One Year of Reality and How It Nearly Killed Me: My Life Behind the Scenes by Deborah Wolff Read Free Book Online Page B

thing. I had already owned five cars, all used, most of which were clunkers. Two were my parents’ cars, which my dad was notorious for not maintaining. There was the car that was so busted I needed to tie its doors together so that they’d stay closed (I loved valet parking that one at Saks Fifth Avenue), the car that I sold for $500 bucks before the ad even came out in Auto Trader, the car that was totaled at a stop light by a driver who rammed his vehicle into mine and didn’t have any insurance, the one that was hit by a kid and wasn’t worth fixing because its value was nil, and finally the car that blew up. I didn’t think I could even get a car, but I reallywanted a decent car. I wanted a car that wasn’t going to give me any trouble, one that I could have for longer than three years without pouring money into it. And I was making more money than I had before, and that would hopefully be the case for a long time. So I was trying to convince myself that it was time for a new car. And I needed it pretty quickly.
    Maybe it was the fact I was about to turn forty, or it could be because I had some money for a change, but I decided to buy a convertible. I went back and forth between new and used. New would be an extravagance and used would be more responsible. But I really wanted a brand new, never-been-owned, awesome vehicle. And then I figured I probably had bad credit and couldn’t afford the cost of a new car. I kept going back and forth until I made a deal with myself. I would try and get the car I wanted, and when it ended up being too much money, I’d go directly for plan B. I figured I would end up buying used, but there was no harm in trying to get a new car.
    I did some research, found the car I wanted, and there were only three in town. None of them were used. Pressed by the need for a car, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge despite my lingering doubts. I had another girlfriend, Kelly, who was also looking for a car because she hadn’t owned one in along time. So we enlisted a mutual friend, Rhonda, to drive us to the Toyota dealership to see the car I wanted. The plan was for Kelly to check out the used cars. Kelly and Rhonda are my closest friends, and they’re always around in a pinch. I don’t know what I’d do without either of them, and I knew I needed their help in making this momentous decision.
    But Rhonda had to bail on Kelly and me that day.
    I no longer had the SUV, so I was riding my bike around. It was fortunate that the production office for the show was only a quarter of a mile away from my apartment, so I could ride my bike to work. In the back of my head I thought that there was a slim chance that I might have to move, given all the hubbub following Rick’s death, so getting a car was something that couldn’t wait any longer. I called Kelly and told her that I would meet her at the dealership (they were expecting me) and that I was riding my bike down. She said she’d ride her bike too and would meet me there.
    It was a perfect California moment: I was riding my bike to the dealership with my helmet on when my cell phone rang. It was the dealer wondering when I would be there. I was a couple of hours late to meet with him. So I was riding my bike and on mycell phone on a beautiful November day to buy a new Toyota Solara convertible. Life couldn’t be sweeter.
    And what about the dealer? Can you think of a better scenario from his point of view? Two girls riding in to his dealership on bikes? This guy knew he had us at the get go. And of course, it wasn’t until after the fact that I realized that I was the perfect candidate for getting a crummy deal.
    Another reason I had wanted Kelly with me was that she could be the bad cop. She was a good negotiator, smart, and I figured she could tell me if the deal was crazy or not. I never felt like I could negotiate these sorts of things on my own. I had no confidence, so I brought my more aggressive friend with me.
    When we arrived