“Well, you can’t afford to be so choosy. You know, you’ve got twenty-year-olds also looking around, with their tits way up high and the best years of their lives to throw away on somebody. You’ve already thrown yours away, so you can’t be all that choosy. If you find somebody who likes you and respects you, and if you like each other, then, you know, you can work on the rest of it.”

“That sounds reasonable,” said Suzanne, nodding.

“Don’t think you’re not going to argue with them,” her grandmother said. “You can’t spend a lot of time with somebody and not have them get on your nerves, or vice versa. If you expect to not argue, don’t have a relationship.”

“Well, I haven’t,” said Suzanne.

“Oh, you have,” her grandmother said. “You’ve had a couple. I met Jonathan, I met that fellow Albert . . .”

“Yeah,” said Suzanne.

“Well, what happened with those? You split up with them.”

“We didn’t get along anymore.”

“See, I don’t understand that,” said her grandmother. “This is what I don’t understand about your generation. You just stop getting along? You’ve got to work at getting along. It has to be something you care about, a priority.”

“Gran, you should put out a relationship video. There’s Doctor Ruth for sex, and then, once they’ve had the sex, you could tell people how to stay together.”

“Go ahead, make fun of me,” her grandmother said, getting up from the bed. “And don’t take this movie thing so seriously. Don’t they always say, ‘It’s only a movie’?”

“Yeah, Gran, that’s what they say.”

“Now, how do you want your eggs in the morning?”

“You don’t have to get up,” Suzanne said. “I’ve got a very early call.”

“I’m up anyway,” she said. “Your grandfather has to have his heart medicine.”

“Poached,” said Suzanne.

“All right. Good night, darling. Sweet dreams. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

“You were right there when they handed out clichés, weren’t you?” said Suzanne. “Good night, Gran. I love you.”

She was calmer when she arrived on the set the next morning. The first scene was being shot in a car, which was placed on a platform with the crew and all the equipment on it, all of which would be dragged along by a pickup truck. Rita had just finished connecting Suzanne’s body mike when Simon walked by with Rocky, the first A.D., who was explaining how many extras they needed to do drive-bys in the car scene.

Suzanne followed behind them until Simon and Rocky were through. Then she said, “Excuse me, Simon. Could I talk to you?”

“Certainly, love,” he said. “What’s the problem?”