Arun stared out of the window of the car. Cody was chatting to George, telling him about some of the scenes he'd filmed for the fourth Blake Lancaster movie. Arun had been listening at first, thinking that actually, it was sounding like it might end up being a pretty good movie, when his attention was caught by something else. They'd been on the road with all the other cars that were headed to the airport but had now taken what seemed like a random right turn and were suddenly the lone car on the road. The drab grey walls, which were all Arun had been able to see along this stretch, came to an end, transforming into chain-link fencing, through which he could see smaller aeroplanes and the hangers where they were kept. His mouth opened slightly as his forehead scrunched.
He turned to Cody. "Are we driving onto the runway?"
Cody laughed. The road bent round to the left. He pointed out of the window, at his side.
"That's our plane, there."
Stretching across the seat, Arun's mouth dropped further. "Holy shit. Are we flying on a private plane?"
"Well, yeah," said Cody, as though it had been a particularly dumb question. "You'd rather fly there with all the riff-raff?"
Arun ignored the question. "And we've got it all to ourselves?" he said, the car pulling to a stop by the open hanger.
"Yup. Just you and me baby."
Suddenly, Arun slapped a hand on Cody's shoulder, gripping him a little too tightly. "If you tell me that you can fly that thing, I will literally die."
The car came to a stop and George got out. He opened the passenger door to allow Cody to escape. Cody extracted himself from Arun's grip, leaving the question unanswered. Stood by the open door, he bent down and offered Arun a hand.
"Sorry, 'fraid not," he said, helping Arun out of the car.
George noted the exchange, and the physicality between the two of them, with interest. He'd been driving for Cody for almost four years and during that time he'd picked up little bits here and there (mostly due to his having to drive Cody when he'd had a few drinks, after parties or awards shows), enough to have an idea that perhaps Cody might be keeping a secret. This seemed to confirm such a notion. As he was not one of those despicable people whose eyes would light up with dollar signs at such a revelation, George simply smiled to himself, thinking that it was rather sweet (and that, Jesus, he really needed a girlfriend) and headed round to get their luggage out of the car.
Arun's eyes bulged, flicking his gaze to George and then back to Cody, as he let the latter pull him out of the car. Cody's expression dropped and he mouthed shit, biting his lip afterwards. But there was nothing that either of them could do now, and anyway, he trusted George implicitly. He recalled a couple of times, the morning after the night before, when his drinking hadn't quite crossed the line that dissolved everything, where he'd let slip one or two things to George that he shouldn't (like referring to another man as "sexy"), none of which had ever gone any further.
George had walked on ahead, with their luggage, to the steps of the plane, tactfully leaving Arun and Cody alone.
"It's fine," said Cody, almost meaning it, despite what he'd just told himself.
"Is it?" said Arun, who wasn't bothered about what it meant for him. Everyone knew where his preferences lay. Lord knows he's shouted about them enough times.
After a moments thought, and reassurance, Cody nodded vigorously. "Yeah, no it is." He resisted the urge to put his arm around Arun, to prove how really okay it all was, instead turning and walking slowly off towards the plane.
Arun stayed where he was, his left arm outstretched, holding onto the top of the open door. He wasn't sure if Cody was being truthful or if he was simply trying to convince himself that it might be the truth. He knew very little about this George guy, other than the fact that he was pretty cute. Cody seemed to have quite a few cute lads in their mid-twenties working for him. He wondered how no-one had picked up on that. It seemed like an obvious sign, an easy way for an unscrupulous person to get in and do some digging. That thought worried him. He gave it more consideration, eventually taking the next logical step and deciding that it was such an obvious sign that the people close to Cody probably had figured it all out, which meant that, as nothing had ever hit the press, they could be trusted. It was a complicated set of conditional statements but it eased his mind anyway. He slipped into a slight jog and caught up to Cody at the bottom of the steps, leading up into the plane. He bounded up them, ahead of Cody and came to a stop inside the door.
"Holy shit." It was a plane fit for the most executive of executives.
Cody pushed him forward, smiling at the flight attendant, directing Arun to one of the plush, brown leather sofas that were positioned at either side.
"I say holy shit quite a lot," said Arun as he dropped into his seat.
"I've noticed," said Cody, who dropped down onto the sofa opposite. "It's like you're still a twenty-something kid."
Is that why Cody was attracted to him? It would certainly fit, thought Arun, reminding himself of what he'd noticed only moments earlier.
"Its one of the few things I've never grown out of," he said. "That youthful amazement at everything."
"I like it," said Cody, dismissing it with a shrug.
The flight attendant strode over to them, dazzling white smile between glossy red lips.
"Can I get you gentlemen anything? Water? Champagne?"
Having never been referred to as a gentleman before (and thinking that it actually sounded delightfully grand), Arun smiled broadly and turned his gaze to Cody, who was also smiling, having already made a decision, before turning back to the woman dressed in a pale blue blouse (which was silk, judging by the way it shone) and a darker blue skirt, whose own smile was fixed just a touch too rigidly, as though she'd been doing this for far too many hours now and just wanted it all to be over.
"We should definitely have some champagne," said Cody.
