Florence: Where It All Began

Chapter 1

The day is April 20th, 2000 and you are on vacation in Los Angeles, CA. It's your last full day in the city before you fly home tomorrow night and you are trying to soak up as much of that laid back SoCal vibe as you can. You take time to do a little shopping and pick up a few souvenirs at one of those typical tourist shops. When you finish shopping you decide to take a drive in your rental and end up the hills of Malibu.

Feeling a little bit peckish, you stop for a late lunch at a small, out of the way dive. The parking lot is nearly empty so you are hoping to get in and out pretty quickly. You park your car, walk in, and the hostess seats you at a corner table next to a window overlooking the ocean. You pause a moment to enjoy the view, and then your waiter walks up and takes your drink order. While you're waiting on your drink, you notice a man sitting in the corner opposite you. The glare from the window prevents you from seeing his face so you just look away, back out the window to your magnificent view. A short moment later the waiter returns with your iced tea and takes your meal order. Before he leaves again, you ask him where the ladies room is and head that way but realize you have to walk right past the man in the corner. This is a little awkward for you, considering you are the only two in the restaurant that you can see, so you decide to keep your head down and walk as quickly as you can. You make it to the bathroom just fine, no uncomfortable confrontations. As you start back to your table, you decide to do the same thing when you walk past the man again, keep your head down and walk quickly. You get to the doorway, right by him, and start to speed past him again, only this time, he has his back to you and can't see you coming. He stands up from his seat, out into the walkway, the same walkway you were trying to speed walk down. You don't see him in time to stop so you run right into him, knocking him into the table and making yourself fall to the floor. Damn, you say to yourself. Not only have you embarrassed yourself by falling like a clumsy idiot, but you have knocked this poor man into the furniture and probably hurt him. Trying to pick yourself up off the floor, you realize this gentleman has already recovered and is trying to help you up. All you hear is, "Miss, are you alright? Are you able to stand?" The man reaches his hand underneath your arm and pulls you up just about as fast as you went down. Once you're back on your feet you get your bearings and look up to the man and say, "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! Are you alright? I'm just so clumsy." As you try to recover from one of the most embarrassing moments of your life, you look up to this total stranger and see his face for the very first time. This is no stranger. Sure, you may be a stranger to him, but he is no stranger to you. This is your all time favorite actor, Sir Anthony Hopkins. All of the emotions you were just feeling become exponentialized as you feel like crawling into a hole and dying. You are absolutely mortified and, on top of that, you're now totally starstruck. He sees your face go from beet red to stark white and says again, "Are you okay, miss?" You bury your face into your hands and just start laughing. He puts his hand on your shoulder, looks over to the waiter and smiles saying, "I'll take that as a yes." You finally have the courage to remove your hands and look him in the eye to apologize once more.

"Sir Anthony I'm so sorry. You're ok? I didn't hurt you did I?"

He replies, "Oh no, I'm perfectly fine. More concerned about you actually, you being the one to have fallen. But please, call me Tony."

A little calmer now, you assure him that you are fine, just so embarrassed and tell him how nice it is to meet him, continuing to laugh nervously.

"Forgive me for my awkwardness, but you are my all time favorite actor and I am a little starstruck to say the least."

Tony chuckles, "No need to feel starstruck, I'm no more important to the sun rising and setting than you are. Would you like to sit? I'd like to wait here with you for a moment to make sure you're alright."