Blake perfectly timed his knock on my office door. He turned the knob and pushed it open a crack. “Daniel? Are you doing alright in there? You’re usually on your second cup of coffee by now.”
“And you’ve been counting?”
“Well, Iris said you focused so intently on your feet when you walked in that she thought you would trip. Didn’t you go down to Chicago to see Kenneth? How was it? And what’s the down mood? Is your mom sick again?”
I knew that if I told Blake to go away, it wouldn’t accomplish anything positive in the long run. He always knew how to make me talk. The few times he ganged up with Iris, it was like I was stuck in a room with two ace interrogators, except they were both good cops. I waved a hand to beckon him inside. “Shut the door behind you.”
“Should I get Iris?”
“No, I think I can only handle one of the two of you this morning.”
Blake glanced around the office. I knew that he wanted to check for anything wildly out of order. He once told me, “My mom always says that you can figure out someone’s mood by how they keep their house and office. She didn’t trust that habitually sloppy people were in a good place.” I’d noticed Blake’s office suddenly evolved from hurricane aftermath to clean and tidy once his relationship with Hunter hit a gliding phase.
I didn’t beat around the bush. “Kenneth and I are off again. I screwed it up. He was there in the palm of my hand.”
Blake slowly eased himself into a chair. “His cock was in the palm of your hand?”
I frowned. “Now’s not the time for humor. It was all fine and dandy, a successful launch, until I crashed it all like a lead balloon.”
“What happened?”
“I asked him to marry me again.”
The shocked expression on Blake’s face told me everything. He wanted to pile on top of my bitter memories. He wanted to call me an “idiot” or even worse. Instead, he asked, “And he said?”
“He said he couldn’t...yet.”
“Well, that’s not a no.”
“But it was followed by soul-crushing silence until I left. The third time might be charmed when you’re bowling or buying a car, but in relationships, I think you only get two chances. If you’re lucky.”
After an uncomfortable pregnant pause, Blake said, “Damn, Daniel, I’m sorry. Still, it’s not like you to give up so easily. I think you might be affected by what happened ten years ago. If you’d given up so quickly on Match Made, I’d still be wandering the floor of a department store out in the ‘burbs.”
“What do you suggest? Kenneth hasn’t sent anything. He let me go with the weakest of hugs, and I haven’t gotten any messages.”
“Did you send one?”
“What do you say in a mess like this? If I’m such a fabulous catch—and so many people tell me that—why does the one man I want turn me down?”
“Fear?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Some people fear success. I don’t know. That can’t be completely true. Kenneth is a smashing success in business, but maybe you’re a little too much too fast. Have you considered that?”
“Well, what should I do then?”
“Maybe start with, ‘I’m sorry,’ or plead temporary insanity. I’m good with the latter. People take one look at my face, and they know a brief minute of madness is possible with me.”
I swallowed hard. “I pride myself on my stability. My proposal was off the charts like before. Why do I do that? I should calm down and relax. It’s easy to say that now.”
“Don’t give up. That’s all I’m saying. How would you have felt if I turned down the date you bought me with Hunter. Would you have listened to my reasons?”
“No. I threw you into the pool to sink or swim.”
“Right now, you’re sinking with Kenneth, but I don’t think it’s time yet to climb out of the water.”
I wanted to bang my head against the nearest wall, but instead, I changed the subject. “Share some good news. Please. How are you and Hunter?”
Blake responded with a goofy, happy expression. “We’re awesome. Why would we be anything else?”
“I don’t want to sow doubt. Seriously, I need to know somebody’s doing well.”
“He’s sweet. He’ll put together breakfast in bed even though he doesn’t cook very well. I’ll ask why he didn’t wait for me, and he just beams at me and says he had fantasies about giving his man breakfast in bed. The toast is a little burnt, and the bacon’s floppy, but the thought is there.”
I closed my mouth to avoid sighing. “That is sweet. You’re a fortunate man.”
“He tells me that he grew up with fantasies of all of these different things he would get to do with a partner if he ever found the right one. It’s not sexual stuff.”
“Like what?”
“He wants to take me to New York City and go to the opera in tuxes. Then, when we can afford it, Hunter wants to go to Paris and sit at a sidewalk cafe while we sip wine and eat cheese.”
I couldn’t decide whether asking Blake about his relationship with Hunter helped me, or it made me feel worse. I always wanted to splurge on a last-minute New Zealand vacation with Kenneth and run away from the rest of the world. The chances of that happening were fading fast.
Blake interrupted his dreamy praise of Hunter. “Oh, and have you heard the latest about Iris and Ollie? They talked about their wedding while they were up in Door County.”
I leaned forward. I was ready for another wedding. Ollie was one of the most confidently idiosyncratic men I’d ever met. When he veered off the path to march to a different drummer, he didn’t let anyone stand in his way. At other times, he followed Iris’s lead and offered her complete trust. Nothing ever got Ollie down.
“Key West.”
I cupped a hand to my ear. “Did I hear you right? Key West? Is that for the honeymoon?”
“The wedding.”
“Why? Their families and friends are all within one hundred miles of Milwaukee as far as I know.”
