Les leaned against the counter and asked for a soft drink.
     "Hey, we aren't quite open, yet. Be a few minutes."
     "I hope I can wait that long." He dug in his pocket for the money to buy one of the largest they served. The three guys behind the counter laughed in the same way that they had been cutting up since Les arrived, in a boyish yuk-yuk style that didn't set all that well with Les. But he was thirsty enough not make something of it.
     "Hey, dude, see Lessie here?"
     "The dog?"
     "Yeah. He's a real investigator."
     "Oh?"
     They turned the dog loose, and it went straight for the area below Les's zipper with its nose. Les smiled and tried to ignore the dog, but it was very insistent. "A sniffer, huh?" Les started to shift, but the dog followed his every move, and the nose remained firmly in place. The three guys started yukking it up. Les smiled back. "Persistent little bugger. Hey, fun is fun, but I'm not in the mood. I just met this girl that's really on my mind."
     "A girl, huh?" asked one of the attendants.
     "Yeah."
     "Well, whoopie doo."
     "Oh, not just any girl. This was Lisa, the hostess of Late Night B Movies on TV."
     "Oh, yeah?"
     "Yeah. In fact, I'm supposed to meet with her to do a guest shot on a B grade movie I made when I was younger."
     "You, a movie star?"
     "At one time, it was the best money that I could make."
     "Well, hey, sorry about Lessie. Come here boy." The guy called the dog, keeping up the friendly dog-calling to try and get its attention away from Les's pants. The dog did not want to obey and had to be pulled away.
     "Quite an animal. You train him to stay at it like that?"
     "No. That's natural. Here, look, he even does it to me. Harry, pour the man a drink. We got a real movie star on our hands. What movie you got coming up?"
     "Beachside Werewolves."
     "Never seen it."
     "I'm not surprised."
     "What's it about, a bunch of werewolves in bikinis or something?"
     "Not quite." Les took the proffered drink. "It happened at this beachside rental, and most of the prime werewolf titles are taken. I think somebody thought it would draw a better crowd with a funky name like that."
     "So you met this Lisa in an interview?"
     "No. I'm supposed to do that later. I met her on the street. She was down at the massive car pile up down by the seawall. My car is about halfway down in the pile. She was down there looking at the possibility of doing a take there, but the director said it was too dangerous. I was digging my wallet out from the pants. I was down on the beach at the time the wave hit and washed everything over, had my wallet in the car, with most everything else. And we bumped into each other. Last thing I was expecting. It was something special. We sort of hit it off. I'm still not sure what to think."
     "Is she hot like she acts?"
     "On the surface, but there is more to her than that. She's not the type I usually go for. Too much attention. I've been in the business, and I learned to look beneath the exterior on those fancy models. Some aren't worth the effort. Trouble on the hoof, just looking to happen."
     "Hell, who cares, with looks like that?"
     "I do."
     "Whoa-ho! Mr. Big Shot!"
     "No. Mr. Common Sense. Packaging sells, but you have to live with the contents if you want it more than once. And believe me, you want it more than once."
     "So you want it a second time with Lisa?"
     "Hasn't been a first time, yet. Just something surprisingly nice."
     "So what is this movie about?"
     "Hard to tell two stories at once."
     "Well, you got nowhere with this Lisa."
     "I wouldn't say that. I'm just not one to be in a hurry. Which do you want first?"
     The vote was two to one for the movie.
     "Okay, I'm a guy in a crowd that attends this beach party. Real hot place, made of natural stone, big circular drive way with a fountain, view of the water out back, all on this island. The crowd starts out small, and I arrive early to help out, seeing as how I'm the main character to survive and not become a werewolf. Starts off that one girl arrives as we're putting up this volleyball net in this room that's way too small for volleyball. I mean, there is barely enough room for the ball to clear between the net and ceiling. Sounds stupid, but it important later on. See, there are these stakes for tying it down in the dirt, but they aren't used and laid off to the side, since it's indoors. Don't ask me why. I didn't write it. I think somebody was drinking dream juice or something to promote their writing career.
     "Anyway, this girl arrives in the room, and she's been bitten by this big dog. Only one nick on her thumb, here, but it looks really nasty. Make up on this crew had to go overboard. That's all they knew for horror flicks. I notice she's acting strange, but I'm the only one. I doctor it with peroxide, and she howls and squirms. At first, I keep my suspicions to myself, not wanting to be accused of taking something too strong for my own good. My mistake, or my character 's. But if I hadn't, things wouldn't have gotten out of hand, and there would have been no reason for the movie. You know how that goes. Can't have a ten minute movie. People are always making stupid mistakes in horror movies in the beginning.
