I turned to smile at him. He was funny. Then I noticed his car. It was a Nissan 300 Z, with a glass moon roof. I didn’t know what to make out of that. I couldn’t even remember seeing a Z in years, but obviously this car was fairly new and loaded, as they say in the classifieds.

I was taking all this in when he touched my arm and I turned my body slightly toward him. “I’m glad we did this. I had a great time.”

“Me, too,” I said, a bit breathlessly.

Then he turned his face slightly and kissed me.

He was warm and I could feel him through my clothes as he pressed himself against me. His hand behind my head guided me toward him. His lips touching mine were firm and I could just make out a bit of moistness behind them as he pressed even closer to me.

He slowly pulled back. “You take care.” He smiled and then turned toward his Z.

I wanted to try to play it cool, so I just smiled and nodded. Turning, I dove into my car and pulled the door closed behind me.

My heart was starting to race a little bit. The kiss was nice. And it was more than a blow off kiss. Those kisses are bone dry.

I pulled out onto Sunset and made a right toward Hollywood. I left my window down and the wind blew my hair back and I felt so good. Free, kind of wild. I didn’t know why, but I felt like a grown-up. I drove the entire way home with a smile splitting my face in half. The fact that another man could make me feel like this let me know I was over all that Dave stuff. I didn’t have to do a Dave drive-by that night.

THIRTEEN

THIRTEEN

The next morning I jumped out of bed before the alarm rang. Brushing my teeth, finding something to wear, burning my English muffin and not caring—all the things I did every morning somehow seemed special and fun. I charged down the hall at work, saying “Good morning!” to everyone, even Evil Janet, and “Hey, you!” to the creepy intern whose name I didn’t know.

The morning flew by as I went over the shooting schedule and fixes for the show that week. My office line rang and I picked the call up before Azita could get to it.

“Hi, Dani.” My heart sank to the floor with such a thud that my feet shook.

“Hi, Mom.”

“I just want you to know that I really loved the show this week.”

“Oh really?” This was surprising. “Well, thanks so much. I’m glad,” I answered cautiously. I closed my eyes and tried not to exhale too heavily into the phone. We were in reruns, so I knew the show that just aired was from earlier in the season.