Love in Focus

by Max Hudson

  “I don’t drive,” August countered.

  “Well, yes, but you...ride...in a car.”

  “Takeoff and landing are the most dangerous parts of flying,” August pointed out, his voice ending in a high pitch squeal as the plane’s wheels left the tarmac.

  “Looks like we’re fine to me.” Jared glanced out the window as they continued to climb and August’s grip on his hand loosened. When he’d let go completely, Jared looked back with a smile.

  “I see what you did there,” August mumbled.

  “Do you now?” Jared teased.

  “You were trying to distract me.”

  “Well, it almost worked, didn’t it?”

  August smiled weakly again and nodded. Then he promptly ordered another drink. It took a while for the drink to arrive, the attendants having to wait for all clear and the like, but August didn’t mind. He waited patiently, the first drink having finally taken a little edge off. Once they were at cruising altitude, he felt a little safer. It was a bit like being in the back of the limo...with a lot more people, so more a party limo. Not that August would ever partake in something like that, but he figured it was a fair analogy.

  Jared had pulled out one of the inflight magazines and was glancing at it while covertly side-eying his director now and then. Finally, though, he got bored and put the magazine back. When the flight attendant came back, he said, “Can I get one of those too? Whatever he’s drinking.”

  The flight attendant raised a well-manicured eyebrow that seemed to be saying, “how dare you not know what your lover drinks.” Jared flashed him a sarcastic smile and stared at the man until he nodded and walked away.

  “You should be nice to them, you know,” August said, having carefully observed the exchange.

  “What? What did I do? He’s the one...” He let the sentence drowned out with a growl, and then flashed the same sarcastic smile at August’s self-righteous looking face.

  It seemed to be taking forever for his drink to come back, which he imagined was his own fault. He hated when August was right, mostly because he usually was. He tapped his fingers on the arm rest and watched as the man happily sipped at his second drink. He thought about taking in some of the inflight entertainment, hoping it would lighten his mood, but he was hard pressed to find anything he liked that he wasn’t it. And he was definitely not in the mood to sit around and critique his own performances. One needed to be in a very good headspace indeed for that.

  A few minutes later, seething with annoyance, he started to reach for the call button when August suddenly made a noise of unpleasantness.

  “Are you all right?” Jared asked, putting his hand back down.

  “I’m...not sure. I’ve never really been prone to airsickness, but...” August drifted off as his stomach flip-flopped again. “I think it might be best if I went to the restroom.” He unbuckled his seat belt and stood up, and then almost fell on his face in the aisle.

  “Whoa there,” the flight attendant said, suddenly appearing from behind the curtain.

  Before the man could get there, Jared was to his feet, catching August before he could stumble and fall. “You are definitely not all right,” he whispered, his voice strained with concern. He helped him turn toward the restrooms, and then tried to guide him down the aisle.

  “I think your companion may have had a little too much to drink,” the flight attendant said, and reached out to help.

  Jared shook his head and pulled August back protectively. “He’s only had two of your tiny little frou-frou things. Trust me, he can stomach a lot more than that. I think there’s something else going on here.” With that, he turned back toward the restroom, gritting his teeth as August began making retching sounds. “This isn’t horribly attractive on you, you know,” he said, trying to diffuse some tension.

  “Sorry,” August replied, breathlessly. His head was swimming, and there seemed to be two of everything. “What was in that drink?” he asked, a seemingly innocent question.

  Jared didn’t take it that way. “Yes,” he answered, thinking the same thing but with a more sinister connotation.

  Thankfully, one of the restrooms was unoccupied. August tried to ignore the stares as they neared it, but he was very quickly starting to not care about any of that. In fact, he wasn’t caring about much of anything, and felt like he might pass out at any moment. Right before he was roughly deposited into the restroom, though, he saw something he knew should mean something to him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. After that, everything became a blur.

  The next thing August knew, he was waking up, having been draped across an empty row of seats. The plane was deboarding, and what looked like a pair or paramedics were waiting for people to pass by.

  “Oh no, you didn’t have them bring a stretcher or anything?” August grumbled, and then tried to sit up. It felt like someone trying to split his head open with an ax. He felt someone catch his arm, and opened his eyes to see Jared, the most concerned look he’d ever seen on the man’s face. He smiled, feeling slightly giddy despite the pain. “Is that look for me?”

  “Nah, this is just my face,” Jared quipped but his voice sounded gravely and tired. “They think you had too much to drink,” he said, glancing around to see who might hear. “I told them you really didn’t.”

  “I can stomach much more than that,” August scoffed.

  “That’s what I said. I think we should get you out of here, if you know what I mean.” He gave the director a meaningful look, and then nodded at the paramedics.

  “I really don’t want to go to a hospital.”

  “Well, you’re going. Maybe they can find out what really happened.”

  Once August had been sorted, taken to the hospital, and given the once and even twice over, Jared began to let himself relax. They still didn’t know exactly what had happened, but he figured August would at least be safe now, and it didn’t look like there were going to be any lasting effects of what Jared was already referring to as The Poisoning.