     "So, I walk around keeping an eye on her, and more people start acting strange, with little ugly wounds showing up. They heal real quick, and enough of them happen in the bedroom, like in all B grade movies, so it soon gets hard to tell who is who. These aren't your true to the core werewolves. They kind of fade in and out, and the moon is irrelevant. I get wise to this and start looking for a way to defend myself, and there are the kitchen knives and these tie down metal prongs for the volley ball net. I fill my back pocket with them, and things start getting tense, but most of those still not werewolves still haven't caught on yet.
     "Finally, about half the party have been bitten. One even cut herself in the kitchen, and one of the infected licked her finger. Big back and forth scene of will he lick it or not, and he finally does. Well, the normal people no longer have the advantage, and the werewolves start showing their true colors, and the make up department got real busy for the rest of the movie.
     "It starts when one guy comes after me, and I stick him in the chest with one of these stakes, but I miss his heart by a few inches. I almost get mobbed by the still normal, but he changes into a werewolf, and the panic begins, and the two sides cluster to form strategies. Then the werewolves attack, and there is blood and gore, and both sides lose numbers, but that suits the surviving werewolves, and they drag off the bodies for a feast.
     "Thus the rest of us that are still normal have a chance to get real serious, panting and calming the screamers, and making our plans. The plans aren't worth a hoot, but that doesn't matter, cause there's this doctor that shot the one that bit the girl in the beginning, and does something to their blood, and when they eat their own kind, it slowly poisons them. So there is a final battle, and none of the people that are normal get bitten and survive. They all die, and there are only four of us left, but the werewolves start dying from the poison acting on them when they are active in fighting us, all except for one that didn't eat nothing but the normal people.
     "I get to earn my paycheck as top billing by subduing him with a brainstorm, and he is trapped in a well. The doctor shows up with an ambulance, and we fish him out, and he's strapped down and carried off in the meat wagon. He almost gets free of the straps, but he doesn't, and the four of us are left behind, and it ends there with the camera zooming in on the surviving girl, showing a scratch on her arm from his final struggles, to leave room for a sequel. But that never came about, cause the movie never hit it big enough for the producer to want to go through the hassle again."
     "Wow, cool! When is this on?"
     Les shrugged. "Next few weeks, I guess. I haven't been told yet."
     "And you get to sit with Lisa and talk about the movie?"
     "So I've been told."
     "So what did you two do?"
     "Well, like I said, we met at my car, or while I was going down to it. She's not a blonde. That's just a wig. She is a brunette, and I guess she hasn't watched the movie yet, cause she didn't recognize me either. We started talking while I was crawling down into the pile of cars, talking about what I was going to do without my wheels and stuff. I guess she felt sorry for me or something. I get my things out of the car, all wet except what I had in this sealed plastic bag. That wave was huge. Cleared the seawall by seven, eight feet. I saw it and ran for high ground. Some of the idiots ran for their cars and didn't make it. I saw one body from inside my car, further down in the pile.
     "So when I came back up, I was pretty queasy. I sat down on the first concrete I reached, and she came over by me and asked if I was all right. She put her arm around me, trying to cheer me up, thinking I was sick about losing my car. I didn't tell her about the body. I told the police a bit later when they checked me to see what I was doing in the pile. They were hanging pretty tough about looting. But they saw my driver's license and auto insurance slip, which was fortunately still readable while it got soaked. So they let me go with a warning not to go back down there. I told them I no hassle, cause I didn't want to see the body again.
     "So, when I got finished with the cops, Lisa was still there. She offered to take me over for something to eat, and we did, and we started talking. We still didn't know who each other were. I did most of the talking, I guess. After that, she took me around to a bunch of tourist shops, being playful, trying to cheer me up. You know, getting our picture taken together, buying stupid things for the spur of the moment.
     "Well, I guess what she had in mind worked, cause I forgot about the car and started enjoying myself with her. We started laughing together and doing stupid things back and forth, acting like idiots without a care in the world. In the process, we sort of hit it off. There was this moment where we both stopped laughing and just looked at each other. Hard to describe, but it was kind of like we were the people that each other was looking for. We sat down and started talking.