“Iris told me a lot of the story.” Blake wove his fingers together on his lap. “She said her grandparents retired to the Florida Keys, and she got to go there multiple times when she was a kid. That grandmother died just two years ago. Remember? Iris had to go to Florida for the funeral. Anyway, she misses Grandma and wants to have the wedding in Key West in her memory.”
“But it won’t bring her back. It’s not like her ghost will sit in the front pew.”
Blake laughed softly. “Iris said that Ollie loved the idea. He suggested that they keep the wedding small, and she asked, ‘Well, how many people do you think will fly to Key West?’”
“I’ll be there.”
“Me, too, and the best part--at least to me.”
Blake paused dramatically. I raised a hand and rolled my wrist to encourage him to continue.
“They want to have the ceremony on the beach. Iris said that Ollie wants to do it in swimsuits and have the whole wedding party go for a plunge right after, but she’s balking at that.”
I leaned back in my chair and forgot all about Kenneth for a few precious seconds. “Good old Ollie! You know that he might get his wish in the end.”
“Yep. Iris has a hard time when she tries to resist his ideas.”
I sat upright again. “Thank you, Blake. I can always count on you. I forgot about my troubles there for a minute or two.”
“Can I share one more story? Hunter heard about it yesterday, so I doubt that it’s made it to you yet.”
“It’s a good one? A funny one? Is it action-packed enough that it won’t make me think more about you-know-who?”
“Hank and Luke’s honeymoon. Does that sound like safe territory?”
I leaned forward. “I never did hear at the wedding where they were going. Sure, I’m curious now. Did it go well?”
“I guess that depends on who you ask. Hunter had lunch with Luke, and he laughed the entire time he told the story.”
“And Hank? Wh
at happened to him?” My curiosity grew even more.
“They went to one of those eco-friendly resorts somewhere in the Caribbean. Luke was excited because he said that he wanted Hank to ride a zipline, and he’d never done that before. Hank said he was excited because he wanted to sip cocktails on the beach and watch the sun go down.”
“Did they get to do both?”
“Sort of.”
“Uh, oh. It sounds like something bad happened.”
“Two freak storms. One hit while they were at the zipline place, and they got stuck out in the jungle for hours before a big jeep could come and pick them up. Luke said that it ended up fine, but it took Hank an hour to see the humor in it. They were stuck at a little snack bar outpost while the wind, rain, and thunder raged.”
“That could be a little scary. Electricity?”
“None. Luke said he cuddled up against Hank and said, ‘If we don’t make it back, I’m in the only place I’d want to be. In your arms.’”
“Aww. Isn’t that sweet?”
“It is. They made it back to their resort in one piece, and Hank insisted that they wouldn’t go anywhere else until the honeymoon was over. He wanted to stay safe on the beach.”
“Famous last words?”
“You’ve got it. Another freak storm came up the last night they spent on the island. It ripped the roof off their little bungalow, and the rain completely drenched them before they could make it to the resort office.”
“And Hank? Did he take this one better?”
Blake grinned. “Luke said he was upset until they lost the roof and the deluge of water came in. He’d never seen Hank laugh so hard. He reached out, hugged Luke, and they kissed in the hardest rain either of them could remember. That’s part of why it took them so long to get to the office.”
I started to giggle. I wanted to suppress it because it’s not polite to laugh at the hardships of others. Fortunately, Blake didn’t report any harm. My giggles turned into loud laughs.
“What’s so funny?” asked Blake. “I mean, the story made me laugh a little, but you’re losing it.”
“Can you see Hank soaking wet? He’s always dressed in perfectly tailored suits and immaculately coiffed hair. Think about that wig plastered to his sad little face. I bet Luke laughed, too.”
“Oh, he did. Luke said he couldn’t remember ever laughing that hard.”
I crossed my arms over my chest as I regained my composure. “Blake, do you know what that is?”
“What’s that?”
“The whole story. That’s love. Pure and simple. Their honeymoon adventure is a story about love.”
16
Kenneth
Seth playfully slapped both sides of Ethan’s face before he rubbed shaving lotion on his cheeks. “He’s ready. I can shave him, too. Give me one of those super-sharp straight razors.”
Ethan winced and stepped back as he shook his head. “You won’t get him anywhere near me with the kind of blade that killed Sweeney Todd’s customers.”
Our commercial director yelled, “Cut!”
The crew was tired of the shenanigans between Ethan and Seth, but I found them highly entertaining. They reminded me of two puppies rolling around chasing after a ball. I hoped that a sizable chunk of their playful energy ended up on film. It would be difficult for the viewing audience to look away.
Seth slapped the cheeks again until Ethan growled, “You’ll get the same and more on your balls if you keep that up. I’ve never had a boyfriend slap me in the morning.”
The director stepped between them. “Okay, I like the energy. Believe me. I do, but you both need to focus. There’s a script. You might consider following it.”
He pointed toward the working lavatory. We had one to show in the commercial, and then others with actual running water. “Go clean the lotion off your face, and let Sally ruffle up your hair a little again. Then we’ll shoot the rest in a rolling take. And focus. Please focus.”
