“Probably ‘Besos,’ don’t you think?” Victor seemed to agree. “So you don’t mind if I run this by him?”
“No, I don’t mind. These are great.” He stifled a yawn. “Not bored. Only tired.”
“Get ready for bed, sweetness. I’ll tidy this up.” Andy leaned in for a quick kiss, then got off the bed to organize the room-service stuff. He shut down the laptop before opening the room door.
Andy spent most of the next day working on the photo essay. It was late in the afternoon before he remembered the Shakespeare idea. They were mostly packed for the next day’s move to the Catskills, and Victor was getting a massage. “So what did you do today,” he said after he was face-up on the table.
“Worked on those photos for quite a while. Dug around on Open Source Shakespeare in ‘Merchant of Venice.’ I think I may have our characters.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Antonio and Bassanio.” Victor made an interested sound. “There are words of love but there’s also this heavy subtext. Antonio is willing to ruin himself for Bassanio. A lot is implied.”
“Yeah, it is. You have the line? Or is it more than one?”
Andy referred to his notes. “A couple jumped right out at me. Bassanio,
‘from your love I have a warranty.’ And Antonio, in the same scene, it’s ‘do but say to me what I should do,’ like God, anything for you. Which is basically how I feel about you.” Victor laughed under his breath. The massage therapist did a good job of pretending not to listen. “But there’s also
Bassanio doing the lady and the tiger thing with Portia, ‘my blood speaks to you in my veins.” Victor made a yummy sound. “Then in the big quality of mercy scene Antonio goes ‘say how I loved you, speak me fair in death.’ I kind of like those better.”
“I do too. Do you know how you want to stage them?” Victor already had an idea. “If people know the play they’ll be all wait, what? But I think Bassanio making some passionate approach and Antonio kind of oh my God, is this for real, is he talking to me.”
“In other words, exactly how it was at the beginning.” Andy’s voice was dry. Victor laughed. “Okay, great. I’m sure you can think of some tragic scene for the Antonio line.”
“We need a third person, someone to be Shylock with the dagger. You with your chest bare. Me kneeling, our hands clasped, this desperate kind of eye contact. Like, if this is our last moment, please see how much I love you.”
“God, you guys,” said the massage therapist. She sounded so distraught that both men laughed. “You’re making me cry. You need to stop talking about this,” she told Victor. “Till I’m done.”
“Sorry.” Andy leaned over to kiss him. “I’ll go take Molly out.”
There were a lot of extras to wrangle for the Catskills part of the shoot, and more than a dozen supporting actors. Victor and Loretta had multiple scenes to shoot together, Jonathan was in the mix, and before long all of them were thinking they would never get done in time. The whole setup was so entertaining they didn’t really care. “If we have to stay another week to wrap this thing, are you going to be able to hang out?” Victor asked, about four days in.
Andy looked up, surprised. “If I was frowning it wasn’t because I’m ready to go. It was because my Botox is wearing off.” Victor laughed.
“Reggie is, quote, gagging for it. He wants that photo essay and he wants it now. I told him I’d do the interview as soon as I’m done with that. I’ve been in touch with a bunch of our potential subjects for the Shakespeare thing.
Tanith is pestering me. I have too much to do right here, once we’re home it’s going to be like we kicked open an anthill.” He swallowed some wine.
“What’s Tanith pestering you about?”
“Her big dance concert. She’s been working with Alison on this noir nightclub thing. Everybody is in it. Apparently Tina, the second camera person from the movie?” Victor nodded. “She started drawing this graphic novel and Tanith wrote the script, and a couple of the characters are based on us. Well, the look is based on us. Tanith says this concert is like a staging of musical scenes inspired by the graphic novel, but there might be a movie in it. So she really wants us to see it live on stage if possible.”
“Well, there’s no way this nonsense will go three extra weeks. Go ahead and get us some tickets to closing night and then you can tell her we’ll be there.” Victor finished his dinner and sat back. “Based on us, huh.”
“Yeah, but we’re bad guys. Like, really bad guys, and we get killed early on. She said it’s ‘Dick Tracy’ meets ‘From Dusk Till Dawn.’ And the cherry on top is, Vicky kills us.” Victor laughed again. “She’s Santanico Breathless Pandemonium Mahoney. Except of course she will not be singing in the movie.” Victor cracked up. Vicky had many talents, but singing was not among them. Andy finished his wine, grinning. “I cannot fucking wait to see this book.”
“Jeez, me neither. The one she had out last year was gorgeous. What’s the latest from your mom?”
“She’s pretty well settled in. A couple of her friends live close by, they get together. She’s meeting people. You think we could go out there for Christmas? And then I could go back in April for her birthday.”
“Sure, of course.” Victor had a thought.
Andy read his mind again. “After our Broadway thing.”
“It’s about time we decided what we’re going to do for that, isn’t it?”
“Plenty of time, catnip. Let’s focus on these two dances for the Cabaret, and getting your movie done. When is the big dance scene?”
“Tuesday. She really, really wants