     "That's when she told me who she was. I guess she was trying to tell me what she said about being tied to her contract, anticipating that I might want to run off with her, which I sort of did, though I didn't say so, to the point. I guess I asked a few questions that were headed there. We both felt the same thing, and I had her sitting in my lap, leaning against me.
     "I acted surprised that it was her, and she did her few repeated patented lines to prove it. I never told her who I was, though. I felt that it would have spoiled it. Just a feeling. I told her my name, but I don't think that it registered. Hey, can I get another drink?"
     "Sure. I'll refill that for you, dude, no charge."
     "I appreciate it. She kind of expected me to be crushed, but I just said 'Such is life.' Then I kissed her and gave her a squeeze. I guess she expected a different reaction out of me. I had to explain that I had watched her on TV on a number of different occasions. I wasn't exactly bubbling over about her fame, and she liked that. So we started having fun again, except there was something else there. It was a kind of tug back and forth inside her, and I was the one pulling her out of thinking about something else by being stupid and making her laugh, instead of the other way around, like when we started.
     "We did this until she had to get to the studio to get ready for filming her sequence. When we parted, there was no talk of getting together again, but she was thinking about it. You see, I'm not supposed to show up at the studio until this evening to meet with her."
     "Boy, will she ever be surprised."
     "Well, she was to watch the movies before she meets with me. She's doing the out takes that have me in them. You know how there are two different styles of shots in her routine. So, by the time that I show up, she'll know who I am, having seen me in the movie."
     "Whoa. Sounds pretty wild to me."
     "Yeah. Hey, I'd better get going. I have a ways to walk to the studio, if I can't get a ride on my thumb. Thanks for the liquid. I really needed it."
     "Hey, yeah. And we'll catch your movie. You ever make any others?"
     "Well, there were a few. California Car-Surfing was my favorite. Rather appropriate title, considering how I lost my car today. I'd tell you about it, but I really don't have the time. Thanks again."
     Les left the stand, now rehydrated, and went out to the road and put out his thumb, walking backwards toward the studio. He had been walking ten minutes when a car pulled over. "Are you Les Curalta?"
     "That's right."
     "Good. Hop in. I'm your ride to the studio. I've been out hunting for you, along with a dozen others. Seems you caused quite a stir at the studio, all without ever being there."
     Les sighed. The woman was on the cellular phone and telling the studio that he'd been found as he climbed in the car. She didn't take very long with the conversation.
     "Seems you made an impression on our hostess this morning. I just hope for your sake that it wasn't an intentional prank."
     "No. I didn't even recognize her at first without her wig."
     "You will keep this set of occurrances a secret, I hope."
     "Well, I did mention it once, but they are not the type to be called reliable sources. Pretty flakey burn outs. The type you'd tell, 'In your dreams.' Nothing to worry about. Other than that, I've told no one."
     "Keep it that way."
     "I guess it's a case of self-defense."
     "Lisa was smoldering pretty hot. What did you two do?"
     "Got to know each other a bit. I lost my car to that freak wave that came in over the seawall. She tried to cheer me up, and we sort of hit it off, neither of us knowing who the other was. She told me who she was. At the moment, I thought that it was best to stay quiet about my identity. I'm sorry if I caused trouble, but I think that I can defuse the explosion, if Lisa will give me a word in edgewise."
     "That will be iffy. She is not happy. When they rolled your film, she nearly blew a fuse. Nobody knew what was going on."
     "It's not that serious."
     "You could have fooled me. I was there when she exploded."
     "Let me have a few words with her. I didn't do anything she didn't do also. It's just that I delayed a bit."
     They soon arrived at the studio. Les was ushered into the viewing room where Beachside Werewolves was in its last minutes of showing. The woman pointed to where Lisa sat. He nodded and made his way down to four rows behind her and quietly took a seat. He was noticed by a few of the writers, but he shushed them, and Lisa was not aware of his presence when the credits came up.
     The lights came on, and she looked at the writers. "Well? Do you have anything decent to write for a script? I want it to really sting, remember."
     They all looked back at Les nervously, and her eyes turned to him.
     "Clear the room." she said in a matter of fact tone. "Not you, Les."
     The writers left in a hurried manner. When the door closed, Lisa huffed. "You are the most infuriating man I have ever met."
