Page 17 of A Reel Christmas in Romance
Marianne stopped dead in her tracks. Asta, at the end of his leash, yelped in surprise. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence. If you seriously don’t know who he’s named after, I – I just don’t know what to say to that.” Even if you weren’t a fan of old movies, how could any decently-educated person not know who Asta was?
“Well, I don’t.” He tried not to sound defensive; she had to give him that much credit. And, maybe she was being unfair. She’d grown up with these movies, they had been her whole life. That wasn’t true for everyone.
“The Thin Man?”He gave her a look that wasn’t quite blank, but it was close. “1934? William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles? Husband and wife detectives?” She got that same look again. “OK,The Thin Manwas a movie. Made in 1934.”
He didn’t manage to keep all the sarcasm out of his voice, but, again, she could hear that he was trying to. “I figured that much out.”
“Well, in the movie – movies, actually, there are six of them in all. And in all the movies, Asta is their dog. He’s a terrier, so when I adopted my Asta, what else could I name him?”
“I guess you’ll have to show me that movie, too. At least the first one, anyway.”
That would not be a problem. One of the things she loved most about her job was introducing great movies to people who had never seen them. Or, in this case, heard of them. “Done. Only – how long are you in town for? The schedule is set until the last week in February.”
And then he spoke words that verged on blasphemous. “Why can’t we just watch it on video?”
Marianne just stared at him. He’d been to the Esmerelda twice now, and he still didn’t get it? No, that wasn’t fair. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. Center herself, as her old yoga instructor always told her. “We could,” she said. “But the thing is, these movies were made to be seen on the big screen, with an audience. You shouldn’t see them for the first time on a TV. It can’t always be helped, but I do my best to bring these movies to people the right way. It’s – I know how this sounds, but I think of it as my mission in life.” And even that was understating it, but she figured it got the point across. She only hoped she hadn’t just scared him off with her missionary zeal.
