Mixed Signals

by Cooper West

  “He did it. That son of a bitch, he actually set me up to get discharged.”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry. I mean, he’s an asshole.”

  Frank nodded slowly, eyes still on the dashboard.

  “You still okay with publishing the recording?” Benjamin also kept his focus forward, hoping he did not sound like he was pressuring him.

  “Could I stop it?” Frank said, sounding far too resigned for Benjamin’s liking.

  “Sure. I could stop it if you tell me to. Even if Fidanza tried to give it away, I can do some hacker shit and erase the file. Nothing’s guaranteed, but I would try, if that’s what you want.”

  Frank looked over at him. “Yeah?”

  “Hell yeah. Not like I was 100 percent behind this idea anyway. It’s what your father wants, I get that, but I don’t care about your father. Well. Too much. He’s scary, okay? You know that, right?”

  Frank let out a short chuckle and shook his head. “He’s a bastard when he wants to be.”

  “Exactly. I’m not keen on getting on his bad side. But I’m not in love with him. I love you. I’ll do anything to protect you. If I have to tear down the internet to erase that recording, I sure as fuck will do just that.”

  Frank nodded slowly. “Then post it.”

  “You’re sure?” Benjamin finally looked over at him.

  “I’m sure I trust you.”

  Benjamin’s heart caught in his throat. “Uh. Well. You know, some people might say that I, uh, led you on. Tricked you. With the whole MudzNewz thing.”

  “You weren’t honest with me. You don’t trust me, which is different from me not trusting you. At least with this.” He glanced over at Benjamin. “And whatever you told my family, they seem to be on your side. Which I would not have put money on twenty-four hours ago, okay? So I’m still pissed off at you, and I’m hurt that you would lie to me. But I’m… I’m willing to hear your side of the story.” He raised one finger. “No promises. But you’ve got this one chance.”

  Benjamin nodded slowly and paused to collect his thoughts. He hated telling Rachel’s story again, but she was right about the fact that it was all pretty much “cat out of the bag” anyway. So, he started at the beginning, with the rough times after their parents’ deaths, to targeting Lamarque via MudzNewz, and how that led, way down the road, to him agreeing to participate in a sting operation to take down Teague. “I had feelers out, requests for hot tips, but no bites. I figured he had a skeleton in his closet somewhere, but it wasn’t until, hmm, I think right before our first training flight that Corsak emailed me. I had already been looking at how to off-load Mudz, mostly because of how wrapped up with you I was getting, so I thought about shoving it onto the back burner and letting the next person deal with it. But I just couldn’t…. What Corsak told me meant that Teague had purposefully set you up to get caught with a guy, and get discharged for it. And I guess, you know, that made it personal.”

  “Personal,” Frank repeated flatly.

  “Teague hurt you, badly, and the last time a guy like him hurt someone I care about, I got that fucker sent to prison for forty years,” Benjamin snarled into the mic.

  Frank glanced over at him, then back to the controls. It was quiet between them for a while, just the sounds of the plane slicing through the air filtering into Benjamin’s headphones.

  “Can you jack your phone into the auxiliary?” Frank finally asked out of the literal blue. They were so high up that Benjamin thought they’d need oxygen soon.

  “I don’t know. Can you turn your car on by sitting in it?” Benjamin grumbled. “This thing has more interfaces than Medusa has snakes. I got it.” He fumbled through the aux cords in the middle storage compartment until he found what he needed. Plugging in his phone was simple since the plane of course had multiple USB ports for charging and docking. It was designed so that people could listen to their playlists while they flew, so it was not that hard to get the two systems talking to each other. “Now what?”

  “Now you take a video of me owning up to recording Paulie and why I did it.”

  Benjamin let his mouth hang open for a second, then pulled up his camera app. They took a test run to make sure the audio was coming in through the auxiliary connection, and then Frank brought the plane down to a reasonable height and while still looking between the controls and the windscreen, began talking. Benjamin twisted around so he could get at least a two-third profile of Frank as he spoke. Frank somehow went from angry and grumpy to charming within the blink of an eye, despite the fact that he also looked stressed and exhausted. Benjamin felt like he was filming a movie star, a complete stranger. It struck him that this was the Francis Sheldon people expected to see, and was not at all the man he had come to know.