I wasn’t sure whether I’d buy Ethan and Seth as a married couple if I’d never met them before, but a dating couple in those first few months of new relationship energy—yep, they had that giddiness down.
Both were stripped to the waist and wore jeans below. All of the commercial footage focused on the bodies from the navel up. Seth was smooth, both face and body. The hair on his head was blonde, and I didn’t think he could grow hair anywhere else if he wanted to.
Ethan, on the other hand, was darker and more swarthy. The makeup crew did a little touch-up work with razors on his chest hair, but it was nearly perfect the way it grew naturally. I suspected we would get plenty of emails that would ask questions about Ethan. He was single while Seth had a boyfriend.
I had a brief introduction to Jason, Seth’s boyfriend, at the beginning of the shoot. He bounced from one foot to the other with nervous energy. Before the cameras started rolling, I asked Seth whether Jason was okay with him pretending to be in a relationship with someone else on film.
“Oh, we talked about it. He said he might have some trouble if my commercial partner were anyone but Ethan. He knows what good friends we are, and when I told him what they would pay us well, the questions ended. I promised him a fancy dinner out.”
The next shaving shoot unfolded without a hitch. Both Ethan and Seth calmed down enough to follow the script to the end. We all applauded immediately after Seth placed a tiny dollop of shaving lotion on the tip of Ethan’s nose and turned toward the camera with a beaming smile. They were adorable. I could almost hear the TV viewers in a communal, “Aww.”
Jason approached Ethan and Seth as they congratulated each other on a second commercial in the can. He was short of stature, but his voice was loud. It had a distinctive sound that reminded me of the banging noise my grandma’s pots and pans made when I hit them with a wooden spoon when I was three years old. I didn’t remember anything else from that age.
“We’re finished now?” Jason turned his had toward the production crew. “Great shoots, but I guess it’s time to go. You all did wonderful jobs.”
The director disappointed Jason. Somehow, Seth failed to share the complete shooting schedule with his boyfriend. “No, we’ve got one more commercial to run through. It’s ‘Shower’ on the script.”
Seth mouthed “one more” in Jason’s direction
Both of Jason’s eyebrows looked like they wanted to burst free of his head when he faced Seth. “Shower?”
Seth sensed the discomfort in his boyfriend’s voice. I stepped back out of the way as Seth wrapped an arm around Jason’s shoulders.
“It’s not like it sounds. One of us is coming out of the shower, but you don’t see below our waists.” Seth glanced down. “The jeans stay on.” He followed the comment with laughter while Jason’s countenance remained serious and severe.
“I thought you said…”
With pressure from his hand, Seth turned his boyfriend around to face away from the rest of us. I didn’t hear the last words of their exchange, but a few seconds later, Seth returned to the production crew with a smile on his face.
Jason stepped up next to me. “Seth says you’re the one responsible for his new work as a commercial star. This is all so surreal. I’ve never dated an actor before, even if it’s only commercials.”
I didn’t have a chance to answer. The director clapped his hands and asked for silence. He had the makeup crew approach Ethan and spray his hair until it had a wet, just out of the shower, texture. Two serious young men, additional members of the crew, reached out and tousled the thick, dark locks.
The set had an upscale, modern shower stall. It didn’t have any actual water running. The set carpenters didn’t connect any plumbing. They told me that technicians would add it later as a special effect. The cameraman only needed to shoot Ethan as he walked out from near the fake shower head.
“Okay, Seth, Jack, the man over to your right will signal with his left hand, and that’s when you turn around. On the finished soundtrack, it will be the mo
ment that we hear the shower turn off. You’re ready to greet your man as he emerges fresh and clean and ready for the day.”
The serious men stepped up again, and this time, they sprayed Ethan’s torso to give it that damp, fresh out of the shower look. He chuckled. “I think I’m drier than this when I step out of the shower at home.”
“The camera needs to catch the dampness. Okay, now, action!”
Ethan and Seth were excellent choices. I knew that my customer base would love them. They had fun, too. I saw a sparkle in Ethan’s eyes as he stepped forward while Seth turned around.
The director let the scene roll. The pair moved close to each other like experienced ballroom dancers and then kissed. I knew that it was fake. I overheard Seth’s instruction on it before filming started. He learned well. It certainly looked real.
Everyone turned their heads when Jason charged forward and waved his hands. He grabbed Ethan by the shoulders. “Stop! Just stop. You told me that it would all be fake. That’s a real kiss if I’ve ever seen one.”
Ethan pushed Jason’s hands off his shoulders. “It is fake. Do you think I want to kiss Seth? We’ve already been there and done that a long time ago. Years ago. He’s my best friend, but going down that kissing road again…no. It’ll never happen.”
Jason stood his ground. “How the hell was that fake? I saw your lips touch, and I think Seth parted his.” Jason turned toward his boyfriend. “How could you do that to me?”
It was time for the director to try to regain control of the situation. “Okay, now everybody, chill out.” He turned toward Seth. “I assume this is someone significant to you. Didn’t you tell him that it would look like you were kissing on the screen? That can be hard for some people even when it’s all imitation.”
Reunited: Matchmakers Book 4 Page 11
