Play Date

9 Mulholland.

It's raining this afternoon. Missy waits on the sidewalk when Paige pulls up in the Maserati.

"You're late," Missy complains. Paige puts the car in gear and pulls out.

"That's because every time a few raindrops fall, all of Los Angeles forgets how to drive." They drive in silence for a block. Paige starts a new conversation. "You never ask to go shopping for clothes or toys or anything. What are you doing with the money?"

"I'm saving for law school."

"Oh?"

"I want to be a prosecutor." Missy looks straight ahead. Paige does, too, as she should while driving.

"Interesting," Paige says.

"Somebody needs to make sure that foster parents... foster dads don't do bad things." 

Paige has been so involved in making sure the plan to get employment succeeds, she hasn't given a lot of thought to Missy, or how she got where she is.

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything bad."

"You and I have things in common. My mom died when I was your age."

"Not the same," Missy says. "My mom threw me away."

"True. My mom was taken from me. About five years after she died, my dad got a new wife. She and I never got along. Then, when I was away at college, my dad died. We had a lot of stuff in storage - my mom's clothes, old dishes, photo albums. By the time I got back for the funeral, my stepmom had disappeared and taken everything with her. Every trace of my mother was gone. The only thing I have left of her is this necklace." She fingers the chain around her neck. Missy turns her head to admire it.

Paige's phone rings through the car stereo. It's Riley. Jerry wants to see them, now. Paige offers to pick him up, but he's already on the bus to Jerry's office. Paige will meet him there with Missy in tow.

"Change of plans," Paige tells Missy and navigates the car to Mulholland Drive.

The rain picks up. Ancient oils raise on the curvy mountaintop road and turn the trip into a treacherous journey. Paige catches up to a nervous driver crawling along, preventing more confident drivers to pass.

"This is exactly what I was saying," she tells Missy. "A little rain and people either go too slow or too fast."

As those words leave her mouth, an over-confident driver races up behind, horn blaring, and passes both Paige and the car in front of her. The impatient driver swerves out of the oncoming lane back into the correct side of the road too fast and the car fishtails, almost clipping a stray dog on the road's shoulder. The frightened dog runs toward Paige's car. Paige swerves to avoid it and slides off the road. Missy screams as they skid to a halt.

"Are you hurt?" Paige asks. Missy shakes her head. They both have racing hearts and short breath. "Okay, we're both all right. Let's get back on the road."

She puts the car into reverse and presses the accelerator. The wheels spin in the mud. She tries several times to back out. No luck. Even with all-wheel drive, the car won't budge. She puts the car in park and turns to Missy. "I assume you've driven a car before?" 

"Why would you think that?" Missy asks.

"Just a hunch." Her hunch hits close enough to the truth. That's a story for another time.

Paige rolls down her window and opens the door. "Just do what I tell you." She steps out into the storm. Missy climbs over the center console and takes the wheel.

Paige bears down on the front bumper and yells to Missy. "Put the car into reverse and gently press on the accelerator. When the car moves, you press on the brake. Got it?"

"Got it," Missy yells back. Missy is nervous but holds it together.

"Okay," Paige says "Put the car in reverse." Missy obliges. Paige pulls the bumper upward, but the idling engine doesn't have enough torque. "Very gently press the accelerator," she instructs. Missy presses on the gas pedal with a delicate touch. Again, Paige pulls the bumper upward, and the car inches backward.

"Hit the brakes!" Paige yells. Excited, Missy accidentally presses the accelerator down, hard. The front wheels spin, sending a tsunami of mud at Paige. Missy realizes her error and brakes.

Riley sits in the guest chair in Jerry's office, killing time. Riley and Jerry have talked without her. Thirty minutes after the start of the meeting, Paige and Missy stumble in. Paige. caked in mud, hair a tangled mess, and eyeliner running down her cheeks, is ready to talk.

"I was just telling Jerry we'd start tomorrow," Riley says. "If that's okay with you."

Paige breaks down in tears—happy tears. She and Riley got the job.

Riley drives home and puts Paige into a hot bath, to soak the day away. After the bath, Paige checks in on Missy, who is reading in bed. Paige sits on the edge of the bed.

"Quite a day, wasn't it?" she says.

"You ruined your clothes."

"But we didn't kill the dog." Missy doesn't get Paige.

"Why did you do that? You don't even like animals."

"He was scared and all alone."

"He was just a stray."

"We're all strays," Paige says. Missy contemplates that.

"Paige, why don't you want to have kids?" It's Paige's turn to contemplate. That decision was so natural that she's never questioned it. She's always accepted that some people should not be parents, and she and Riley fall into that group.

"Well, some people think that we're selfish. Riley and I think that for people who work as much as we do, it would be selfish to have a daughter, and not be able to give her enough love and attention because of work."

"Don't you worry about being alone when you're old?"

"Just having a family, doesn't guarantee anyone will be there for you." That's a sad thought.

"Yeah. I know this isn't real," Missy says, "but when I grow up, I'm going to adopt kids."

"You don't want your own?"

"They would be my own. There are lots of kids out there who don't have families, Missy explains. "Why not help someone who's already in the world?"

"That's a very grown-up way of looking at things."

"If you think about it, you've been my mom longer than my birth mother ever was."

Paige hadn't thought about that. She's realizing how little thought she and Riley put into this whole scheme. They plowed ahead without giving a thought to the collateral impact, good or bad, they might have on others. Sure, Charlie and Mrs. Evans are making money, but Missy didn't ask to be part of this. You can't fault her for working up a little side hustle. How many other people have used Missy, she wonders.

Laura is pissed at Jerry. He's just informed her that he hired Paige and Riley.

"There was no one else in this entire town you could have hired?"

"They're the best-qualified people for the show," Jerry says. "They won an Emmy,"

"Don't remind me."

"Laura please, remember—forgiveness."

"You should be thankful I had enough forgiveness for you." They are not exactly keeping their voices down. 

They probably would if they knew Jona was eavesdropping outside their bedroom door.