by G. A. Hauser
“No!” Carl admonished. “Tell me you did not create that video.”
“Our dicks showed on that thing!” Keith was not amused.
“We didn’t create it, but we knew about it.” Will seemed to be trying to wipe the smirk off his amused face.
“Come on, guys,” Keith pleaded. “Don’t do things like that behind our backs.”
“Oh?” Derek asked, “Would you have allowed us to put up an x-rated video with your blessing?”
“Why did you do that?” Carl moaned.
“I’ll repeat what I already said,” Will sounded hostile suddenly, “do either of you check the internet for feedback?”
“What are we supposed to be looking for?” Keith fought to hold back his anger. “I’m scared shitless to read what people are saying about us.”
“That’s a mistake.” Derek loosened his necktie in the warm room. “If you did, you’d see the support for the two of you as a couple.”
“I feel like I’m on a merry-go-round.” Keith rubbed his forehead as it began to ache.
“All right.” Will waved his hand. “You get the idea. We don’t have to keep pounding it in.”
Derek stood, moving out his chair. “It’s not a lot to ask, guys. Just be yourselves.”
Keith and Carl rose up. Keith was anxious to get out of the close room. “Would you both promise to put in a good word for us if and when this show is cancelled?”
“If you co-operate, yes.” Will scooted his chair back under the table.
“Geez, that sounds like blackmail,” Carl said.
Keith elbowed him to shut up. Luckily, the men had a sense of humor.
Before the door was opened, Will joked, “Yes, blackmail. Either you come clean or you’re fired.”
“Ha. Ha.” Keith narrowed his eyes at Will.
“At least we’re not asking you for sex.” Will met Keith’s eyes directly, “like some sleazy Hollywood agents.”
“Adam never does that.” Keith felt his skin go red from embarrassment.
“Oh? Then you know nothing about his deceased business partner, Jack Turner,” Will scoffed.
“I know about it.” Keith realized he wasn’t the only man in LA battling with his image. “Adam Lewis is straight up. He would never ask for that.”
“Straight up? Lewis?” Derek laughed. “Tell his gay lawyer boyfriend that.”
“All right.” Keith had enough.
“Bottom line, Keith. Who are you willing to take career advice from? A man like Lewis with questionable couch practices, or two powerful television producers with your and the show’s best interest at heart?” Derek opened the door. “Good day, gentlemen. Oh, and by the way, nice job earlier on the taping. You two burn up the screen.”
“Yes,” Will emphasized, “good work. The two of you play a very convincing gay couple.”
The look of irony on their faces was killing Keith.
Carl mumbled goodbye as they left. Once the sound of their footsteps vanished, Carl dropped back down to a chair to recuperate from the meeting.
Keith sat next to him, cuddling around him. “Why is our life so damn complicated?”
“I don’t know.” Carl rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb.
“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” Keith leaned his chin on Carl’s arm.
“You’re asking me?” Carl scoffed at the absurdity. “I feel like taffy! Go straight! Go gay! Come out! Stay in!”
“I wish we had a crystal ball. I would really like to see what happens to our careers after this series ends.”
“Yeah, but if we don’t do as they ask, it’ll end very quickly. And to be honest, Keith? I like this show. I don’t want it to end. You do realize we get paid well to kiss and play together on TV. Where the hell are we going to get another job like that?”
Keith allowed Carl to turn so they were face to face. “I bet it must be nice to get paid for screwing men.”
“Screwing?” Carl raised his eyebrow.
“If we’re through in mainstream TV after this show, I could do gay porno movies.”
Carl cracked up. “I do love you.”
Keith leaned in for a kiss. “I love you too, handsome.”
Chapter Eight
Driving back to the condo after the shoot, Carl’s mobile phone rang. Shifting in his seat to get at his pocket, Carl removed it and answered it while Keith watched him from the passenger’s side. “Hello?”
“Carl? Cole here.”
“Hiya, Cole.” Carl glanced at Keith quickly. “My agent,” he mouthed silently.
