16 Getting Closer

Walking into the recording studio Tuesday morning, I feel exhausted as I sip my coffee. Toph holds my hand the entire way. I’m not sure if it’s to keep me up and walking or if it’s because he actually wants to hold it. Either way, I’ve been massively leaning on him the entire trip for support.

When we arrive, we are escorted to a boardroom that the four ‘superheroes’ of the movie are already waiting.

“Hey guys,” Joel calls out as we sit down next to each other on the opposite side of the table from him.

Slumping into the first chair I see, I grunt and slightly hold up my coffee before leaning into Topher, who took the chair next to mine.

My husband, on the other hand, puts his arm around me as he laughs at my laziness and greets everyone.

“Woke up late again?” Riel asks my other half from the head of the table as I practically lay on him.

He chuckles dragging his hand through my hair, “He turned off the first three alarms I set for him. Then, when I went in our room to see if he was getting dress, he was still in bed.”

“Too bad he doesn’t have a shower here to wake him up,” Ashley giggled from next to Joel.

They all used to laugh at me in the morning when I would come onto set half awake. They also thought it was funny that after a warm shower, I perked right up.

Tripp, sitting between Ashley and his girlfriend, gave Topher an apologetic look, “I thought she was bad,” he points to Riel, “I can’t imagine having to practically carry around someone my same build every morning.”

“You guys aren’t very funny,” I point out, not finding this conversation in the least bit amusing. “He’s not carrying me, Tripp. He’s just supporting most of my weight.” We all snigger as I lay the side my head on the table. “When is this supposed to start?” I ask around yawn.

“I assume someone should be coming in soon since you guys finally got here,” Riel raises a brow at me then shakes her head and looks at my husband, “You always used to arrive first when we had a meeting. I thought that, maybe, you would have a good influence on him. Looks like, he just dragged you to being the last with him.”

“I wasn’t always last,” I argue unconvincingly as I pick up my head to give her a disapproving look.

My best friend kisses the side of my head, “Yes you were, Day.” He, then, turns to our dark-skinned friend, “I was only there first because I was always eager to see him. Now, I get to wake up next to him. I no longer have to over-achieve.”

She rolls her eyes and looks back over to me, “You’re a bad influence.”

“You’re one to talk,” I accuse before letting out another yawn. “You let me get pissed and marry my best friend.”

We all laugh as she leans forward on the table, “I wasn’t the only one there. These guys,” she motions around the table before pointing directly at Toph, “especially that one, were all accomplices. Not to mention, you obviously wanted to since you’re not trying to get divorced. Everyone saw your Brikk Walford interview, don’t play innocent.”

“Everyone?” I question looking around to see our four friends nodding. “Ugh,” I let out a noise of distaste as I lay my forehead against my husband’s neck. Without moving, I mumble into his skin, “Don’t tell me everyone heard the radio show too.”

“I missed that one,” I peek to see Ashley raises her hand with a sour look on her face. “I totally forgot about it, and then Joel called me after to talk about it.” She turned to him and batted his shoulder, “You should have called me before.”

“Ouch,” he whines at her. “I was with Gregory. I knew that if I called you, you would talk forever and he had to go to work. I called you when he left.”

“Gregory?” Toph questions as my mouth hangs open in shock.

I can’t believe it.

Joel’s cheeks pink, “My boyfriend.”

“You finally decided to come out?” I question, fully awake now.

He shakes his head, “No, the only person I told was Ashley because we were so close on set that I figured I could trust her. But, that wasn’t until after I saw your interview.”

“But you just mentioned him now,” I point out a little confused.

He smiles, “You guys are my friends. You already knew, so did Ash. You’re married to Topher so I figured he knew. Riel practically pushed you guys to the alter that night and Tripp doesn’t seem to mind you. I figured I was safe.”

“You knew?” I can feel my husband’s gaze on my face, his arm still on the back of my chair.

Turning toward him, I give him a cheesy smile, “Yea.”

“You didn’t tell me?” he looks at me like I shot his puppy.

“Oops,” Joel smiles from across the table.

I chuckle, “It wasn’t mine to tell. I just happen to walk in on his making out with Greg in his trailer one day.”

“Wait,” Tripp interrupts before Topher can say anything, “Greg as in, effects make-up Greg?”

Joel’s cheeks heat up again, “Yea.”

“I thought he was gay!” Riel shouts and slams a hand down on the table earning a laugh.

Joel looks around as us sheepishly, “Do you mind keeping it quiet? I don’t think I’m ready to come out yet.”

Everyone agrees easily. He’s a really great guy; none of us would do anything to hurt him.

