Page 17 - Connecting Obsessions.indd

Hmm, Rachel thought, she doesn’t sound all that enthusiastic. Perhaps

she’s had a bad day. She shrugged her shoulders and crossed the floor to
go into her bedroom, pausing at the entrance, where she turned back

to add, “It’s early days yet. They want to see me again Friday evening.
Mind if I skip our date?”

Vanessa pulled a face and then grinned. “Well, just this once.”
“You have any luck?” Rachel called, moving on into her room.

Vanessa too was a wannabe actress. In fact they met on the Greyhound
bus that brought them to Hollywood along with a number of others

who, she guessed, bore similar aspirations.
“Nah, though there’s an audition next Monday I might try for.

Some sci-fi movie.”
“Sounds good.” Sci-fi had enjoyed a huge surge of popularity over

recent years. “Go for it.”
Rachel changed into pants and a loose top and then returned to the

main room where she slumped on to the sofa, tucking one leg under her,
before turning on the TV. Not that she particularly wanted to watch; the

set was often switched on for hours on end, ignored by both.
Vanessa eventually wandered in from the bathroom to plump

herself down beside Rachel. Ness was a little older, at twenty-three, and
a couple of inches shorter. She was blonde, too, the source of a constant

running joke between the two of them. Did blondes really have more
fun? Vanessa was certainly ahead on the number of boyfriends, indeed

her ability to juggle up to three or four at a time impressed Rachel.
She herself had no one special at the moment. There was Dave,

with whom she enjoyed a platonic relationship; no pressures on either
side. But that was all. Platonic? She smiled to herself. Now that was

something Vanessa could never understand.

11 | Neil Mavrick