Mick Sinatra: For Once In My Life by Mallory Monroe Read Free Book Online Page A

received steady roles and earned a decent living doing what I loved to
do.   It was exclusively off-Broadway
success, but it paid the bills and allowed me to build a little nest egg for
that inevitable lean time that every actor eventually faces.   But it was all good times then.   I was a kid chasing her dreams and man was I
having a blast.   I had eight straight
years of at least some kind of acting job, even some off-off Broadway
gigs.   And I was teaching acting on the
side.   It wasn’t a dream come true life,
but it was a life.”
    “What
happened?”
    Roz
hesitated.   “By the time I turned thirty,
the gigs just dried up.   Casting
directors that used to know my number and would give me the heads up on roles
they thought I was tailor made to play, suddenly stopped calling.   I went from the it girl, at least in the off-Broadway sense, to a has-been almost
overnight.   I got old.”
    Mick
frowned.   “Old?   You can’t be a day over thirty.”
    “I’m
thirty-two about to kick the door down on thirty-three.   But I’m talking about show business old.   I’m no longer that happy-go-lucky,
stars-in-her-eyes fresh face kid anymore.”
    A different
look came over Roz’s face.   A look Mick
recognized.
    “The years
piled up,” Roz continued.   “If you want a
simple answer.   When you’re twenty-two
and carefree the way I was, you feel as if you have your whole life ahead of
you.   But when you’re pushing
thirty-three, the way I am now, you start to wonder where the hell did it all
go?   I used to be the youngest face in
the crowd at most auditions.   I remember
looking at all of those older actresses and wondering why were they still out
here hustling, still trying to play a young girl’s game?   Didn’t they know it wasn’t happening for
them?   Now I look around and I’m the
oldest at most auditions.   Now I’m the one
those young girls are joking about.   Being carefree doesn’t quite cut it when the landscape looks that
bleak.   I’m still happy, don’t get me
wrong. I refuse to let this town take my happiness.   But there are no more stars in these eyes.”
    “Long gone?”
Mick asked.
    Roz
nodded.   “Long gone,” she said.
    Mick
considered her.   Then he leaned toward
her.   “Don’t let them fool you,
Rosalind,” he said.   “Thirty-two is not
old by any barometer.   Thirty-three isn’t
either.   Take it from me.   I’m much older than you.   You’ve still got a whole lot of living to
do.   It’s absurd to even suggest that you
don’t.”
    Roz smiled a
genuine smile.   “Thanks,” she said. “And
I know what you’re saying is true.   It’s
just a different world in show business.”
    “Only if you
buy into that world.   Because in every
other world, including the real world, thirty-three is not old.   Hell,
you’re just learning how to shit properly at thirty.”
    Roz laughed.
    “Stop buying
into this show business illusion that makes right wrong and wrong right.   You’re too old to fall for that.”   Then Mick smiled.   “Oops,” he said playfully, and Roz continued
to laugh.
    Mick felt so
good by her laughter that he suddenly looked at that dancing fool called Betsy,
better known as their distraction, and decided he’d had enough.   He waved her off.   “That’ll be all,” he said to her.
    Betsy, now
sweating and tired, stopped dancing and looked at him.   And looked at Roz.   And both of them were laughing.   What was so funny?   Why were they laughing?   Were they laughing at her ?
    When Roz saw
that changed look on Betsy’s face, she was about to explain.   But Betsy was already offended.   “Very funny, Roz,” she said angrily, and
stormed off.
    Roz stood
up.   “She thinks we’re laughing at her.”
    “That’s her
problem,” Mick said.   He was never the
kind of man to correct somebody else’s misperception.   “Who cares?”
    “I care,”
Roz said.   “She’s my friend.”   She hurried to