“I’ve a few offers on my desk for you and I wondered when you would be available for a chat.”
“Anything good?”
“Yes. One is for a part in an action film.”
“Lead?” Carl stopped for a red light.
“No. Supporting. But a nice size role. Great exposure into the big screen.”
“Great.” Carl winked at Keith.
“Ever since that front page in the tabloid press with you holding a woman, it’s like the floodgates have opened.”
Carl’s smile dropped. “Oh?”
“Yeah. It’s as if they were all hesitant to hire a gay man, and suddenly with the sight of you and a woman together, they seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief and the offers appeared.”
Without a sound, Carl mouthed, “Fuck!”
Keith grabbed his knee in response to that silent expletive.
Moving as the light changed, Carl muttered, “When do you want me to come by.”
“Sooner the better.”
Carl looked over at Keith. “You mind a detour before we head home?”
“Of course not.”
“I can be there in five,” Carl said into the phone.
“Great. See you then.”
Carl disconnected and tossed the mobile into the cup holder on the console.
“What?” Keith asked as Carl rubbed at his jaw stubble.
“My agent said the minute we were photographed with Jade and Holly, he was flooded with offers.”
Keith slumped down in the bucket seat and covered his face in agony.
“Taffy,” Carl sighed. “Fucking salt water taffy.”
“I don’t fucking believe any of this.” Keith balled up his fists and almost screamed, “Why does who we fuck in the bedroom matter?”
Carl laughed sadly. “Good question.”
“Aren’t we still the same men? The same actors?”
“Hell no. If we’re gay we don’t have testicles and can’t have a romantic part with a woman. How can you be a man if you don’t have any balls between your legs? Don’t you know that? Being gay in Hollywood turns men into eunuchs.”
“What’s the offered part?”
“In some action movie. Gay men don’t do action movies, Keith,” Carl ranted bitterly. “Oh, no. If you’re gay you turn off straight men, right? So, if James Bond was played by an out gay man? No sales. That’s what they all think.”
“What do you think?”
“I think it’s a load of crap.”
“Oh? And since that piece in the tabloids? Offers for movies? You call that crap? Who are you kidding?”
“I don’t know who we’re kidding anymore. My head is upside down at the moment. I wish we did have that crystal ball, babe. It would help.”
Carl pulled into a lot of a high-rise building. Shutting off the engine, Carl opened the door as Keith asked, “You want me to wait here?”
“No.”
Keith acknowledged him and got out, meeting him on the sidewalk in front of the lobby entrance.
Walking through the large glossy atrium to the wall of elevators, Carl wanted to hold Keith’s hand in a gesture of affection and it annoyed him he couldn’t.
Once they were inside the seclusion of the elevator, it was a different story. The minute the door closed, Carl pushed Keith against the wall and practically mounted him.
A grunt of surprise emerged from Keith until he wr
apped around Carl and sucked back at his mouth. The bell rang to alert them of their arrival. Carl pushed back from Keith’s hot body and wiped the taste of Keith’s mouth off his own lips gently. “I love you.”
“Me too!” Keith announced happily, touching Carl’s arm as the doors parted.
“This way.” Carl tilted his head towards a hallway with one side paneled with large glass panes, over plush mauve carpet. Original lithographs lined the corridor and huge potted trees accented the pale pink walls.
Carl opened an office door and stepped in. “Hello, Paula.”
“Hiya, Carl!” An attractive young woman waved at him from behind her desk. “I’ll tell Cole you’re here.”
“Great.” Carl watched as she gave his lover a once over. Whatever. It’s no secret Keith and I are friends.
“Cole? Carl Bronson is here.” She hung up. “Go right in, sweetie.”
“Thanks.” Carl reached out for Keith to join him.
Keith wondered if Mr. Rossi had even more clout in Hollywood than Adam Lewis. The office was dripping with expensive trinkets and artifacts from a lifetime of exotic traveling.
