I was thinking I would have Jeremy hang out with Mel a lot, and they become friends. Then it turns out that Jeremy was hanging out with her in order to see if she would fit for a special job...a major world-saving corporation or something. The plot wouldn't quite as trivial as it seems at present. The details aren't exact, but does that give you an idea? If so, what do you think now? Here's the next installment. Enjoy! Yours I remain...
The name of this all-too-corny and ridiculous new TV show is 'Love Lives.' That's the all-too-corny name of this upstart TV show. The best character in the whole thing is the librarian...Minnie Nimble. She's played by the lucky Maggie Skinner, a red-headed woman of Irish descent with a vivacious personality and an annoying high and shrill giggle. She did well enough, but oh, I envied her that role! I loved the librarian's wit. She was, of course, the third person in the love triangle that would inevitably develop between Gabriel Smith, Miss Priss-Tanquis and Minnie Nimble.
The second day of filming had yet to incorporate many more characters, although I was sure more would be introduced as the months continued. As we finished that day, Jeremy and I were both exhausted. The entire day had been filming scenes for the first three episodes between 'Gabriel' and 'Emily.' It was tiring to act totally enamored of a person you hardly even knew.
"Well, Melanie, you still up for that dinner I promised you earlier?"
Jeremy's voice startled me as I was hanging giving my flowered apron to the costume designer. In the last scene, I had been baking cookies for the church coffee hour when 'Gabriel' had showed up at my door. I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I glanced down at my outfit...black, casual jeans and a loose black T-shirt, along with dusty black square-toed shoes. He shrugged.
"It could be Mcdonald's or something. Whoever said actors had to go to fancy restaurants all the time?"
"If you're sure you wouldn't mind being seen in the company of an amateur like me...sure. But let's make it Burger King. Whenever I go into Mcdonald's I always have this depressing feeling that some crazy person in baggy yellow trousers and an overdone make-up job will come up and start using corny pick-up lines on me."
Jeremy laughed.
"That would be the clown, probably a lovesick one. He represents Mcdonald's."
I frowned.
"I know...but still. When you had a little sister who cried whenever an Evil Mascot came near, you tend to get a little paranoid about these things. Besides, I'm in my twenties. What truly old and...well, I hate to say mature as that would imply maturity, but...grown woman wants to be given little plastic favors?"
Jeremy threw up his hands in defeat, his large grin lighting his face and making him look even more gorgeous than usual.
"I don't really care, anyway. Tell me why we're arguing about this again?"
I grinned back.
"Probably because I argue about everything, except the fact that I'm argumentative. I just like to keep my tongue sharp. After all, 'be she old or be she young, a woman's weapon is her tongue.'"
He led me out to his thin black car...I was bad with cars, so all I knew was that it was black and shiny and probably very expensive, and opened the door for me. I grinned.
"Are you getting effected by the part you're playing, or are you always like this?"
He looked puzzled.
"Always like what?"
"Nobody actually opens doors anymore. It's really nice! Just don't do it to any normal girl, though...she'll die from shock."
He looked at me quizzically.
"Implying you're not normal?"
I shook my head emphatically.
"Not on your life. I hate normality. It's so boring and unimaginative. Besides, I grew up in absolute craziness, so why should I go all weird and normal now?"
He cocked an eyebrow at me as he pulled his keys out of his pocket and started the car. He pulled smoothly out of the big parking lot that led to the storehouse where we were doing most of our indoor shooting.
"Your early life can't have been more strange than mine," he said.
I waited for more information, but he didn't volunteer any, and we were underway now, so I didn't press him for details.
He was a very careful driver and came to a full stop at each stop sign, looking thoroughly each and every way before venturing cautiously into the intersection. He looked so absorbed in his driving that I didn't want to interrupt him, so we maintained a comfortable silence in what I had dubbed the Really Nice Car. Despite his cautious driving, however, we finally reached a nearby Burger King and got out, both of us receiving admiring looks for a group of pock-marked and 'cool' teens who were 'chilling' outside B-K. I winked at a couple of them just for fun, and one guy whistled. Jeremy shook his head at me as he pulled open the inner glass door and held it for me.
"You're such a flirt."
I snorted at that comment.
"Yeah, right. I'm the worst flirt the face of this planet has ever seen."
"Then why the flirtatious wink?"
I shrugged as we moved into line between the two brightly colored plastic bars that herded B-K customers into some semblance of an organized line.
