E is for Exposed

by Rebecca Cantrell

  “Just think about it, okay?”

  They both lapsed into silence.

  Somehow making Aidan really mad about his potential stage name had quelled his objections about Gray and Tex ogling him. Or maybe he was just in so much pain from the waxing that he didn’t have the energy to argue.

  Either way, Sofia was running the show. For a change. And she was loving it.

  They pulled into the parking lot above Nirvana Cove. Residents had to leave their vehicles there. They could either walk down to their home or there were golf buggies they could use, handy if you had a lot of groceries.

  Much to Sofia’s surprise when she’d moved in, the residents walked, jogged or ran, even though many of them were retired. Most were really into health and fitness. It wasn’t all that unusual to see someone in their eighties or even older trotting down towards the Cove’s beach with their surfboard, or dragging a kayak. That was one among many reasons that Sofia enjoyed living there. The residents loved life and didn’t let anything as minor as age get in their way.

  Sofia got out of the Tesla. Aidan didn’t move. She walked around to his side and opened the door. He still wasn’t making any move to get out.

  “What? You’re not going to get out of the car? We agreed you’re going to this rehearsal. Just like I had to agree to pretend to be a hooker and to go into rehab for a drug problem I didn’t have.”

  He turned his head to look at her. “I’m working on it, but I’m in a lot of pain right now.”

  “Oh, Jeez, man up, would you?” Guys could really be whiners when it came to physical discomfort.

  Aidan held up a hand. Slowly he lifted his leg and placed it outside the car. He grabbed the dash and began to lever himself up and out.

  “You want me to get one of the golf buggies so we don’t have walk down there?”

  Aidan shook his head, his face still scrunched up. “I think walking it off might be my best option here.”

  “That’s my little soldier.”

  “Oh, now you’re going to patronize me too?”

  “Just trying to be supportive.”

  “Yeah, right. You’re loving every second of this.”

  Sofia wasn’t going to argue. “That’s true, but I also need to get you down to my trailer so we can work on our routine for the audition.”

  “You’re kidding me. You want me to prance around in my condition.”

  “Let’s just get you there first. Then we can assess what you can do.”

  She reached out her hand to help him stand up. He winced, grimaced, then made some strange breathing sounds. Finally he was standing up, and she could close the car door.

  “You sure you’re okay to walk?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  He took a step, winced again and stopped.

  “This is the reason I only ever get them to do back and crack. This right here.”

  He started hobbling forward, picking up a little bit of speed with every step. Sofia walked behind him, ready to grab him if he toppled over.

  “You know, I still think Sphinx could be a pretty good stage name for you.”

  “Shut up. Please just shut up,” hissed Aidan.

  31

  When they reached Sofia’s eggshell blue double-wide trailer, Gray and Tex were waiting on the porch. Fred was with them, perching on a railing, his head on a swivel. Sofia couldn’t be sure from that distance, but when the gull saw Aidan hobbling down the path, she was fairly sure he crossed his legs. Up until now she hadn’t known birds could even do that.

  “Great,” Aidan whispered under his breath, as Fred cawed. “A welcoming committee. Even the bird’s laughing at me.”

  “I told you that they were going to be here. They want to help get you in shape for the audition.”

  “The only thing that would get me in shape right now would be a glass of bourbon, two Vicodin and a long lie-down in a dark room.”

  “Sorry,” said Sofia. “We don’t have time for any of that. We have two days until this audition.”

  Gray stepped off the porch and walked over to Aidan. “You okay there?”

  Aidan shrugged. Guys rarely complained about physical pain to other guys—part of the bro code maybe—and especially not to another guy who had a reputation as an alpha-male movie star. The fact that Gray was the total opposite away from the camera was neither here nor there.

  “I’ll be fine in a minute,” said Aidan. “Could someone maybe grab me a shot of whiskey or something? Take the edge off.”

  “Irish pain relief coming right up,” Tex called from the porch, turning around and heading inside.