After Carl greeted the gray-haired gentleman, he gestured back to Keith. “You know my co-star? Keith O’Leary?”
Keith shook Mr. Rossi’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yes. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Mr. Rossi did not smile when he said that, releasing Keith’s hand abruptly. “Carl. Have a seat.”
Trying not to interfere, Keith moved to a chair against one wall and looked into a glass case with strange, carved, wooden African idols in it.
“Here’s one I highly recommend.” Cole pushed paperwork at Carl. “Blockbuster summer movie about a superhero.”
“Am I a good guy or a bad guy?” Carl appeared amused.
“Good. You’re the second banana.”
“Really? Like Robin to Batman?”
“Yes.”
Keith felt Mr. Rossi’s eyes dart to him with discomfort. Perhaps Carl’s agent was trying to decide if Carl was gay after all. Maybe seeing them together gave him the idea that the cover story in the tabloid was just that. A cover.
Cole added, “It’s going to begin filming during your summer break. No conflict with your cable drama whatsoever.”
“Where will it be filmed?”
“Here in LA.”
“Good.” Carl flipped the pages of the paperwork, a contented smile on his lips.
“This one’s for a guest spot on Leno.” Cole kept handing Carl paperwork. “This one’s for advertising men’s underwear in Japan.”
Carl laughed, looking back at Keith in amusement.
Keith tried to smile at him even though Mr. Rossi made him feel uneasy. It was as if Keith was preventing the two of them from talking candidly.
“Just look them over. The audition for the film includes the date, time, and script. That’s the big money offer. The rest are just fun extras.”
“Okay, Cole.” Carl smiled sweetly at him.
Finally Cole appeared to be unable to contain his thoughts. “Carl.”
“Yes?”
“You are dating a woman, right?”
Carl whipped his head around to Keith.
What the hell do you want from me? Keith tried to communicate his distress at the topic.
As if making a command decision, Carl replied, “Yes.”
“Good. I’m sorry, Carl, but I think if you weren’t seen on that latest weekly tabloid with a model on your arm, I wouldn’t be handing you any of these offers.”
“I know, Cole.”
“Give them a look over, and get back to me.”
“I will.” Carl stood, shaking Cole’s hand.
“Bye.” Keith waved weakly.
“Goodbye, Mr. O’Leary.”
It was said as a scold, and if Carl couldn’t hear it, Keith would be amazed.
“Bye, Paula.” Carl smiled sweetly at Cole’s assistant.
“See ya, Carl. Bye!” she addressed Keith.
“See ya.” Keith waved at her.
Once they were in the hall, Keith grumbled, “He hates me.”
“What?” Carl tucked the paperwork under his arm and pushed the down button for the elevator. “He does not.”
“Yes. He does. I’m the ruin of his top star.”
“Shut up.”
They entered the elevator, and since they weren’t alone, they behaved.
Just as they hit the sunshine and approached Carl’s black Corvette, Keith’s mobile phone rang. As he climbed into the passenger seat, Keith answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, Keith. It’s Adam Lewis.”
“Hi, Adam.” Keith laughed at the irony. “Let me guess. Since we’ve come out as heterosexual men you have offers.”
“How did you guess?”
“I’m a genius.” Keith closed the car door and gave Carl a pained look. “Actually, we’re sitting in Carl’s car outside his agent’s office with his own handful of scripts.”
“I told you.”
“Adam, we’ve got a serious problem.” Keith rubbed his hand over Carl’s thigh as he started the car.
“Oh?”
“The producers, Derek Dixon and Will Markham want us to stop pretending we’re straight.”
“Crap.”
“Ya think?” Keith tried to laugh but it came out like a cough. “Rock, hard place, Adam.”
“Keith, their interest is in their drama, period.”
“We know that. But it may be the difference between working one season on it or eight.”
“Yes. I understand.”
“What the hell are we supposed to do, Adam?”
“Where are you guys? Are you anywhere near Malibu?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Come by.”
“Your house?” Keith shook Carl’s leg for him to stop putting the car in gear for a moment.