  “We’re recording this while I’m flying because I love to fly. It’s in my blood, and I wanted nothing more than to be a pilot in the United States Air Force, serve my country while flying through the bright blue skies. But right now I’ve got dirty laundry to air out, and it seems like a few thousand feet above the earth is a good place to do it. You getting this, Benjamin?”

  The only reason Frank would bother to say that was because he wanted people to know it was Benjamin recording him, so instead of just nodding, he replied with a “roger that.” Frank still didn’t look at him, but the corner of his mouth curled up in a half smile before he started up again.

  “So I’m going to keep this short. Yes, Paulie, uh, Paulson Teague, and I were in a romantic relationship, and had been in one from the time we were teenagers. And by romantic I mean mostly we ran around in secret, had sex, and lied to everyone we knew about it. My father had no idea until I told him yesterday. It ended badly and yes, Paulie set me up to get discharged from the Air Force. I’m no angel—I was caught doing something I should not have been doing, and due to the rules of the time, the brass had the right to toss me out because of it. But Paulie planned it all out so I would get caught, because he wanted… you know what? I have no clue what he wanted. We had broken up and maybe it was his revenge, maybe he hoped I’d come crawling back to him, I don’t know. I don’t care anymore. I thought it was all way behind me.

  “But it wasn’t. I didn’t know it, but Benjamin and my, uh, ex-lover Corsak set up a sting against Paulie, trying to prove that he’s unfit to be governor. That’s on them. I had no role in that at first, and sure as hell my sister didn’t. Benjamin was working without our knowledge, and I know it looks like the Sheldons bought off MudzNewz, but we didn’t. We had no idea about any of this. Then Benjamin got outed as the guy behind MudzNewz, and it was either step up to the plate or let Paulie get away with what he had done. He covered his tracks well, though, so what we really needed was a confession.

  “As you have by now heard, I got that confession. I know recording him was illegal. I know outing Paulie is morally questionable, at best.” He checked the controls and then looked straight at the camera lens. “But I did it, and I have no regrets about it. I’ll pay whatever fines I have to pay; I don’t care if it’s on my permanent record. In addition, I fully support MudzNewz releasing the recording.”

  He paused again, taking a deep breath. “I support this not just because I’m in business with Benjamin Kaplan, but because I fell in love with him.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  FRANK NODDED at Benjamin, who cut the video off. He saved it and then saved a backup on the plane’s computer, which he thought was harder than it should have been and made a note to send an email to Mooney Aircraft about that.

  “You got it?” Frank was back to being tense and terse again, the charisma he could seemingly tap into at will turned all the way off.

  “Saved and backed up. When we land, I’ll go home and post both to the site.”

  Frank’s jaw worked for a second, but he didn’t respond.

  “One of the hardest things I ever had to deal with was being angry at my parents for dying,” Benjamin said, his brain tripping ahead without his permission. Frank gave him a start
led glance, then focused on the scenery again. “I was furious, but in the end, it wasn’t their fault. It just happened, like it happens every day all over the world. It was still hard, though. That was… that was a hell of a betrayal, even if it wasn’t their fault.” He took a deep breath, turning his phone over and over in his hands. “Me keeping secrets from you wasn’t an accident, or an oversight. I did that on purpose because I was selfish and did not want to give you up. So if you can’t forgive me for doing that, I understand. I’m not even going to ask you to. But I want you to know that hearing you say you love me, that’s—that’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me, and I’m sorry I fucked it up.” He wiped at his eyes and took another deep breath, forcing his hands to keep still.

  After a long few minutes that Benjamin equated to all of eternity, Frank spoke up. “How’s your sister?”