“Alright everyone!” the door flings open to reveal Tommy, the Director of ‘Save the Day’. He pulls up the chair at the end of the table closest to the door and starts on his rant, “Today’s going to be mostly boring for you guys, but bear with me. We have to go over some paperwork and agreements. I’m going to explain the whole process to you. You’re going to get your schedules for when you’re going to be in the studio. We’re going to explain how everything is going to work in there. We’ll show you where you’re going to show up when it’s your turn to record. It should only take a couple days to get the whole thing recorded, but you have to be attentive. Even you, Damon,” he turns to me to shoot me a knowing look. Then turns to my husband, “You make sure he takes a shower before he comes to work. If he’s groggy during my time, I’m holding you personally accountable.”

“That’s not fair,” Topher scrunches his brow together.

Tommy smile, “Neither is marriage. Consider my advice my wedding present.”

“Thanks,” my best friend says sarcastically, but a smile plays at his lips.

“Congratulations, by the way,” he nods at us. “And don’t worry,” he waves his hand at us, “my invitation probably got lost in the mail. Since, I’m sure I was invited saying as I introduced you and all.”

“Blame Riel,” I point to my dark-skinned friend, “she was in charge of the guest list.”

Her jaw drops as she looks back to me, “You’re a horrible friend.”

We all laugh before getting back to business.

“Topher and Damon, you guys are going to be narrating the whole thing. So, I would like you to be here the entire time. You really don’t have to be, but I think it would benefit us,” our director tells us. “We’re going to try and record all this as fast as we can. Studio time cost money. I don’t want to spend any more money than we have to.”

We all nod in agreement before he continues. He tells us everything about the video game – which is pretty much an interactive version of the movie. He takes us through the legal rubbish that we have to sign and hands over the schedules they set up for the times that each person will be in the studio. He even gives everyone a script of the things that will be said.

The timetables are broken down into hour increments. It goes in a rotation of each person being in the actual live room for an hour and resting for a bit until they are up again. Tomorrow, Riel, Tripp, Ashley and Joel are recording for the day. They each have three one-hour slots in sequence. Thursday however, it’s just Topher and I. We will be recording everything until it’s all done. If we don’t get everything done in the day that we have set aside, we have to come back on Saturday to continue.

The tour takes a little while. He shows us how to get around the building, where to go, and all the necessary rooms – the live room, the control room, and the toilets. He even shows us a little break room where we can relax while we aren’t recording.

For the last hour or so that we’re there, we record little snippets to get a feel for the microphone. We’ve all done some kind of voice over or line fixes, but each sound director likes to do things a tad differently. They just want to make sure we have everything down.

After leaving the studio, my husband and I decide to go back over to mine to get some stuff packed up. We had already brought some of my clothes over yesterday between breakfast and his meeting, but we didn’t have much time. Then, he didn’t get back until late and we pretty much just fell asleep.

“I didn’t get to tell you about my meeting last night,” Toph tells me as we stuff clothes into boxes.

Looking up, I see a devilish grin on his face, “Go on, then.”

“Linda and I met with some Producer and Casting Director last night at a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop up the street. They wanted to talk to me about a movie they want to do. They want me to be one of the leads,” he explains, reaching up for some of the shirts of the top rack.

Turning back to the task at hand, I ask, “What’s it about?”

“It’s a love story,” he clarifies. “It’s called Summer of Beauty. The whole story is set in Paris. I would be playing an art student traveling aboard for the summer. I meet this art dealer who offers to show me the ways of a gallery and gives me a job working at the one they own. I find out that the art dealer is married, but it’s not a big deal because I convince myself that there isn’t anything between us. Somewhere along the way we fall in love. But the summer ends and I have to go back to the United States. The art dealer choses the spouse and I leave, lesson learned.”

“That’s uncomfortable,” I turn back to him with a sad expression. “You think it’s going to be good?”

He shrugs as he picks up his full box and places it next to the closet door, “My love interest is a pretty big name too. Even if it’s not great, it should sell pretty descent.”

“Mighty full of yourself, yea?”

He rolls his eyes as he grabs another box, “Shut up.”

“So who is this massively famous actress you’re costarring?” I ask as I drop my socks in a box one pair at a time.

When he doesn’t answer, I look up to see my husband biting his lip as he drops the new empty box on the dark wood floor.

“Who is it, Christopher?”

My best friend scratches the back of his neck, “Eckert Danning.”

“It’s a gay romance?” I look down at the socks in my drawer as I process the news.

I’m not sure how I feel about my husband kissing another guy. I know it’s his job, but I figured that it would be women he was kissing. I suppose that’s not much better. More than anything, I’m shocked.

“Yea,” he takes a step toward me. Wrapping his arms around me from behind, he rests his chin on my shoulder. “I told them that I would have to check with you before I agreed.”

“What? Why?” I lean a little to the side so I can see his face.

Topher chuckles, “What do you mean ‘why’? Because, you’re my husband and I would have to kiss another guy. Not to mention the sex scenes.”

“Yea, let’s not mention those,” I agree as he nuzzles into my neck.

“If you don’t want me to, I’ll call Linda right now,” he says into my skin.

A shiver runs through my body as his breath tickles me, “Did you know it was a gay film before the meeting?”

