First Stop, New York by Jordan Cooke

didn’t mean—” Corliss knew from her psychology books that you needed to speak tenderly to frightened people in order to gain their trust. “Sorry, I’m not paparazzi! My bad. I’m Corliss Meyers—Max Marx’s assistant?”
    Tanya squinted. “Oh, hi. Did we meet?”
    “I kind of waved at you in the rehearsal.” Corliss waved to demonstrate. Tanya waved back.
    Trent, breathing through his mouth, seemed skeptical. “But, like, wait—
who
are you?”
    Corliss took one giant step through the sea grass and approached the table. “Max Marx’s assistant, Corliss. I, uh, had a lot of beet juice on my top and on my face today, so you might not recognize me now that I’ve showered and changed tops.” She laughed nervously and extended her hand, but Trent just stared.
    “But, like, if you’re Max’s assistant, what were you doing hiding behind that plant?”
    “Oh…yeah…huh. I guess you saw me. It’s just, uh,that the, uh, maître d’ wouldn’t tell me where you were sitting and…” Corliss scanned the psych portion of her memory for something that could help her navigate this spy scenario. Then it occurred to her:
Narcissistic types require flattery.
She leaned in to whisper. “I guess he wouldn’t tell me because you’re
such
big stars.” Tanya did indeed look flattered. But Trent kept scowling. “And my prescription on my glasses needs to be adjusted, so I wasn’t sure if it was you two, and I wanted to be sure before I bothered a couple of innocent strangers who weren’t
very big stars
.”
    “That’s so crazy,” giggled Tanya. “I have a prescription that needs to be adjusted, too!”
    “Sounds pretty lame to me,” muttered Trent.
    “Don’t be mean, Trent,” said Tanya. “Young women with a lot on their minds often have problems like these.” She smiled an understanding smile at Corliss. Corliss smiled one back and tried to pat down her hair. She had no idea what Tanya was talking about, but she sensed that Tanya was now officially on her side.
    Now all she needed to do was win over Trent. “Look, I’m really sorry to bother you, Trent.”
Remember: Flatter him!
“I know people must bother you all the time. You are, after all, one of the
hottest actors of your generation
.”
    Trent shrugged and grinned slightly.
    Wow, it’s working…
    “It’s just, um, Max wanted me to deliver the rewrite to you personally.” Corliss handed over the two scripts she’d printed at Uncle Ross’s.
    Trent seemed impressed. Tanya clapped like a little girl at Christmas.
    “He wanted to make sure you both had a chance to really look over the changes, because they really affect your characters. And because yours
are the
most important
characters on the show.”
    Tanya clapped even more. Trent sat back in his chair and gave Tanya a satisfied smile. “Thanks, Corliss,” he said. “Yo, for a minute I thought you were a total stalker, but you totally rock.”
    “Thanks! So, um, yeah,” Corliss stammered, stalling for time. “So, don’t you want to get home—to your separate places—and start looking over the changes?”
    Tanya looked at Trent.
    “We will,” he said. “But our food just arrived. Right before you jumped out of the plant.”
    Sure enough, their food was on their plates, growing cold. Which meant Corliss needed a reason to keep herself there. It was time to bring out the big guns. She put on her hungriest face and looked longingly at their meals.
    “Yeah, what is that? Some kind of fish? Like a whitefish? Boy, printing up those scripts kept me from having dinner and—”
    “Oh, no!” said Tanya. “Do you want to join us—?”
    “Listen, Corliss,” said Trent, cutting off Tanya, “we were in the middle of a really important discussion about, like, ourselves.”
    “Oh, of course…So I guess I should get moving?”
    Tanya frowned. Trent said, “Uh, yeah, kinda…”
    Corliss stood from the table and backed up. “Okay, but if you have any questions tonight when