  It was as good an overture of friendship as he was going to get, Benjamin figured, and grabbed it. “Hiding,” he said, then paused to really consider it. “She’s not happy, but she’s stronger than I am, braver too. She gave me permission to share her story with you and your family. She knows that our quiet, ‘out of sight/out of mind’ existence is pretty much over now, and if I know her, which I do, she’s already figuring out how to leverage this whole fiasco as a marketing coup for her nascent cosmetology empire.” He sighed. “She’s probably already running metrics on the YouTube numbers for her makeup tutorials.”

  “She’s on our board of directors, right?”

  “I’m not stupid! Of course she is,” Benjamin snapped. He stopped and looked over at Frank, whose posture had relaxed. He had a small grin on his face. Benjamin could have basked in that tiny moment for the rest of his life.

  “Let’s land and get those files uploaded,” Frank said.

  “What’s this ‘we’ shit, Lindbergh?”

  Frank laughed out loud, and that was all Benjamin needed to hear. Smiling, he jiggled his phone at Frank, who nodded.

  Cutting the flight short was easy enough, and once they were on the ground and everything sorted with the base operator, they walked out to the parking lot. Benjamin aimed for his car, but Frank grabbed his arm and steered him to the Tesla.

  “I need to go home, though, that’s where all my access is set up,” Benjamin complained as Frank manhandled him.

  “I know. That’s where we’re going.”

  “Frank, everyone knows your car. You can’t drive me home! My car is right—mmmph!” Benjamin almost fell down when Frank spun him closer and planted a firm kiss on his lips, wrapping one arm around his waist while using the other to keep a firm hold on Benjamin’s arm, as if he was worried Benjamin might make a break for freedom. After a moment they parted. Frank loosened his hold but did not let go. Benjamin just stood there, too surprised to reciprocate. And too wary. “Frank?”

  “Shhhh.” Frank dragged him to the car and shoved him into the passenger seat.

  When Frank got in, he headed out of the parking lot without any delay or explanation, but as they merged into traffic, he set his right hand on Benjamin’s thigh. It was not suggestive, just a warm, heavy weight on Benjamin’s leg, a connection between the two of them that, for the moment, supplanted words. Benjamin put his own hand on top of Frank’s, and they twined their fingers together as they headed to Benjamin’s house.

  Where, of course, the lone news van was still parked. The back end was open, where both the reporter and the cameraman sat eating burritos. They looked up at Frank, who blatantly parked right behind them.

  “You are so, so evil,” Benjamin cackled as they got out of the car.

  “You need us to sit in the car for a minute?” Frank called out. The cameraman shook his head, his cheeks stuffed with food like a chipmunk as he slung his camera gear up and started recording. The reporter tossed her food to the side and all but ran for Frank. He held up his hand. “We’re here, together. You got that,” he said, nodding toward the camera. “But no comment.” He grabbed Benjamin’s hand and tugged him along. Benjamin shrugged and laughed at the reporter as she spun around to face the camera to, most likely, break the news of Francis Sheldon showing up driving Benjamin around and holding hands.

  Benjamin unlocked the door and fell into the house, laughing. “Oh shit! That was cruel!”

  “They deserve it.”

  They stood there in the living room for a moment. Benjamin huffed in frustration. “I want to kiss you, but I really am obligated to post the recording and your vid before your father sends his goons after me.”

  “And by ‘goons’ you mean my sister?”

  “She’s one of them,” Benjamin admitted, walking back to his study. He woke all his computers up and sat in his command chair. Frank took the comfy chair off to the side that Rachel usually sat in. “Okay, first I need to check the vid, make sure it’s suitable. If not we can rerecord right here, since you decided to kidnap me.”

  “Usually kidnappers don’t bring you back to your own home,” Frank said, setting his feet up on a box and sprawling back in the chair. He looked simply luscious, and that was all the incentive Benjamin needed to fly through the process. Downloading the recording was easy enough, and Shemer not only sent him the full raw file but a chopped-down version labeled “just_the_good_stuff.zip” which was the one Benjamin unzipped and uploaded. Both the edited version of the audio and the video of Frank went on the home page of MudzNewz. After that he sent out an alert to the site’s massive email list. His fingers flew over keyboards as he synced everything up, and before he knew it, the numbers were already spiking his bandwidth like crazy. He sat back and stared at the avalanche as it happened. He pulled up a grid of news sites on his largest monitor, watching as the story hit… and hit… and hit… like popping balloons with darts, one after another as they all exploded with the scandal.

