Perfect Strangers

The buffet at Dorsia was a cornucopia of mockery; a table of decadent food laid out in open defiance of the churning stomachs of the women occupying the room. After their encounter with the Host none of them felt comfortable being alone, and so the group had coalesced around the dinning hall. The great chandeliers had been turned down to a soft glow for the evening meal but the setting sun painted the cavernous room blood red. Though fading the light was still harsh, and most of the women hid in what shadows they could find.

Their gathering in the dining hall was driven by an instinctual ritual of the clock, not a desire for sustenance. With the exception of Samantha no one had the stomach for food currently. Sarah had gathered a small salad that she occasionally picked at. Robin had defiantly carved herself a choice cut of prime rib but had spent the evening cutting it into small and smaller bites without tasting it. Chloe’s bowl of soup had gone untouched while Bailey had **** herself to take a rich slice of triple chocolate cake. She had taken a few bites, mostly in an attempt to prove that she could, before giving up. Now her fork bounced uneasily in her hand, occasionally striking the side of her dessert plate with a sharp tink that made everyone wince.

Samantha was the only one truly eating, but it was with the gross determination of someone attempting to drown their feelings with calories. Two already empty plates lay beside her as she started in on a slice of cheesecake, devouring it in large swallows that left it doubtful whether she was even tasting it. Chloe sat beside the curvy screenwriter, recognizing someone in the throes of a self-destructive pattern but not knowing how, or even if, she should intervene.

“So what now?” Chloe finally ventured, breaking the tense silence.

“What now?” Bailey laughed bitterly, her brown thighs clenched beneath the tablecloth. She was sitting by herself at the next table over from the rest of the women, unwilling to commit to the group at large but **** to be truly alone.

“’What now’ is we’re fucked,” Bailey emphasized the curse by stabbing her slice of cake, leaving the fork embedded in the sickly, rich, chocolate layers. “Even if we were willing to throw our dignity away to save ourselves I doubt that boy scout would be open to obliging us.”

“Says the woman in first place,” Robin sneered. “How much ‘dignity’ did that cost you?”

Bailey’s retaliation was interrupted by a sharp grimace, as her thighs crashed together in a **** attempt to stem the rising tide. Her retort died in her throat as she tried to breath through it.

“This isn’t helping,” Sarah’s voice was calm but flat, exhausted from checking all the options and not finding a single workable one. “We are not each other’s enemies.”

“Yeah, well it’s all set up for us to be,” Robin snapped, tossing her fork and knife on her plate causing Chloe and Samantha to jump at the ensuing clatter.

“We...we can work this out so everyone’s safe,” Sarah pressed on. “This isn’t a zero-sum game.”

Robin leaned back in her chair while crossing her arms, eyeing the tall blonde skeptically.

“The popularity poll is entirely in the hands of the audience, we don’t know what the challenge is going to look like, and the only other way to earn VP is through him.” Robin spat, counting off her fingers. “Much as I hate to agree with Miss Beverly Hills over there, he’s no Casanova. Even if we’re willing I’m not sure he’d be.”

Sarah’s jaw clenched, but she rose to her feet and pushed on. “Nevertheless, I think we each need to figure out what we’re comfortable with. Samantha and Bailey both managed to score points so he must be open to some things.” She looked from one woman to other. “Either one of you willing to share?”

Bailey pointedly looked away, glaring at the tall windows that looked out onto the garden. Samantha blushed deeply and squirmed in her seat.

“We just kissed,” She finally admitted, the blush creeping up her elongated ears. “That’s all.”

Chloe perked up, “Kissing’s worth six points all on its own?”

“There’s a 2x multiplier for first time acts,” Sarah said, shaking her head. “So the rest of us will only get three points for kissing. Still, this seems manageable. If we can all get positive points before going into the challenge we’ll all be in much better shape.”

“Three of us lost points for finishing last in the pop poll,” Robin scowled. “I’m willing to bet scoring for the challenge will work similarly.”

“Which is all the more reason for everyone to try to go into the challenge with positive points. Then we can try to strategize placements so no one gets eliminated.”

Sarah’s announcement landed flatter than the pistachio encrusted salmon on the buffet.

“You want us to cooperate on the challenge?” Chloe asked quietly.

“She doesn’t want us to cooperate,” Robin snorted. “She wants us to be willing to sacrifice our placing for others.”