  Hours later, August sat up in his bed, feeling embarrassed and impatient, and honestly, a worried about Jared. It wasn’t as if they’d ever had a real relationship, in fact they spent much of their time disliking and wanting to strangle one another, yet the man had somehow become his protector, willing to do whatever it took to keep him out of harm’s way. He paced the hospital room like a cat waiting to pounce, and it was beginning to drive August crazy.

  “Could you please just...sit down or something? The tests are going to take however long they take.” August started to say more but then a wave of nausea made him think better of it. Sweat broke out on his brow, and he put his head back and took deep breaths. He heard quick footsteps and opened his eyes to see Jared sitting down on the side of the bed. Confusion and adoration mixed as the man wetted a washcloth with cool water and gently pressed it to his forehead.

  “Thank you,” August said. “I’m fine, though, really.”

  “You don’t know that,” Jared insisted, his voice low and shaky.

  August was taken aback by the man’s attention and didn’t know what to say. Before he could think of anything, though, the doctor who’d been treating him walked in looking a bit puzzled himself. To August’s further surprise, Jared jumped up off the bed, and marched toward the man as if he were responsible for the whole incident.

  “What did you find out?” he demanded.

  The Romanian doctor smiled at him graciously, apparently used to overly emotional family members. “I was just about to give you the news.”

  “Jared, come sit back down,” August pleaded.

  The actor reluctantly complied, still eyeballing the doctor suspiciously. A moment later, the doctor followed him further into the room, and stood at the end of the bed.

  “I’m afraid we found a substance known as GHB in your system,” he said, wearily.

  “GHB?” August repeated. “You mean, the date rape drug!” He glanced over at Jared, confused.

  “
Hey, don’t look at me.”

  August rolled his eyes and looked back at the doctor. “Where could it have come from? You don’t think that little airline steward...”

  “Flight attendant,” Jared corrected and shook his head. “No, I have a feeling the intention was to make you ill, and to make sure you didn’t remember the flight.”

  “I do remember the flight, though!” August insisted. “Mostly.”

  “Well, apparently it’s not an exact science.”

  “No, wait, I do remember. There was something important...There was someone on that flight I recognized!”

  “Darling, there were a lot of people on that flight you recognize.”

  August blushed, a nervous smile crossing his face. He knew that the use of ‘darling’ could simply have been sarcastic and not a term of endearment, but still...He shook his head, getting back to the matter at hand.

  “No, there was someone else, I know there was, someone I recognized but wasn’t supposed to be there.”

  Jared raised an interested eyebrow and turned to the doctor. “Is there any way he can get his memory back?”

  The doctor shrugged. “It may get come back with time. Considering he remembers this much, it’s likely he’ll eventually remember everything.”

  After a day or so in the hospital, the doctors determined that it was safe for August to go home. He’d spent much of that time worrying over who it was he’d seen on the plane, when he wasn’t throwing up or taking sudden naps. He hadn’t really gotten any closer to solving the mystery when he was released and he and Jared headed over to the hotel the studio had put them up in.

  “Looks nice,” Jared commented, looking up at the building as he stepped out of the taxi.

  August balked. “You mean to say you haven’t been here yet?”

  Jared looked over at him and shrugged. “No,” he said, casually. He yanked a suitcase out of the floorboard and shut the door before adding, “I had the rest of my bags sent over.” Then he walked toward the door, leaving August to stare at him in shock and awe.

  “You didn’t have to stay the whole time,” August finally managed to blurt out as he hurried after the man.

  “Yes, I did,” Jared answered, his tone of voice implying that that was the last word on the subject.

  While August had been recovering in his hospital bed, Jared had arranged a few things for the production. The Poisoning hadn’t really put production behind since travel had been so screwed up anyway, but he still managed to get the wheels turning with the local crew. He hadn’t really wanted to call Jameson, but he had, knowing that short of August dying, nothing was really going to change, and most importantly, he’d talked to the cast and crew from the studio. They’d all been terribly worried about the man, but he knew the last thing August would want was a fuss, so he arranged for them not to all be cooing over him when he got to the hotel.

  “The cast thought it would be nice to have dinner tonight,” Jared said as they checked in.

  August glanced around, having steeled himself for a dozen people leaping out of the woodwork and invading his personal space. So far, none had though. “Oh, yes, that would be great,” he said in relief.

  “All signed in,” Jared said, and handed him a key card.

  “Oh.” He took the card slowly, letting both their hands linger on it for a moment. “Um...”

  “You know, if you don’t want to be alone, we could...,” Jared said with a hesitant shrug.

  August giggled. “I’m, uh, I’m not sure I’m up for that kind of thing.”

  “No, not that, silly. Just...anything. We could talk or something.”

  “Oh!” August said brightly. “Let’s do that then.”

  A few hours later, the two of them were still sober. Jared had suggested a drink but August’s recent experience had put him off, at least for a few days. Nevertheless, they were being silly enough to be drunk.

  “Are you being serious?” August asked incredulously, not always sure about the actor.

  “Yes! You play with these tiny little action figures, on a quest to kill monsters and find riches and rescue people. It’s up to the particular circumstances of the game.”

  “And there’s dice rolling involved, and card reading, and...?”