     He shrugged.
     "You have nothing to say?"
     "If you like. When we met, we didn't know each other's identity. I think that what we felt was honest and genuine. I didn't tell you who I was when you did, because I felt that it would have blown any chance to regain the feeling like we did. I figured that the movie would do it for me, which it obviously did. But I felt that if I were to have confessed when you did, it would have negated what we experienced together, and I wasn't quite ready for it to end. I guess I wanted to show you that what we felt was real. And that is why you got so mad, because it was real. It was just as real for me. It was special, not something I experience everyday.
     "Now before you say something, let me explain a few things. We both found the experience refreshing because we are both subjected to a certain amount of scrutiny in the public eye. There is much that we don't get to show of ourselves because of the publicity it would bring. We have to protect our images. Neither of us are squeaky clean in that department, and we therefore have to be quite careful not to tip the scales any more to the negative side than it already is. Therefore, we are both on the guarded side when meeting with people. You have your secrets, I have mine.
     "Yes, I have a few things that I don't reveal to just anyone. For instance, I was once bitten by a wolf. And I got to play the only main character in the movie that wasn't. Ironic, no? And I did experience a definite effect from the bite. But I don't turn into a monster bent on mutilating bodies. Instead, I get rather shy of people, like a true wolf. Aloof. You see, the difference between dogs and wolves is that wolves don't see humans as superiors, as dogs do. They ignore people when they are forced into proximity with them, whereas a dog's attention is riveted on people whenever they are around. A dog is lost without a person, and a wolf is quite at home alone. I am much the same way at times.
     "The bite also improved my senses. I can smell what people think and feel. I can hear the tiny subvocalizations that other people miss. So I know what you felt, Lisa. I know very well. So don't tell me that you didn't feel a very strong attraction. If you do, I'll call you a liar. I know the loneliness you feel, even surrounded by so many people. I know that you don't let people get close to you often, and when you have, they have disappointed you. I can see that it has led to a strong sense of mistrust in your own feelings. That is why you got angry with me.
     "But I will tell you that what we felt was sincere, and that is why you were puzzled. Your mind was going back and forth between wanting to give in and wanting to cut me off, but it was too good to drop. You wanted to break away from me out of learned reaction, but it was too good. And it was too good because it was genuine. You knew the difference. What kept you vacillating was the thoughts of your career. You have it good, making good money, better than ever before. You are getting recognition that you never got before. You have a say in what you are doing like never before. You were afraid that I would take that from you if you gave in. And it was that fear that set you off when you learned who I was."
     "You don't mince words, do you?"
     "It's the wolf in me. Wolves are very honest. They do not know the meaning of tact. Only tactics. But there is still a human side to me."
     "What do you want from me?"
     "Only that which you decide to give. You must make a choice to follow your inner or outer feelings. Do you want to be lonely and successful, or do you want to break away and know what we had earlier today? Wolves are quite loyal in mating. You know that we are mutually attracted. That was very real. I could go either way. I've known loneliness. It is no stranger to me. I can survive your rejection. The question is, can you? That is why you got so angry. I threaten your career. It is your happiness that lies more in the balance."
     "Les, you are confusing me.
     "I know. I can smell it. You want both, but you can't have both. For you to accept me, you must let me bite you, so that you see what I see. Once you accept the bite, you could not survive here. This lifestyle would disgust you. A wolf is too private to do this. But the choice is yours. I won't command you to pick me. You must decide for yourself which type of satisfaction you want most. After all, that is the way the wolf thinks."
     "If you want me so badly, why not just bite me?"
     "You would resent my making the choice for you. I would be reminded of the resentment from here on in the way you smell. I do not want to live with that. It would destroy what we felt earlier today. It would not be what I want."
     "You certainly are a wolf, I'll grant you. I haven't had anybody come to me on this strongly in ages. And believe me, I attract them. I can't say at the moment what I want to do about you. You do attract me, very deeply. It's disturbing what you do to me."
     "Only because you have a decision to make. I threaten your stability. I do that by offering you what you want in the depths of your being, at the cost of what it has taken you years to achieve. It is those years of bowing to the system that stand in your way. You are afraid to throw away all the sacrifices that you made. But you should take your time in considering. It will become clear to you in time which way you want to go."
     "Well, at least I know how to characterize you for the show. Ever play opposite Little Red Riding Hood?"
     "All the better, my dear."