she opened a tiny refrigerator to reveal individual bottles of sparkling mineral water and a small, covered platter of cocktail shrimp.
"Wow, sure! I'm starving! You got any booze in there?" Lynn smiled deviously.
"As a matter of fact, I do." Lila opened a console to reveal another refrigerated compartment filled with bottles of champagne.
"Wow, you are fancy!"
Together, they opened the shrimp and champagne and began to gossip about their co-stars. Lila felt an ease with Lynn that she had never felt with anyone before. Lila was almost twenty-seven-years-old, but there were still a lot of things that she had never experienced. Lila had never been in love before, and she had never really been in love. Lila wanted to, it's just that all the men that she had met turned her off. There was nothing about them that she found attractive.
Lila was confused as she leaned in to hear Lynn's opinion about one of their co-stars, Andre Parr, a man who had been heavily flirting with Lynn and Lila.
"He's so...clueless!" Lynn complained. "If I wanted a man, I could easily find one."
"You don't want a man?" Lila asked. This was news to her. She thought that she might be the only woman that wasn't into men.
"Oh, honey. I thought you knew I was a lesbian. I figured that out when I was about your age. How old are you now? Twenty-something?"
"I'm twenty-six," Lila explained. "I don't want a man either."
"I knew it!" Lynn laughed heartily as if congratulating herself for picking Lila out as a lesbian.
"You knew it? How?" Lila asked, blushing slightly.
"You always look so annoyed when he hits on you. Plus, I was feeling something between us," Lynn paused dramatically to look deep into Lila's questioning eyes, pointing first to Lila and then to herself.
"You were?" Lila whispered, her heart pounding. What Lynn didn't know was that Lila had never been with a woman before. She hadn't exactly been looking for one. Lila was confused about her sexuality and wasn't sure if she was into women. One thing was for sure, she wasn't into men.
"Yeah. Don't you feel it?" Lynn leaned closer to Lila. Lila's heart pounded as her hazel eyes met Lynn's sea green ones. Lila felt something. There was a pang of nervousness and then a cloud of fear and worry. Lynn's hands reached up to pull Lila closer. Lila stiffened, unsure of what was going to happen. Lynn gave her a nasty smile, the kind of sexy smile that both terrified and intrigued Lila.