Sarah’s thin lips pressed together grimly, “If it means keeping us all safe through this week than yes,”

“And what about next week?” Robin pressed. “Or the week after? What if those extra points would make the difference for one of us down the line?”

“We can only take this one week at a ti-”

“What, I’m just supposed to trust the rest of you?” Bailey interrupted. “I don’t even know any of you and you expect me to risk my chances at points to save someone else?”

Robin’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Sarah, you’re the only one that’s already had their date and came away with no points. You expect us to believe you’re just trying to get all of us through this instead of protecting yourself?”

“I’ve heard enough,” Bailey said, standing suddenly. “I’m not going to risk my safety on the off chance you all decide to play nice.” She swept out of the dining room and disappeared down the hall. Robin stood to follow her.

“Robin, please.” Sarah’s voice was raw, **** and exhausted. Robin paused, before sadly shaking her head.

“I’m sorry Sarah, it’s just too big an ask. Especially if one of us is already not on board.”

Sarah fell back into her seat with a defeated sigh as Robin left the room. Her eyes flickered between Chloe and Samantha but they held no answers, only doubts. Samantha sniffled into her cheesecake while Chloe stirred her soup, brooding. They were out of words, out of options, and rapidly running out of time.

******

Robert stepped out of the sound stage, blinking his eyes against the bright afternoon sun. Going straight from a Minnesotan winter night to a faux-California day was quite the adjustment and he was already feeling uncomfortable in his cold weather layers. Cassandra’s winter clothing was already melting off her like snow under the warm sun, leaving her looking as spectacular and uncomfortable as before in her slinky dress. Robert on the other hand had to step back into the wardrobe trailer and change his garments the old fashioned way.

“Is it too early for dinner?” Robert asked as he reemerged from the trailer.

“Yes,” Cassandra replied with a pained smile. “But we can start heading that way.”

They fell into an uneasy walk. The contrast between Cassandra here and Cassandra back on the sound stage could not be more clear. The Cassandra there had been totally caught up in the moment, excited and alive in a way that delighted Robert. This Cassandra was painfully aware of her own presence with every step she took. Her shoulders tight, her gaze fixed on some indeterminate space ahead of her. Her arms swing stiffly at her sides, like she had to concentrate to keep them in position. They marched on together in silence until it became painful.

“So what did you have in mind for dinner?” Robert asked, immediately kicking himself for such a bland conversation topic.

Cassandra laughed. It sounded **** and nervous. “Actually I was planning on us having a quiet night in, ordering room service.”

“Sounds good to me. Honestly, I didn’t even know that was an option,” Robert replied, hoping his relief that she had picked up the thread wouldn’t show on his face.

His relief was short lived. Cassandra didn’t elaborate and silence fell upon them once more. Robert couldn’t bring himself to break it this time.

As they entered the hotel lobby Cassandra stopped at the front desk and spoke with Simon, the concierge, while Robert awkwardly examined the architectural trappings. He could make out just enough to gather that the discussion regarded dinner. She soon rejoined him with that same pained smile before they both headed to the elevator bank. She froze briefly when the elevator doors opened, but she ultimately followed Robert in.

The elevator arrived at the top floor and Robert led the way into the Master’s suite. As she entered, Cassandra stopped to examine the display case of cheap movie replicas.

“What’s this?” She asked, leaning over and examining a pair of lightsabers, their blue and green plastic blades crossed.

Robert gave a shamefaced grimace and shrugged his shoulders, “Some toys from when I was a kid. My sister and I used to take them with us to movies as kind of a memento.”

Robert watched as Cassandra’s eyes traced over two different wizard's wands, a cheap pair of plastic Spider-Man and Green Goblin masks, and finally, in a place of honor, a toy replica of Sting from Lord of the Rings.

Robert braced himself for the judgment, for the snide remarks, for a least a little teasing. Instead Cassandra’s face slowly blossomed into a real, actual smile as she surveyed the relics.

“It’s sweet,” She finally stated, straightening up. “Did you and your sister go to the movies a lot?”

“As often as we could,” Robert replied as he turned away, fighting to keep his voice steady. “Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the suite.”

He proceeded to lead her on the same perfunctory tour he’d given to all the other girls this week, culminating with the Master’s bedroom. Fortunately he was saved from engineering further conversation by a knock on the suite’s front door. Cassandra answered it and returned carrying a serving tray holding two silver lidded plates.