  “Top left cabinet in the kitchen,” Sofia called after her. “Hey, Gray, can you help me get Aidan up the steps?”

  Aidan turned. “What are you talking about? I don’t need help with stairs.”

  Yup. The idea of losing face in front of Gray was definitely doing the trick.

  “You’re sure?” Gray asked, with a look of concern that Sofia didn’t buy for a minute.

  “Totally.”

  “Great,” said Gray, clapping his hands together. ‘Then you should be able to fly through the routine I have in mind, no trouble at all. I’ve kept it super-simple.”

  “Yeah, sure,” said Aidan.

  Aidan was trying to butch it out. Little did he know that so was Gray. The only difference was that Gray had a lot more practice playing butch than Aidan did.

  “Gray did a stint with one of these shows when he was a young actor,” Sofia added, trying to be helpful.

  “Yeah, but keep that on the down-low,” said Gray.

  “Don’t worry,” said Aidan. “I’m not going to be talking to anyone about any of this when it’s over. Believe me.”

  Sofia guessed that was true. She didn’t imagine he or anyone else would have this as one of their career highlights.

  Tex burst back through the front door with a tumbler full of whiskey. She handed it to Aidan.

  “Isn’t that a lot?” asked Sofia, afraid he would pass out if he drank that much in one go.

  “It’s a Texas pour.”

  Tex wasn’t from Texas, but she had worked there as a wildcatter in the oil fields, and had picked up a lot of the culture, including pouring really big drinks.

  Aidan took the whiskey and downed about half of it. “That’s better,” he said.

  Gray plucked it from his hand before he could swallow the rest. “You can have it back once we’re done putting you through your paces.”

  “How’s your marble pouch?” Sofia asked him.

  “His what?” Gray and Tex asked simultaneously.

  “I’ll tell you later,” said Sofia.

  Aidan shot her a look. “You’d better not.”

  “Oh, I get it,” said Tex. “The waxing.”

  “Thanks a bunch,” said Aidan. “Hey, can we get on with running whatever this routine is?”

  They pushed back the furniture in Sofia’s living room to make some space. At one end of the room, Sofia sat on the couch with Tex. They were the audience. Gray perched on the arm.

  Gray had made them wait out on the porch as he ran through the routine with Aidan to start. From the laughs inside, he and Aidan seemed to be getting on famously. Maybe it was the whiskey, thought Sofia.

  “You ever heard that old joke?” Tex asked. “The difference between a straight man and a gay man is half a bottle of vodka?”

  “In Aidan’s case probably not,” Sofia said. Apart from Brendan he was pretty much the most heterosexual man she had ever met, even with the grooming routine. That might have marked you out elsewhere, but in LA it was pretty much standard.

  “Okay, we’re ready for you,” Gray called.

  “Where’s the star?” Tex asked as they walked in.

  “Back in Sofia’s bathroom, ready to make his big entrance!”

  She and Tex sat on the couch like some weird version of the America’s Got Talent judging panel.

  “And remember, sexy hips!” called Gray.
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br />   While Tex and Sofia had been outside, they’d heard that phrase a lot. Sofia shuddered to think how Aidan might choose to interpret it. Especially as she was sitting down, and would be pretty much at eye level with his freshly plucked marble pouch. She hoped that would limit his ability to do too much with his hips. If it didn’t, she had Tex right there to protect her. Although, knowing Tex, she might not see Aidan deploying his sexy hips at face level as a bad thing.

  Gray stood. “Okay, almost ready. Now let’s get ready to give Aidan a warm hand upon his entrance,” he said, with a wink at Sofia, his straight-in-public act slipping for a second.

  The bathroom door opened. Gray tapped a button on his phone, and loud rock music started playing. The kind Sofia imagined you’d hear in a strip club. Not that she’d been in many strip clubs, or was that familiar with their playlists.

  Sofia joined in with Gray and Tex’s applause, which felt slightly weird. Also, this wasn’t the time to mention it, but no one ever got applauded into an audition. That wasn’t how those things worked. Usually directors just stared at you or played with their phone.