Her smile loosened in relief (one step closer to home) and she turned on her heel, having responded with the usual pleasantries, and sashayed down the aisle, as though this particular section of the plane was her own personal runway. Despite having no interest in such a thing, her hip action was captivating enough to hold Arun's attention for longer than such things normally would. She disappeared behind a blue, possibly velvet curtain and Arun's gaze wandered around the interior of the plane. The walls were an almost sickly-looking tan colour, which, combined with the darkness of the brown leather of the sofas and the mid-brown coloured carpet and furnishings and accessories, gave the effect of them having wandered back into the 70s, or an oddly modern version of it at least, in that whoever had designed the whole thing hadn't done their homework quite right.
Cody leaned across the aisle and tapped Arun on the knee. "She's not your type," he said.
Arun laughed, thankful that Cody was clearly joking.
"She's not one of your employees, I presume?" he said.
"No," said Cody. "This isn't my plane either. It's Dean's."
"Is he the guy whose villa we're going to?"
"Yes. You're not great at remembering people and names, are you?"
"Not especially," said Arun. He wondered if this entire journey would just be an opportunity for Cody to point out all the flaws and foibles that he had. The sense of awe of a much younger man. The memory of a much older one. He got himself comfortable on the sofa and nodded at the surroundings.
"Money really can buy all the best things."
"It certainly can." Cody cocked his head. "I didn't think you were driven by money?"
"I'm not. It's nice to enjoy it once in a while though. If I ever get to a point where it does become a thing though, and I start obsessing over it, you have my permission to give me a good hard slap."
"I shall look forward to it," said Cody, stretching both his arms out over the top of the sofa.
The flight attendant swished the curtain aside and came across to them, expertly holding a silver tray, upon which were two crystal glasses, three-quarters
filled with champagne, and the bottle which contained whatever was left of it. She set it down on the table, at the foot of the sofa upon which Cody had stretched out, picked up the two glasses and handed them to Cody and Arun, in that order. Arun had expected it to be that way round, but it still stung a little. Is that something he'd have to get used to, playing second fiddle to Cody?
"Is there anything else I can get you?"
"No, thank you—" Cody glanced down, having only just noticed the name tag pinned to her chest, "—Kristina."
Arun smiled to himself, having noted the slip of disappointment on Kristina's face, and took a gulp of his drink, which was refreshingly cold.
"If you do need anything, please, let me know. We'll be taking off in approximately five minutes and our flight time is a little under four hours. Enjoy the flight."
She bowed slightly, catching herself awkwardly, as though it was something she hadn't intended to do but impulse had got the better of her. No doubt it was an effect that Cody had on many women. Arun couldn't help but laugh to himself again. If only they knew.
"You okay?" Cody said to him, when Kristina had disappeared from view again (though undoubtedly not from earshot - it was, after all, only a bit of fabric that separated them).
"Fine," said Arun. He leant across and tapped his glass against Cody's. The echoing chime it created made them both laugh, there being a touch of absurdity to the whole experience so far.
Just about half way through the flight, the pair of them having enjoyed a few more laughs and some of the contents of a second bottle of champagne, they fell into a contented silence, both of them stretched out fully on their respective sofas, mirroring each other in a way that had become rather commonplace between them. A few minutes later, Cody sighed, quietly, to himself.
"Three weeks of bliss," he muttered.
Arun hoisted himself up, onto an elbow, and looked over at him.
"Any plans for these three weeks?"
'Nothing," said Cody, matter of fact.
"Nothing?"
"Absolutely nothing. What about you?" He stared up at the ceiling. "Will you be writing? Polishing up the script?"
Cody didn't notice it but Arun hesitated slightly. "I might, yeah. I might do nothing as well though. Unless the urge strikes of course. There's nothing that can be done when the need to write hits you."
Cody twisted onto his side and looked at Arun. "Would you consider yourself a writer first and a director second?"
Arun stared at him for a moment or two, struck by the untroubled calmness in Cody's eyes. Perhaps he really did mean what he said, that this was to be three weeks of nothing, away from everything.
"I like being both. There's always been this desire to get my ideas down on paper. The building of a world. But there's also always been that need to be the one to bring it to life, in the real world if you will. A need to see it all through to the end, to completion."
"How very controlling."
"I agree. It's a trait of many directors I believe. But see, the way I look at it is that it's my baby and I have to do it all my way. I couldn't let anyone else take the reigns. They'd just shape it into their vision instead and lose all the little touches that made it mine."
"Thank god you're not a parent," said Cody, having made a leap that Arun couldn't quite follow. "I bet you'd be one of those ones who are impossibly strict. You'd make the child call you Sir, I bet. Not able to do anything without your permission."
Paternal desire had never afflicted Arun. Whenever his parents had said to him, when he was a child, that he'd know what they meant one day, when he had kids of his own, he'd fobbed them off with whatever they'd wanted to hear, knowing even then that having children was not going to be a part of his life. It had nothing to do with whatever his sexuality might become (that wasn't something he was even aware of at that point). It was just a cold hard fact that he knew.
