| Chapter 9 ******* For the past few days, Margot had been living in her small Hilton hotel room. It was pretty affordable, but then again, for a woman living on the measly change in her pocket, it wasn�t. She had no idea where anything in this city was so she didn�t even dare to go exploring. Or sight seeing. Or star watching. Or whatever it was people did in Los Angeles. Every morning, she�d wake up and go downstairs to the caf� for pancakes. After that, she�d go to �The Fun Fun for the Whole Family Room� (yes, she nicknamed it herself) and either swim or play useless arcade games. After that, she�d go back up to her room, watch some TV, order room service for dinner and go to sleep. It was quite the eventful life. One day, she decided to take a walk. She�d been strolling down the street her hotel was on and saw someone who looked familiar. He was walking towards her, but he didn�t really seem to be paying attention to anything other than the hotel signs. When he got a few yards away, she almost hit herself. �Joshua!� He looked behind him but only saw her after he turned around. Margot could have sworn that he did a double take. �Margot!� She ran up to him and lightly punched him in the shoulder. �What are you doing here, man?� Suddenly he looked a little embarrassed. �I was actually looking for your hotel.� She eyed him suspiciously. �Were you now?� He nodded and looked shyly at the ground. �I was. But only because you never called. I was worried! I�ve been going into all of these hotels asking if one Margot Martin was in. Everyone who works on this street now thinks I�m crazy. But it was all for you! You�ve got to give me the benefit of the doubt here.� �And why pray tell should I do that? You tickled me! Mercilessly!� He rolled his eyes and linked arms with her. �Come on, are you still bemoaning that little display? It seems like someone�s holding a bit of a grudge�� he spoke in a sing-song voice. She frowned as he pulled her down the street. �Yes! Someone is holding a bit of a grudge! I don�t like being tickled! Oh, I must have forgotten to put that on my list of hates! So, let�s re cap, I hate plane landings, I hate raw onions, I hate PE teachers, I hate boats, and I hate being tickled!� JC just smiled off into the distance. Margot rolled her eyes. �So where are you dragging me off to?� �Lunch.� She shrugged. �Ok.� Lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen proved to be informative and fun for the both of them. They learned even more about each other and despite their diverse personalities, they found that they had more in common than they thought. After the meal, JC made Margot promise that she�d call him and in turn, she gave him her hotel phone number. That was just about her only interesting day. But after a little over a week of Hilton hotel life, she was beginning to grow a huge dent in her pocket. She�d been sitting at her little hotel desk for almost an hour trying to think of other places she could live, but she wasn�t getting very far. Margot allowed herself to zone out for a second while a Got Milk commercial played lowly in the background. I�m not going to be able to stay much longer in this Hollywood town if I don�t find some other means of living. I wished I had relatives in this state. Or at least this country. They could wire me some cash. I might have to find a job. But do I really plan on staying here that long? I could always call Jos- Joshua! She couldn�t believe how quickly she�d forgotten about her blue-eyed friend. He�d been offering her a place to stay for a while but did they really know each other well enough to live together? Margot shrugged. If she didn�t give this a chance, she�d soon enough end up working in the hotel instead of living in it. Brrrrrriiiing�brrrrriiiiing� �Challo?� Margot�s face morphed from calm to confused. �Uh, hi. Who is this?� �Dees iz me! Who eez dees?� �Um, it�s Margot.� The voice quickly changed and Margot recognized him almost immediately. �Ohhhhhhh, Margot! Hey, what�s up! You called! It�s about time! When did we have lunch? A couple days ago? Didn�t I tell you to call me? Why do you keep doing that? Do you want me to come find your hotel again? Cuz I will. Believe me, I will. I wanted to-� �Shut up!� Margot screamed. �Can you just calm down? Just a little bit? There�s no need to bombard me with thousand of short choppy loud cutoff sentences.� She heard him chuckle gruffly. �Yeah, sorry. So! What do ya need?� She scoffed. �Why do you automatically assume that I need something? What I if just wanted to talk? Huh?� �Margot, if you just wanted to talk, you would have let me continue in my run on cut off speech. You�re usually too lazy to interrupt me.� There was a brief silence on the line. �Whatever. You�re right. I wanted to ask you a question.� �Aha! Just as I suspected�� �Yeah, yeah. I wanted to know if your offer was still up for grabs.� �What offer? The ya-wanna-come-and-go-skinny-dipping-with-me offer?� �Uh. No.� �The ya-wanna-go-cow-tipping-tomorrow offer?� �I don�t think so.� �The ya-wanna-get-a-mani-pedi-next-week offer?� �Definitely not. And what do you know about getting a mani-pedi?� JC coughed uncomfortably. �Nothing?� �Heh. Sure.� �Shush. What is this offer?� �It�s the ya-wanna-come-live-with-me offer.� �Ah! I see what this is all about! I take you out to lunch and you think I still want you to live with me! I see how it is! You�re just a user! You�re not a true friend! Why!?� JC started making ridiculous bawling noises while Margot just waited for him to finish. When he finally did, about 3 minutes later, she spoke up. �You done with your Hollywood moment?� �Yep. And the offer still stands. What made you change your mind, if you changed your mind.� �Well, Josh, if I tell you, you�ll think I�m a cheapskate.� �Don�t I already?� �Joshua!� �Kidding, kidding! But I think I know your dilemma. Living at the airport Hilton is making your pockets hurt.� �Big time.� �It�s no problem. If you think we know each other well enough and all that jazz, then I�d love to have you. It�s your decision. I�m just providing the house.� �You really wouldn�t mind someone you�ve only known for about a week to come and take up your space?� �Margot, trust me, it�s no problem. Just tell me when you want me to come pick you up.� �Well, might you be able to come tomorrow morning? Say 9 �o� clock? I don�t think I have too much money left.� �I�ll see you then!� Margot sighed. �Thank you so much, Joshua. You�ll never know how much this means to me.� �It�s my pleasure, Margot. I�ll see you tomorrow morning!� �Bye!� After she hung up the phone, Margot packed up her things and got ready for her big move tomorrow morning. She really hoped she was doing the right thing. But a feeling from the pit of her stomach told her not to worry, everything was going to be great. |