  Aidan appeared in the doorway. He had one hand cocked behind his head, and the other at his hip. He wiggled his hips from side to side.

  Sofia had forgotten just how good Aidan’s body was. He wasn’t Jaxon ripped. No one was Jaxon ripped. But Aidan had broad shoulders, big arms, and the classic swimmer’s V-shape taper all the way down to a slim waist. His legs weren’t too bad either. Not massive tree trunks, but not spindly either. They were just nicely proportioned and his calf muscles were the kind you saw on rugby players.

  Okay, Sofia told herself, this was not what she needed to be thinking about right now. Aidan was a co-worker. Not to mention an asshole. A freshly waxed asshole.

  She cleared her throat. Tex looked at her. “Did it just get hot in here or what?”

  “We’re supposed to be assessing his performance,” said Sofia, trying to sound professional.

  “Uh, yeah, of course. Right,” said Tex, still sounding slightly excited as Aidan stared at them from the doorway and Gray turned up the volume on the music.

  The beat of the music shifted up a gear, and Aidan took a few steps forward. He made a couple of sudden thrusts and winced. Clearly the whiskey had only taken the edge off his discomfort and not gotten rid of the pain entirely.

  Aidan started to dance to the music. Sofia recognized some of the steps from one of the routines the Beef Cake Boyz had performed. Gray had obviously found some footage online of their routine, worked out the choreography and taught Aidan at least some of the basic moves. That was why he was an A-lister. As much as he could goof around with Sofia, when it came to work he was known in the industry as an actor who prepared meticulously for a role.

  Aidan shimmied to one side, then slid on his bare feet towards Tex. He pulled her up onto her feet.

  Just as he wrapped his arms around her neck, there was a loud cawing sound and a second later Fred, wings flapping, flew into the room through the front door and settled himself on the back of a chair.

  Aidan stopped his dance moves. Tex, who had been really enjoying the attention, looked annoyed. “Why are you stopping?”

  Aidan shook his head.

  “Uh-uh, no way. I’m not performing with the bird looking at me.”

  “You’re not the first man to say that to me this week,” muttered Sofia.

  “What was that?” asked Gray.

  “Nothing. Doesn’t matter.” Sofia stood to shoo Fred out onto the porch. She opened the door wide and somehow managed to shepherd him outside without too much fuss.

  “Okay,” said Gray. “Let’s go from the top.”

  Aidan disappeared into the bathroom as Gray reset the music. Aidan came back out and stood in the doorway but this time his moves were half a beat behind, and he had lost concentration.

  “Can we get to my lap-dance?” said Tex, grabbing Aidan by the wrist and trying to sit him down on the chair Fred had just vacated.

  “Not today, lady,” said Aidan.

  Sofia wasn’t sure if this was part of the performance or not.

  Gray killed the music and clapped his hands together. “Okay, that was a solid start. Well done, Aidan. Let’s pick this up first thing tomorrow.”

  Aidan walked back into the bathroom and slammed the door.

  “Well,” said Gray, “he certainly has the diva part going on. Now all I need is to get his moves locked down and I’d say he’ll be good to go.”

  Sofia had to admit he’d done way better than she’d expected. Especially as he was carrying an injury in a fairly vital area.

  “How did you get him to do all that?” she asked Gray.

  “I told him there was no way in hell he could land an audition like this. The other guys were bound to be younger, fitter, have better bodies, and be better dancers.”

  Suddenly Aidan’s performance made sense. “So basically you appealed to his male ego?”

  “Works every time, darling,” said Gray.

  “Hey, I can hear you, guys,” Aidan shouted from behind the bathroom door. It opened again and he appeared, this time wearing a T-shirt. “Before anyone says anything else, I’m doing this right because I take my job seriously. Even when it’s something I don’t want to do, if I have to then I’ll do my best. That’s not too difficult to understand, is it?”

  They all looked a little sheepish. Even Tex.

  “No,” said Sofia.

  “I’m sorry if I went too far,” Tex said.