Cody bringing this up though, despite it having absolutely no relevance to his life, set a fire inside Arun. It was only a small flame—a spark of flint on a tiny bundle of twigs; the gentle breath over them that got the heat started—but it was able to fuel an anger in him. Why would Cody presume such a thing? And how dare he do so. What had there been about Arun that might suggest he'd be one of those people? Arun was aware of his flaws and being a nasty, controlling dictator had never been one of them.
Perhaps he was reading too much into it though, and that all it had been was simply Cody's usual flippant and playful behaviour. The alcohol talking. He saw Cody down the remainder of his glass and pour the rest of the bottle into it. Yes, he thought, more than likely it's just that. But still.
He took a long breath and let the argumentative desire seep away.
"I don't think that'd be the case at all," he said, forcing his voice to be calm. "As far as I'm aware, I'm only that controlling when it comes to my scripts and my directing. I'm not bossy at any other times, am I?"
"Not at all," said Cody. "You've been the perfect gentleman so far."
That word again. Gentleman. Arun really did quite like it. "Thanks," he said.
Cody lowered his voice. "Expect for in the bedroom. You're very bossy then." He wiggled the empty bottle of champagne. "Should we get another one?"
It was obviously just Cody being playful, his temperament soaking in the alcohol. Perhaps it was Arun who ought to loosen up a bit.
"Sure," he said. "Why not."
Cody called Kristina over and gave her their request. She went away, vanished behind the curtain for a minute and then, after the tell-tale pop of a cork being set free, reappeared. Having left the bottle with them, she once more returned to her hideaway.
"You like it though, don't you?" said Arun, his voice quiet. "Me being bossy in the bedroom."
Leaning across to fill their glasses, Cody stroked Arun's cheek, resting his hand against the side of his face for a moment before giving it a couple of brash slaps.
"Damn right I do," he said.
The sun was higher in the sky now, blasting down at a different angle, its burning rays no longer blocked by the extension of the kitchen. The heat prickled at Arun's back and woke him up. He shifted position and opened one eye, only to find that he was directly in the sun's path. He shielded his face with an outstretched hand and crumpled his forehead. Everything was peaceful - those damn crickets (for they'd quickly lost their charm) had shut their noise, for now, he guessed. No doubt they'd be back. He peered over his shoulder at Cody, who was still sound asleep and looking adorably peaceful. The kindest thing to do would be to let him carry on sleeping, but the sun was so fierce that he'd burn quickly (he doubted that Cody had been sensible enough to put lotion on). He spotted a sun shade nearby and decided that if he brought it over here it'd give Cody enough protection to stay asleep. With the plan in place he swung his legs around and planted his feet gently on the ground, gripping his fingers at the underside of the lounger so that he could lift himself carefully off it, thus leaving Cody undisturbed.
The lounger, however, had other ideas and let out an almighty creak as Arun shifted himself off it. He paused, legs bent, ass hanging precariously over the edge of the lounger. Cody groaned.
"Shit," said Arun, to himself. He straightened himself up and turned round, looking down at Cody, who was squinting up at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."
"That's okay," said Cody, sounding as though he almost meant it.
"You can go back to sleep if you want?"
"No, best not." He sighed, smacked his lips a couple of times and scrunched his face up. "When did we last eat?"
Arun thought about it, realising that it had been on the plane out here, during the time that they were over-enjoying the champagne.
"You hungry?"
"Starving," said Cody, rubbing his eyes with the balls of his palms. "You?"
"Yeah, definitely. Come on." He held a hand out, which Cody took, and pulled him upright. "Let's see what we can rustle up."
Cody had no intention o
f this being a we situation, but kept that to himself as he followed Arun across to the dining area (where the clock showed that it was ten to eleven) and round into the kitchen. The extension that had been added made the room much more spacious than it must previously have been. There were cupboards running along the entire back wall, with a sink and a cooker beneath them and a huge fridge and freezer at the left hand side. At the other end was a window, which ran from ceiling to floor, letting in the warm and illuminating light. In the centre of the kitchen there was a huge counter, six foot long and three foot wide, another cooker beneath it (with more cupboards) and another sink inset into the centre.
Opening the fridge, Arun got quite the shock. It was stocked full. He stepped aside to show Cody that when he meant full, he meant full. There was, at first glance, anything and everything that the two of them could need. Cody opened a couple of cupboards and saw that they too were crammed with all manner of tins and packets.
"Jesus," he said. "When Dean said we wouldn't want for anything, he wasn't kidding."
"This'll probably last us the entire three weeks."
"Possible," said Cody. "Oh, that reminds me, if there is anything we need, apparently if I give someone called Carlos a ring, he'll sort it out for us."
"Carlos, eh?" said Arun, a twinkle in his eye. "I wonder if he's hot?'
"I believe he's a local guy that Dean uses, which means he's Spanish. They're all hot."
"That's a sweeping generalisation."
"Yes, but it's a positive one, so it's okay."
Arun bent down to rummage through the fridge. He shook his head. "I don't think that's how things work." He grabbed a carton of eggs from inside the door, turned and placed them on the counter. "What do you fancy?"
The Movie Star's Secret Page 8