“Dinner!” She called out in a singsong voice.

Robert joined her at the dining table. The meal was simple, but the quality spoke for itself. Two tender fillets of steak seared in a lemon butter sauce and topped with matching shrimp were accompanied by roasted broccoli and a small slice of tiramisu for desert. Conversation flowed easier now, and Robert worked up the courage to ask something that had been nagging at him since their first day on set.

“Sorry, but could you walk me through it one more time?” Robert asked, still struggling with the concept.

Cassandra giggled. “So my given name is Cassandra Lillian Layton. My stage name is Lilly Layton and the character I played on Lilly Livin’ Loud was named Lilly Larson.”

Robert nodded solemnly, vowing to remember this time even though Cassandra had insisted it wasn’t that important.

“This is delicious,” Robert said after swallowing a particularly savory shrimp. “I didn’t even know we could get room service.”

Cassandra lips twisted into an attempt at a smile that didn’t quite stick. “I didn’t really want to go out. I’ve felt a little...exposed these last few days.”

Robert nodded while reaching for his water glass. He fumbled it, knocking it over. Before he could even react Cassandra was already sopping up the liquid with a napkin, her face blushing as she refused to meet his eyes.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “I can’t help it...”

The spill was small, so all Robert could do was try not to stare as Cassandra gently sponged at the table. At least her clothing hadn’t changed this time, presumably because it hadn’t taken her long to wipe it up.

“Can I ask what that’s been like?” Robert finally asked hesitantly. “The cleaning transformation?”

Cassandra froze briefly, napkin in hand before she answered.

“Not as terrible as you’d think. It hasn’t triggered much outside of my room yet. The worst part so far is Samantha tends to leave her clothes laying about our room and I end up folding them and putting them away for her.” Cassandra’s deep blue eyes found Robert’s. “Please don’t tell her. She thinks it’s housekeeping…”

She carried the soiled napkin over to the small kitchen. Despite his best efforts Robert found his eyes tracing the lines of her body as she walked away. The dress clung tightly to Cassandra’s hips and her heels accentuated her long, well-formed legs. As she retrieved a fresh napkin and turned he managed to find her face with a smile that he hoped wouldn’t betray him.

“Well, I guess the actual worst part has been the maid outfit,” Cassandra contemplated as she returned to the dining table, “but I have no one to blame but myself for that.”

She sat back down across from him, sliding into her seat with the elegance of someone that had done it in a dress and heels just like this a million times before. As Cassandra turned to her dessert Robert allowed himself to fully look at her in a way he hadn’t dared before.

Her eyes were the first thing that always caught his attention, their hue a deep sapphire blue. Outside they sparkled and glinted in the sun but here in the lower light of the suite they were bottomless pools. Her lustrous black hair hung loose tonight in lazy but deliberate curls, framing her oval face and high cheekbones. Her smile was brilliant, but there was something odd about it that Robert couldn’t quite place his finger on. Sometimes it broke out quick -almost too quick- her teeth a bright flash of impossible white. Other times it slowly spread across her face like a sunrise, more gradual but also more illuminating. All in all she was picture perfect, the quintessential image of a Hollywood star.

Yet Robert wasn’t blind to the tension in her shoulders or the way she never truly turned fully away from him, like she was an actor on a stage. It made him feel guilty for admiring her, in a way he couldn’t completely explain. The compulsory foundation of their entire acquaintance certainly carried most of the blame, but it felt like that was something more than that. Something deeper.

She looked up from her dessert and his eyes darted away in the way that all men do when they fear a beautiful woman has caught them staring. If Cassandra had caught him she didn’t say anything, but she also didn’t look away. He could feel his cheeks burn slightly under her gaze as he fumbled with his tiramisu. When he finally dared to raise his eyes he found her waiting with a quizzical smile and a cocked eyebrow.

“Can I ask another question?” Robert said with either courage or recklessness he hoped to discover along the way. “Why did you dislike the clothing transformation so much? Personally of the three I thought it seemed the least objectionable.”

Cassandra’s smile faded and her eyes fell back to the plate as she slowly fidgeted with her fork. The silence dragged on and for a half moment Robert hoped and feared she wouldn’t answer.