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Aidan. He looked at Sofia. “I just had a text from Brendan. We should get back to the office. He says he has new intelligence on the case.”

  As fun as seeing Aidan dance had been, Sofia was almost relieved. Aidan had been right. They couldn’t lose sight that they had Marcie’s future happiness in their hands right now. Not to mention a pretty unpleasant blackmailer to deal with.

  32

  As they reached the parking lot, someone called from behind them, “Hey, guys, wait up.”

  She turned to see one of Nirvana Cove’s other residents, Jeffery Weiner, her one-time agent. Basically he’d got ten percent of what she made for negotiating her deals, and smoothing out any problems with producers. As Sofia was super-low maintenance (at least by Hollywood standards), it had been a pretty nice gig. Since she’d quit the business, Jeffery had kept trying to persuade her to go back. It was annoying.

  “We’re kind of in a rush. Sorry, Jeffery.”

  “Hey, was Gray visiting with you? I heard he’s not happy at CAA.”

  CAA stood for Creative Artists Agency. It was one of the big Hollywood agencies.

  “I don’t know anything about that,” said Sofia.

  “Okay, but let me know if he says anything to you about being unhappy. I just joined a new agency and he’d be a real catch.”

  No kidding, thought Sofia. Agents could only dream of what ten percent of Gray’s pay checks looked like. Not to mention all the other clients they could land if they had him on their books. Jeffery had two chances of signing Gray, none and almost none, and almost none had already skipped town.

  “I’ll let you know.”

  “Are you an actor too?” he asked Aidan.

  “No, Aidan works with me at the private investigation agency.”

  “Are you sure?” said Jeffery. “With your looks you could really have a career. I’m getting a kind of young-Liam-Neeson vibe.”

  “No kidding?” said Aidan, smiling at Jeffery.

  “Agents say that kind of stuff to everyone,” Sofia chipped in.

  “No, I mean it,” Jeffery protested. “You’re sure you’ve never acted?”

  Sofia smiled. “He’s more of a dancer.”

  Aidan shot her a dirty look. “She’s kidding.”

  “That’s a shame, because after La La Land, actors who can dance are back in demand.”

  “Listen, it was really nice catching up,’ Sofia put in, ‘but we have to be going.”


  “Hey, remember my offer. Oh, and let me know if Gray says anything.”

  Jeffery walked away.

  “A young Liam Neeson,” Aidan mused to himself.

  “In your dreams, buddy. Jeffery once told me I looked like a young Liz Taylor.”

  Aidan glanced over at her, studying her un-Liz-Taylor-like features. “Okay. Point taken. Agents make stuff up.”

  “Hey, so how’s your marble pouch?”

  “Can you not call it that?”

  “Can’t promise.”

  “It’s not as incredibly painful as it was, no thanks to you.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” said Sofia. “We need you in top form, marble pouch and all.”

  “Tell you what. I’ll worry about that. You worry about our client. You spoken to her recently?”

  “Just as soon as we get the update from Brendan. I want to be able to tell her that we’re making some kind of progress before I call her.”

  33

  As soon as they arrived, Brendan waved them into his office. He was on a call, his phone pressed to his ear as he used his free hand to jot notes on a yellow legal pad. “Thanks, Tom, that’s really useful . . . Yeah, I will. Don’t you worry. Okay, bye.”

  Brendan finished up his call, made a few more notes and looked up at them. “So? You ready to infiltrate this nest of vipers?” he asked Aidan.

  “I’m getting there.” Aidan shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

  “I took him to a place in Woodland Hills to get his—”

  Aidan jumped in, cutting her off: “Sofia’s been really helpful. She has a couple of friends helping me prepare for the audition. If we need to go that route.”

  “What do you mean?” Brendan asked.

  “You said you had some other information. So maybe we won’t need someone in there undercover.”

  Sofia could hear the hope in Aidan’s voice.

  “Oh, no, we’ll definitely need you to go to that audition. Even more so now than we did before. You have to land this gig for the agency, Aidan.”