  “Holy shit, it’s out there now,” Benjamin said, awe in his voice. He had broken a few scandals in his time, but this by far was going down as the most scandalous of all of them.

  “There we are,” Frank said, pointing to one square in the grid, where the shot of him and Benjamin holding hands as they walked into the house was running, cutting to the flustered-looking young reporter as she breathlessly described the scene. Frank sat up in the chair, putting his feet down on the ground, before facing Benjamin. “You didn’t listen to it.”

  “The recording? No. Why? Should I have?”

  Frank scrunched up his face for a moment, then shook his head. “Did you want to?”

  “Not really. I don’t want to hear him try to humiliate you.”

  “You don’t know that’s what he did.” Frank looked at him, his face blank.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, of course he did. That’s all he’s ever done to you, in my opinion.” Benjamin waved a hand at the monitor showing all the news sites. “He wanted to own you.”

  Frank closed his eyes, a pained expression on his face, and Benjamin kicked himself mentally for being so thoughtless. He opened his mouth to say something, but Frank looked at him again. “You’re right. That’s all he ever wanted: me as his pet. The fact I was a Sheldon was just a perk for him.” He shook his head again. “I was such a fucking idiot.”

  “Frank,” Benjamin said, trying to gentle himself. “I’m, uh, not good with the pep talks—”

  Frank snorted, grinning at him.

  “Oh shut up! I just mean, okay, maybe you were naive—”

  “Thanks.”

  “Let me finish! Maybe you were naive, but he was cruel, and he used you, and hurt you. And now he’s done. Finished. We ruined him, and maybe that makes us the bad guys, but I really don’t think so. The truth has been revealed, and you are free of him. Frank, listen to me: you’re free. That’s what this was all about. Letting you shed that story and move on.”

  Before Frank could answer, his phone rang. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket slowly and looked at the screen for a long moment before answering. “Father,” he said, his voice tight.

  Be
njamin got up and left the room. He figured that was personal, and he just hoped Alex was not giving Frank any ration of shit. He was grateful for being a slob, since that meant he could distract himself with washing the dirty dishes piled in the sink while Frank dealt with his family. After a while, Frank wandered in and leaned up against the counter, a few feet from where Benjamin was scrubbing a baking pan hopelessly encrusted with grease from Rachel’s cheesy vegetarian lasagna.

  “Nancy is betting that Paulie will withdraw his nomination in the morning. Warren has a counter bet on this evening. My reputation is being trashed, and I will definitely be nailed for the nonconsensual audio recording, and my father has scared Warren’s staff with his evil cackling.”

  Benjamin stopped scrubbing. “Evil cackling? Really?” He could not imagine it.

  “So Camila says, but she’s as much a drama queen as he is.” Frank sighed.

  “And, uh, where does that leave us?” Benjamin focused on the pan again.

  “Well, as I remember correctly, I kissed you.”

  “I’m not complaining! About that, anyway. I’m just a little confused by it.”

  “Confused?” Frank glared at him.

  “In a good way!”

  “What does that even mean?” Frank settled back and crossed his arms over his chest, staring at the opposite wall.

  Benjamin sighed and dried his hands. He walked over to stand in front of Frank and put his hands on his very nicely muscled biceps. “It means I liked it, and I want you to kiss me again, but I don’t know where we stand. As in, ‘us’ being in a relationship. Or not.”

  Frank tilted his head and uncrossed his arms, bringing his hands up to cradle Benjamin’s face. “You tanked your own reputation to pull this off, but you were willing to stop it as soon as I asked.” He leaned forward and pecked Benjamin on the lips, then stood back again, still holding his face. “And you did not even want to hear that recording of me and Paulie.”

  “So?” Benjamin let his own arms fall.