“Ever since I landed my TV show,” She finally said, “I’ve been on display. At first it was kind of fun; all of the attention, people knowing who you are. But as it dragged on I began to realize that most of my fans didn’t know me and they didn’t really want to. They wanted to meet ‘Lily Larson,’ not the real me.”

“Having to look like...like this all the time makes me feel like that again. On display, overexposed. Playing a role instead of simply being myself.”

“Is that why you stopped acting?” Robert asked. Cassandra sighed.

“Kinda. I tried to keep going after the show ended, even managed to land a couple roles, but I was feeling less and less me.”

“My agent told me I needed to break my ‘schoolgirl’ image from the TV show and he pushed me to take on more ‘mature’ roles. He got me a supporting role in an action movie and a lead in a psychological thriller. Neither of them really went well.”

“I stepped away after that. I felt like I was being put in boxes that didn’t really fit and I was feeling less and less myself. I told everyone it was just for a little while, just until I figured some things out. I almost believed it myself.”

Cassandra scraped listlessly at the remnants of tiramisu on her desert plate.

“I never really ‘quit’ in any official sense of the word. The casting calls just slowly began to dry up and I didn’t do anything to stop it. Secretly I was kinda relieved, though I never admitted that to anyone.”

“So what do you do now?” Robert asked. Cassandra let out a sharp, bitter laugh.

“I don’t know. It’s been years and I still don’t know.” She sadly shook her head. “Acting is all I’ve ever done. I don’t want to go back, but I don’t know how to do anything else.”

Her eyes sank and she stared unseeingly at the table. She sat like that until Robert reached out and took her hand, gently squeezing it.

“Hey,” he said softly as her gaze met his, surprised. “You’ll figure it out.”

“You barely know me,” Cassandra whispered, her eyes growing moist. “How can you say that?”

“True, but you’ve been pretty remarkable so far,” Robert said with a smile. “Besides, we’re stuck with one another now so I’m going to make sure you do.”

Cassandra laughed, a real laugh of simultaneous disbelief and release. She dabbed at her eyes with a napkin as her face slowly broke into a smile.

“I’ll hold you to that,” she said between laughs.

Dinner finished, Robert took the silver tray and dishes and set it outside the suite door while Cassandra washed out their drink glasses. It had grown late at some point, and Robert suggested they make their way towards bed.

Cassandra froze at the threshold of the Master’s bedroom, her face uncertain.

“Can I ask for a weird favor?” She asked.

Robert turned with a quizzical look. “Sure.”

“I...I’m nervous what sleep outfit my transformation is going to put me in tonight. It tends to lean towards the risque at the best of times and, well, this is a situation that calls for something like that anyway…”

Robert nodded understandingly. “What do you want me to do?”

“Can you go ahead, climb in bed, and pull the covers over your eyes so you can’t see me? I’ll turn the lights off and then get in bed.”

“Of course,” Robert replied with a reassuring smile. He stepped into the attached bathroom to get ready for bed and change into his own pajamas. Cassandra was still standing just outside the doorway, her arms crossed, holding onto herself when he returned. He slid under the covers.

“Eyes closed or all the way under?” He asked.

Cassandra shivered. “All the way under please. I think I trust you, but it will make me feel better.”

Robert nodded and shimmied down lower in the bed before pulling the sheet and comforter up over his head. He could hear Cassandra take a deep breath, and then a muffled step as her heels crossed over onto the thick carpet.

He couldn’t see her but he could hear her gasp. “Everything OK?” He called out softly.

“Y-yeah…” Cassandra answered shakily. He could just make out the padded sounds of naked feet stepping across the room. Still under the covers he could tell when she flipped the lights off and made her way to the far side of the bed.

He could feel her hovering there uncertainly.

“I’ll keep my eyes closed,” he promised. She didn’t answer verbally, but he felt the mattress give as she slid into bed.

Robert still wouldn’t look, but he could feel her finding a comfortable position and lightly tugging at the sheets. She finally stopped and they lay there together in the soft darkness. He was on the verge of dozing off when…

“Robert?” Cassandra’s voice was small and thin, barely more than a whisper.

“Yes?”

“Did you mean it? About you making sure I figure out what comes next?”

He could feel the nervous anticipation in her voice, the fear of what his answer could mean for both of them.

“I meant it.”

She sighed softly, a quiet content sound, and Robert could feel her slide closer to him before she nestled deeper into the sheets and fell asleep.