“You know, Paulina, people generally like the casting you've done for this project. It's really just this man that anybody's talking about.”

He glanced at her for just a moment.

“I suppose ‘substance’ is a difficult thing to define.  Still...”

“Substance?'  Leonard, what are we talking about?  You know the ratio of talent to delusion out there.”

“I know.  And the casting you've done on those other parts—Paulina, really, it's okay.”
Paulina showed no reaction.  Leonard moved his hands restlessly in his lap.

“Anyway, the drifter's part is what's going to matter.  But that's the problem.  You've got yourself a truly magnetic candidate, with just the right sort of dark, dangerous attraction. Yet it seems like you're about to just toss him.  Paulina, a lot of people have seen this person, and they can’t take their eyes off him.”

Paulina gazed silently out over the lawn.  Finally she looked back at Leonard.

“You're always a pal,” she said.  She mustered her best confident-businesswoman smile.  “Okay, Leonard.  I'1I think about it.”

But as Gabriela showed Leonard out, Paulina knew even more certainly that she could not cast the man in the photograph. The very thought of being around him was now more than she could abide.

She needed another chocolate mint cookie.  The bag was empty.