“I didn’t know anything about it before the meeting,” he assures me. “Never mind, I can hear the hesitation. I’ll call Linda. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

He loosens his arms, but I stop him before he walks away. Pulling him back against me, I ask, “Do you want to do the film?”

“It doesn’t matter to me either way,” he kisses my neck tenderly.

Exposing more of my skin, I roll my head to the side he’s not on, “You should really stop doing that. It’s very distracting.”

He chuckles lightly, “What? This?”

My husband closes his teeth gently on my skin making me gasp. “Yea, that,” I whisper as I lean more into him.

“You say that,” he kisses down the side of my throat to my shoulder, “but you’re body’s saying something different.”

“It doesn’t know right from wrong,” I breathe in a husky voice.

He laughs again as he pulls away from me. Toph smacks my ass before putting distance between us, “You want me to say no, don’t you?”

Sighing heavily, I run a hand through my hair, “I want you to say yes.”

“Why?” he looks confused as he sits cross-legged next to the box and starts adding my shoes to it.

Abandoning my own box, I walk over and sit on my husband’s lap facing him. He puts his hands on my hips and I rub the back of his neck, “I know you want to do it. And, it’ll be good for your career. Diversity or something.”

As I run my fingers through his hair, he leans his head against my chest, “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

“I won’t,” I promise, adding a kiss on his head. “I would rather you not kiss anyone. But, I know it’s your job and at the end of the day you’re MY husband.”

“Mm,” he agrees. Suddenly his fingers tighten on my hips and his voice becomes low, “You’re going to have to stop playing with my hair.”

Continuing to run my fingers around the back of his head, I ask, “Why?”

He pushes me slightly back toward his knees, “Trust me.”

“I like playing with your hair,” I confess to him, stilling my fingers but not removing them completely.

He keeps his head down so I can’t see his face, “Please stop.”

Moving my hands from the back of his head to his face, I lift his chin to see him. He’s starting to worry me, “Are you okay?”

I don’t expect the grin I see when he’s facing me, “I’m fine.”

“I don’t get it.”

He pointedly looks down into the space that he’s created between us and then back up into my eyes, “If you’re still not ready, you need to stop torturing me.”

My eyes switch to where he was indicating to notice a very bulging reason as to why I should quit. It surprises me so much that I stand up quickly and almost trip over the box he was putting shoes in. Toph reaches up to steady me, but I right myself in time to take a step back.

“Right, well,” I turn to face away from him so he won’t see my burning cheeks. “We should probably, uh, continue packing.” Stopping at the sock drawer for a second, I can’t seem to focus. Decidedly, distraction is my best option. And leaving this small space. I turn in his direction, but avoid his smug look, “Would you like a drink? I think I’m thirsty. Juice?” I suggest quickly as I point over my shoulder. “Perhaps something stronger?”

“You’re rambling,” he catches my eye and smirks.

I sigh and turn my back to him again, “Right. I think I have some Malibu and Coke. Jack Daniels, maybe?”

He chuckles lightly as I walk out of the room to hide my complete embarrassment.

I know I acted like a complete idiot in there, but my mind went blank.  Or maybe, there was so much going on in there that it shut down. I know I have feeling for Christopher, but is this moving too quickly?

It should flatter me that my husband gets turned on by me. It should make me feel good about myself. But, I’m still getting used to the husband part of the equation.

“Damian,” my best friend’s voice startles me back into reality.

I only just notice that I’ve made it to the kitchen and that I’m just standing in from of the refrigerator with my fingers on the handle.

Shaking my head, I turn to him, “Yea?”

He’s standing on the other side of the island with his hands in his back pockets, “I don’t expect anything sexual from you.”

I nod, but remain quiet.

“If you wanted to live our entire life together celibate, we could do that,” he takes his hands from his pockets and bends over to lean on the counter brandishing his infamous smirk. “I would rather not do that, but if that’s what it would take to be with you I could.”

Looking down, I can’t find the courage to explain my feelings.

I hear him sigh, “Look Day, I’m not trying to pressure you. It’s going to be hard, but if you want-”

“It’s not like that,” I interrupt him.

Looking up, I see that he’s moved to my side of the counter. Topher looks timid when he asks, “Then what is it?”

“I’ve never been attracted to a man before.”

Forgetting the drinks, I walk over to his and press my forehead to the side of his neck. His arms wrap around my body instantly as I breathe in deeply to bask in his scent.

“Me neither,” he admits. “To be honest, it scares the crap out of me that I feel this strongly about you.”

“It would be a lot easier to keep myself away from you if you were a twat,” I tell him.

He chuckles and pulls away to kiss my forehead, “I don’t want you to keep away from me.”

“Me neither,” I clarify with a weak smile. “Just to be clear, though, I’m still not ready.”

He nods before kissing me lovingly on the lips.

“But, I think I’m getting closer,” I grab the back when he pulls away and deepen the kiss.