“He has to like me. I’m his boss.”
“That’s not why he came with you.” He was sure of that.
“If that’s why he came with me, he came a long way to be disappointed. I didn’t come here for romance. I came for your broken leg.”
“Do you ever go out on dates, Mom?” He was curious. He didn’t know. He’d never asked her and had never seen a man in her life, except Fred, her agent, or the guys at work on the set.
“No, I don’t,” she said.
“Why not?” He looked serious when he asked her. She hesitated for a long time before she answered.
“A lot of reasons. I loved your dad, and I don’t think anyone could measure up to him. And I was busy with you and your sister for a lot of years. I work hard. I haven’t gotten close to anyone. I have you and Olympia.”
“I like Boden,” he said, and she laughed.
“Is that a message, a suggestion, or your seal of approval?”
“All of the above. He’s nice to talk to. He’s a good guy. He’s smart, and he’s done a lot of cool things, and I think he likes you a lot.”
“We don’t know each other. He likes you too. He can come and see you anytime,” and she meant it. She liked the way he related to her kids.
“I think he’d rather see you, Mom.” He looked more serious than she intended to be on the subject.
“Stop shilling for me. I’m fine as I am,” she said, laughing.
Boden was waiting for her at the hotel in the lobby, after she’d visited Dash. He told her about his adventures around the city, he hadn’t been there in a while. And then he suggested they have dinner that night. He’d found a small French restaurant near the hotel he thought she’d like.
They went back to see Dash to bring him dinner before they went out to eat. She was wearing a blue dress the color of her eyes and red sandals. Boden was always surprised by how young she looked. She didn’t look old enough to have a son Dash’s age. And yet, whenever they spoke about life, or her work, she was very wise, beyond her years. Her life experiences, especially the hard ones, had served her well.
They had a nice time at dinner that night. They both liked the restaurant, and the food was as good as Boden had hoped it would be. He talked about his travels and the different places he’d lived.
“We lived so many places when I was a kid that I had a hard time settling down for a long time. But you can’t do that forever. My brothers hated it and they love their small-town cowboy life. They couldn’t wait to come home, get married, and have kids. I was afraid of that. I wanted to work in films and be a director. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. And maybe all the experiences I had traveling were good for something. I’ve worked with some amazing people, you among them.” And so far, no one else had measured up to her, but he didn’t say it. He didn’t want her to think he was flattering her. She had enormous talent, and he had already learned a lot from her in a few months.
“Hamish taught me everything I know. He always thought acting was the right direction for me. I knew it wasn’t.” She had the looks for it, but it was obvious now she hadn’t loved it. She didn’t have the ego for it. In some ways she had no ego at all. “I wanted to be the window the light shone through, onto others. I didn’t want the light shining on me. It was blinding.”
“You have to be very strong to keep yourself out of the limelight. Very few people can do that, or want to,” he commented.
“It works better for me.” She smiled at him. “Hamish wanted me to be a star. It was an interesting experience, but it would have worn me out and bled me dry. Directing and writing feed me, they give me a strength that I can share with others. I think I would have stopped acting eventually anyway. I never thought of it as a job for a lifetime, like what I do now. And the way things worked out, I stopped acting when Hamish died. He’s the only director I ever worked for. I couldn’t have done it for anyone else. I suppose he was my Pygmalion, I was so young. I was in school when I met him, in college. He gave me all my fabulous opportunities and changed my life. And there was a lot of negative energy in my family about acting.
“My mother was an actress, probably a very bad one. She left my father to chase stardom in L.A. He kind of went nuts over it. My father threw me out when Hamish gave me my first real part in a movie. I was on my own after that, and Hamish took me under his wing, like a little lost bird.” She smiled at Boden. He was intrigued by the story. It explained the way she had worshipped Hamish, but he was worthy of it. He was considered a genius in the industry, almost a god, even years after he died.