  “Yes, yes, just like regular boardgames, only there’s a good deal of acting involved. That’s why it’s not just a boardgame but a roleplaying game. You become a character; you see.”

  “I don’t think I’d like it,” August whined.

  “You would! It’s wonderful. I belong to a secret club.”

  “A secret boardgame playing...”

  “Roleplaying,” Jared corrected.

  “A secret roleplaying club?”

  “Yep. We have passwords to get in and everything.”

  “Okay, now I really don’t believe you,” August said, and the two of them laughed.

  Suddenly, the two of them sobered up, each knowing what the other was thinking.

  “It’s one thing for pieces of the set to fall apart, you could come up with excuses for that, but not for someone drugging your drink. There’s no way to ‘accident’ that away,” Jared said.

  “I know,” August agreed, his voice weak. “But what can we do? We can’t prove anything, and we can’t just walk away from the project. Jameson will simply get someone else to do it.”

  “You can’t, maybe, but I could. He can’t replace me as easily...no offense.”

  “No, I know what you mean. He’d have to reshoot everything we’ve already done with a different actor.”

  “And that’s time and money he doesn’t want to spend,” Jared added, his face a mask of harshness. “If I threaten to walk...”

  August shook his head. “That still might not work. What if he wants this done so badly, he goes ahead with another actor? Then what? What if whatever this is doesn’t stop?”

  Jared nodded slowly, and then got up to pace the floor. “Then we have to stop it. We have to figure out what’s going on and stop it before someone gets killed.”

  August felt a hint of nausea that had nothing to do with being drugged, but he nodded in agreement just the same.

  Dinner would have been a very lovely affair if August hadn’t been so distracted. As it was, he allowed himself a small glass of celebratory champagne, he should be happy to be alive after all, while the rest of his main cast, and the few crew members finished off a couple of bottles. Now and then, August would smile and go through the motions, then he’d find his gaze turn to Jared, who was doing the same only much more convincingly. He caught the man’s eye once, though, and Jared let his guard down, showing the stress and worry he was really feeling. And then it was gone, and he was back to his carefree frolicking.

  August finished his drink and got up to walk over to the restaurant’s windows. It was a rainy night in Bucharest, the lights of the city looking like bright, colorful blurs through the raindrops splattering against the windows. He chuckled to himself, musing on how easily actors could slip into character, even caricatures of themselves. He knew Jared’s authentic side now, though, and he could never look at the man any other way again. In fact, he’d come to realize sometime in the last two days, that he’d fallen in love.

  He heard laughter, and his name being called, so he turned from the window and gave an enthusiastic wave. Then he turned back, his mind switching to director mode and what production had in store for him tomorrow. It was a car chase scene over one of the most complicated driving roads in the world. What could possibly go wrong?

  Chapter Eight

  No one was up bright and early the next morning, but for once, it was all right because they hadn’t planned to be. They’d be driving about a hundred miles from the city, to a stretch of road known as the Transfargarsan. It was a mountain road full of switch backs and hairpin turns, and Jameson had thought it would be perfect for the eponymous car chase scene.

  When they got there, August and Jared stood at the top of the pass that led to th
e first set of switchbacks and gazed out at the landscape. The rain from the night before had followed them from Bucharest but was quickly clearing. Once it had, they’d get started filming. Neither man said anything for a moment, and then Jared cleared his throat.

  “Well, that doesn’t look dangerous at all,” he quipped.

  “Yes,” August sighed. “Lucky for you, you don’t actually have to be in a car, thundering down the mountain.”

  “There’ll be close up shots,” Jared countered, flashing him his winning smile.

  August narrowed his eyes, some of the old animosity returning. It was different now, though. It felt fun, almost like foreplay, and for a brief moment, his mind slipped to what might come after. Then he took a deep breath and shook the thought off. That was the last thing he needed right now.

  When everything was set, which took a bit of planning and work considering how dangerous the scene was, the stunt drivers were put into action. August followed in a car, led in a car, had a camera person use a drone, and even got some shots from the side of the road, the top of the road, and the end of the road. It took most of the day, but to his relief, nothing out of the ordinary happened, at least, not for a film production.

  By sunset, the team was packing up and moving the production to a nearby forest, where they had yet another sequence to film before they could call it a day.

  “All right, it’s going to be dark soon,” August announced to the cast and crew, his white curls bouncing with enthusiasm. “We need to get a few shots in for sunset. I know it doesn’t seem like it will look like much with all the trees but we’re going for the effect of night falling, time passing, all that, so let’s get everything set up as quickly and efficiently as we can.” He gave everyone a nod, and the group dispersed, crew setting up lights and cameras, and the actors going off to the trailer to change into the new scene’s costumes.

  The scene they were filming was one of cat and mouse between the hero and the villain, with the damsel caught in between of course. It was a tricky bit of filming, with the three actors separated, and trying to find one another. With Jameson continuing his rampage of a filming schedule, they hadn’t really had time to do much reconnaissance on the location, and there was a very real chance that things could go pear shape. The very least August could do was to have someone scout out the location for safety while everything was being put together. The last thing they needed was someone falling down a hole or being eaten by a bear.