I called Christine last night. She wasn't home and never called me back. I don't get it. It's like baking a chocolate cake and not eating it. When was I going to realize Christine just liked to tug my inabilities to say no. Why? Because she knew she could.

Disappointment sucks, so you can imagine my excitement when I got handed a message that Christine called the production office first thing that morning. The message was "to call."

Of course I did.

"Well, you could have left a message on my machine just saying that." I thought that was reasonable.

Turns out Christine had a friend dying of AIDS. "Any day now," she said. "I was so depressed I didn't want to leave you a message and be a complete mess."

"Well, next time leave a message. I'd like to hear what you sound like when you're a mess."

"Don't be mad. I'm sorry." We spoke quickly.

"I'm not."

"You are?"

"Just disappointed. I wanted to see you."

"I did too. Listen, how about dinner? I'll take you anywhere you want."

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere."

"Chinois."

"If you can get us a table." She challenged.

"Oh, please."

I called a friend who knew the pastry chef's sister's lover. An hour later I got a call back.

I called Christine. "We're in. Two at eight Thursday."

"All right." Then right before she hung up she said, "Wear a skirt."

*****

I was in the wardrobe trailer pulling plastic off clothes that had just come back from the dry cleaner. My hands became electrified as I pushed the translucent plastic into a ball. John came in with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

"Get out of here." I kept pulling and pushing.

"Helen needs you in the trailer."

He exhaled and stood there. I knew he was looking for a clue and I didn't want to look up at him.

"Helen needs you in the trailer." He repeated.

"I heard you." I took a quick glance and could not control my grin.

"You're doing it with her, aren't you." He had me trapped against the wall to the right of the door. He was in my face.

"I'm not." But I couldn't stop laughing. "I swear I'm not."

"You slut." He said, grinning, as if he was in a community theatre play. I pushed him off me. "You know, there's a lot of energy when you're next to her in the trailer. I can feel it." He followed me as I went to see Helen.

"I'm telling you John, nothing is going on. I swear. I just couldn't stop smiling because I'm in a good mood. I got a hot date Thursday and it's not with Helen." Just then, as I found myself directly in front of the trailer, Helen swung open the door and when I looked up at her I thought of Mrs. Molloy, my sixth grade teacher, who caught me and Kimberly Decor locked in the bathroom together.

"Hey." I said.

She said nothing, and held open the door for me to enter. I could feel John's glare on my back.

"So I was going to take off for the day and I wanted to know..." Her eyes jetted from right to middle to left. I wanted to touch her.

"...if you wanted to have dinner with me Thursday night?"

"Uh, oh, I can't."

She looked at me in shock.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just that...well, I made other plans. Can we make it another night?"

She grabbed her keys and walked out mumbling, "Yeah, sure." She was gone.