“Yes. Come to my house. Let’s have a discussion about this.”
“Okay.”
“See you soon? You know my home address right?”
“Give it to me again.” Keith repeated it out loud as he did. Carl nodded he got it. “Okay, Adam. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“Good.”
Keith hung up. “You believe this?”
“No. It’s insane.”
“At least Adam is gay. Christ, I thought Rossi wanted to murder me for killing your career.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He was shooting daggers at me behind your back.”
“That fuckhead.” Carl entered the main road and headed to the coast.
“Sorry. He was.”
“He’s slightly old fashioned. I don’t think he likes the whole West Hollywood gay thing.”
“Asshole.”
Carl shrugged. “I wasn’t gay when he offered to represent me.”
“No. You were just another pretty face,” Keith purred, cupping Carl’s crotch.
They found the correct address. Carl pulled into the long sandy drive and parked. “Well, Adam does very well for himself.”
“No kidding.” Keith unfastened his seatbelt.
“Beachfront. Nice. Have you ever been here before, Keith?”
“No. Never.” Keith exited the car and stood for a moment, looking at the front of the white stucco house.
Carl met him at the walkway leading to the door. “Pretty Jaguar.”
Keith turned to see a sleek maroon Jaguar XK in the drive. Walking to the front door, Keith rang the bell. When a muscular blond answered, Keith gaped at him in awe. “Uh…I’m here to see Adam Lewis?”
“Come on in.”
Keith entered the interior and admired the southwestern design. “I’m Keith O’Leary and this is Carl Bronson.”
“Yes, I recognize you from Forever Young. I’m Jack Larsen, Adam’s partner.”
Keith took his outstretched hand and relinquished it so his lover could take it next.
“Adam is making margaritas. It’s his specialty.�
� Jack gestured to the kitchen. “Adam? Your guests are here.”
“Hey!” Adam met Keith’s eyes as he entered the room. “Come on in and make yourselves comfy.”
“Nice place,” Carl announced, looking outside at the view of the ocean.
“Thanks. With or without salt?” Adam held up a glass.
“With,” Carl replied.
“Without,” Keith said, sitting down on a high stool around the island Adam was working on.
“One with, one without.” Adam handed them off as he made them, taking one for himself after Jack had his. “Okay. Talk to me, Keith. What the heck is going on?”
“You want me to leave?” Jack asked, pointing to himself.
“No. Stay.” Keith smiled at Jack sweetly. He didn’t mind staring at him for a while longer. The man was gorgeous, and built like a damn pro-body builder.
Carl relaxed on the stool next to Keith as Jack leaned against the counter.
“We had a chastising from the producer and co-producer of the show,” Keith said, sipping the drink. “Mm. Good one!”
“Thanks,” Adam accepted the compliment. “What did they say, Keith?”
“Well, they were very upset at the tabloid photos of me and Carl with the models Jeff Palmer set us up with. They pretty much told Carl and I that we were going to ruin the ratings if we didn’t keep our sexual preference ambiguous.”
Adam shook his head sadly. “Typical. Thinking of themselves.”
“I don’t know about that, Adam.” Carl set his drink down on the counter. “If the show can run for almost a decade, then it’s easy money for me and Keith. We don’t want the series to end prematurely.”
“What a choice.” Jack dragged one of the chairs from the kitchen table over to sit on.
Keith lost himself momentarily on Jack’s massive biceps and forearms before he shook himself back to the conversation. “Yes. Anyway, they pretty much said we can’t keep up the charade. And to be honest, Adam? Carl and I hated it. It felt very wrong.”
“Okay.” Adam shrugged. “Don’t do it again.”
“But,” Carl asked like a complete statement.
“But?” Adam responded. “Take the chance.”
“I want to come out, Adam.” Keith wiped the margarita off his lips with his index finger. “I want to be free to dance at gay nightclubs. To support the gay community.”
Keith caught Adam glance at Carl for his opinion.