"I just wanted to make them feel better about their accident."
He frowned and cocked one eyebrow at me. He seemed to do that a lot, when he was puzzled about something. It made him look rakishly charming.
"Why, the time so many years ago when all of them got their faces stuck in the very same large lawnmower. Imagine what a traumatic experience it must have been...ah, well, the scars should begin to fade within a few years."
He grinned at me and shook his head again, and I shrugged.
"Some wise person said, 'the truth shall set you free.' My goal is to set the world free."
He gave me a little half-smile.
"You pick a rather brutal and cynical way to do it, don't you? But then, freedom is rather a tall order. Might as well go at it viciously and get it over quickly, right?"
Before I could think of a smart come-back, it was our turn to order. The woman at the counter was short, with a dirty-blond ponytail pulled tightly to the back of her head, swinging pertly when she turned her head from side to side. No stupid hair nets or red hats for this little lady! She looked up at Jeremy and got the same appreciative look that the teen girls had gotten outside.
"What can I do for you two tonight?" Her voice was just like her person: short, pert and to the point.
Jeremy stepped up first.
"I'd like a Caesar salad with the chicken on the side and a medium drink. Melanie?"
I grinned at him.
"Healthy choice, Jeremy. But I have news for you. The Caesar salad actually has more calories than a healthy adult should consume in an entire day. I'd suggest just getting something unhealthy up front and working it off in the gym later, or taking extra steroids, or whatever guys do to get muscles nowadays. I'll have a bacon cheeseburger and a large fry, with catsup and tartar sauce, and a medium drink."
Jeremy grinned.
"Going all out in following your own advice, eh? Well it just so happens that I really like salad, and I've never had a problem with weight, so I wasn't even thinking about it when I ordered."
The little woman at the bar cleared her throat and rattled off our order back to us flawlessly. Then she looked up at us, and I could swear her pale little eyelashes gave the tiniest flutter as she asked,
"To here or to go?"
Jeremy looked at me and I said,
"Oh, here, definitely. If I was impatient with your earlier caution, I imagine I'd scream with the added danger of eating while driving...I shudder at the thought. Although, on the bright side, we might meet a few slugs who would want to race with us! Slugs always pick on people who they know they can beat."
As I said it I smiled brightly as if I had thought of a great idea. Jeremy laughed as he accepted the empty cups for our drinks. We walked over to the ranks of nozzles that held our choices.
"Would it be sounded redundant and hopelessly mundane if I said that you were a cynical beast?"
I shrugged, pressing down the nozzle of lemonade.
"Well, I've been listening to you say mundane and hopelessly redundant lines all day, so I probably wouldn't even notice. You'd better be careful and exercise extra wit outside the filming area, because otherwise I'll start calling you Gabriel, and that would not be a complement."
I filled my cup a third full of lemonade, a third full of fruit punch, and a third full of 7-up. Then, on top, I added a tiny little shot of Dr. Pepper. Jeremy was watching the proceedings with interest and a faint aura of disgust...but I ignored it. That's how everyone reacted when they saw my tastes for drinks. Ha, imagine what they'd think if they saw me eating peanut butter in my oatmeal.
As I pressed the plastic lid onto my cup, I raised my eyebrows in surprise as Jeremy started at one end and put a little bit of each pop into his cup. I frowned.
"Do you always do that?"
Jeremy joined me in the search for a short enough straw.
"No, I just did it because you were watching and I wanted you to feel bad because someone else was more strange than you for once in your life."
"Well, I appreciate the effort, but it made me feel only slightly quizzical and a little disgruntled. I did not feel bad. What's our number?" I asked as the pert blond at the counter called out, "Fifty-six!" and looked at us expectantly.
Jeremy handed his pop to me and walked over to the counter. I went to find a seat at one of the bright red tables. I swept a little crumb of french fry off the seat of one table for two, then sat and watched as Jeremy smiled widely and winked at the waitress and collected our tray. As he returned and slid the tray across towards me, sitting on the other side of the little table, it was my turn to raise one eyebrow.
"Now who's the flirt?" I asked, grinning. He shrugged and grinned back, completely unconscious.
"Every guy knows that a good way to get out of a large tip for a waitress is to flirt outrageously with her."
I laughed a little as I answered,
"Yes, but it might grieve you to know now that nobody tips in Burger King. You just wasted a good flirtation."
