the genie back in the bottle. “I was born Annie Flowers, but when I was twenty-one with stars in my eyes, I changed it to Annabel Fiore.”
I don’t tell him I almost broke my parents’ hearts when I did that. Both died not long after I left home and the guilt has eaten at me.
“Dr. Vanguard from the show Memorial Hospital,” Bryce explains, but I don’t think it’s really helping. “Mom watches that show all the time. She was really upset when you died last year. Can’t believe I didn’t recognize you before.”
“It’s the eyes,” Sumo says distractedly, his focus still very much on me.
“You don’t have any idea what we’re talking about, do you?” I ask him gently.
“Don’t watch much TV,” he says with a shrug before taking a deep swig of the beer he left on the counter. “So you’re an actress. What are you doing here? Research for a new role?”
His tone is sharp and I flinch. I get why he’d be upset, though. I’ve discovered over the years not many regular guys are willing to put up with someone like me. At least not for the long run. A fling, maybe, something to brag to their buddies about, but that was never about me. I can already see the way Sumo looks at me changing.
It’ll be a hard sell to try and convince him what he knows of me is more real than what a lot of people who have followed me for the past twenty years on daytime TV think they know, but I have to try.
“If you’ll let me, I’ll try to explain.”
He stares at me hard before nodding firmly.
“Let’s take this outside so I can finish off the ribs.”
I’m a little nauseated at the prospect and not so sure I’ll be able to eat anything. I’m going to need a little reinforcement.
“Do you think I could have a beer?” I ask him, and he raises an eyebrow.
“Bryce, grab Annie…I mean Annabel a beer?”
“Annie, please. That’s who I am.”
He doesn’t seem too convinced but slides the door open for me and follows me onto the deck. Bryce, who doesn’t try to hide his curiosity when he comes outside with a cold beer for me and a can of Diet Coke for himself. I’ll be selective in what I share.
“Like I said, I was twenty-one and had dreams of becoming an actress…”
When I first took that bus to LA, fame and fortune were motivators. The thought of people recognizing me on the street a dream. That didn’t last. Although I gained some popularity, I never became the next Meg Ryan who also had her start in a daytime soap. She’d been my idol for so many years.
As for the fortune, I was paid per episode. The first three seasons I was on the show I didn’t even appear in every episode and could barely survive on what I got paid. I had to supplement with a part-time waitressing job. After that it got a little better, especially after Dr. Daphne Vanguard became a regular on the show. My per episode pay went up as well, and after twenty years I made a healthy living and I had plenty put aside.
Having people recognize me? That was the thing that got old fast. Oh, it was fun at first—exhilarating even when someone would come up to me at a restaurant or in a store—but I quickly discovered I couldn’t just turn that part of it on or off at will.
“I don’t mean it to sound like a complaint, because it’s the life I chose.” I sit back and take a sip of the second beer Bryce fetched me, while Sumo pulls the ribs off the grill. “But people have this idea of you that doesn’t really match the person inside. For instance, in one episode a few years ago my character had to save the life of a murderer and for years after people would verbally attack me for that. I’d be walking down the street or stopping at a gas station and someone would get up in my face over something a character I played did. It can get scary.”
I’ll save how scary for another time, when there aren’t young, innocent ears to overhear.
Sumo has said little while I was telling my story. Every so often he’d look over his shoulder but most of the time I was talking to his broad back. A little unnerving, because I haven’t been able to read him.