“I can’t either. Lie down, I got you something.” Andy waited for Victor to arrange himself face-down on the bed, then laid the already-warm electric heating pad on his husband’s back. He listened to the whimper of pleasure and got to work massaging Victor’s legs. “You were fantastic. Truly, truly great.”
“Did you get video?”
“Yes I did, and some bitchin’ stills. You want Molly?”
“So much.”
“Hop on up, Molly. There you go, good girl.” The dog lay down next to Victor. He draped an arm over her back. “I can’t believe those fuckers made you do it three times.”
“I can’t either. What’s for dinner?”
“A very antioxidant super greens salad with filet Oscar and as much red wine as you want.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” He leaned over to kiss one of those bare legs. “Let me know if the heat is too much.”
“Mmm.” Victor fell asleep almost instantly. Andy turned the heating pad off after fifteen minutes and sat beside him, checking email and catching up with people, until Victor stirred again.
Andy heard the sounds of imminent dinner in the hall. “Good timing, catnip.”
Chapter 9
August 2019
The night the shoot wrapped went very late. Not because filming ran long, but because there was an epic wrap party. The scenes in the Catskills were all in the first third of the movie – they’d essentially been filming the thing backward – and the tone had gotten progressively lighter and sillier.
Jonathan’s character had met the woman who played his love interest in the Poconos and Niagara, whom he’d had to rescue in Michigan as part of the big dramatic climax. Loretta and Victor’s characters had established the relationship they’d started in the previous movie, complete with love scenes, misunderstandings, and a low-voiced but operatic Spanish-language argument out on the dock. Two of the bad guys had been dealt with, three more had gotten away to create mayhem later in the story. All five of those actors were still on location the last day, though all of the extras had been released. Somebody put on some music, and nobody shut them down. Andy and Victor sneaked out at about two in the morning.
“That,” Victor said when they were back in their room, “was fun. If they never do another one that’ll be great for all of us to look back on.”
“You don’t think they will?” Andy was doing the bare minimum of tidying-up. They weren’t checking out the next day. The security guy had walked Molly and she was on the couch, half-snoozing. “You know this thing is going to make money.” The first two certainly had. Andy kind of hoped they would do another one. This one was the first that would have Victor’s name above the title with Jonathan’s. And about a million times as many people would see this as had seen ‘The Ghost of Carlos Gardel.’
“Yeah, it’ll make money. You never know.” The co-stars hadn’t tried putting together a new treatment this time, or maybe it was more accurate to say ‘yet.’ Jonathan already had a contract for something that started the following March, Victor had his thing starting in July. “It couldn’t start filming until eighteen months from now, earliest.”
“It’ll take them that long to develop a script.” They were washed up now.
The rum was long gone. Andy went to the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the balcony, listening to the sounds of the Eastern forest. “It’s nice out here.”
“Yeah, it is.” Victor stood by the bed for a moment, looking at his husband’s naked back and those long bare legs. He should have been too tired to be thinking what he was thinking. But they didn’t have to get up early, or at all. “I’m so glad you could be here.”
“Me too.” He was also glad when Victor came up behind him, put his arms around Andy, and kissed the back of his neck. Andy wrapped his arms over Victor’s. “I’m still trying to get my head around you not working for eleven months.”
“Me too. I’ve never not worked for that long.”
“Me neither.” Andy turned his head for a kiss. “We’re still going to be busy as hell.” Victor laughed under his breath. They did have a lot of stuff in the works. “We’re taking Loretta home with us, right?”
“Yeah, I don’t like the sound of that ex of hers. I wonder if Jonathan would like to hang out a little. Maybe we should try to do another treatment.”
“You totally should. You know he’s going to be in town. He said Jenny was working on a series now, they’re going to want some time together till he’s off on location again.” Andy turned to face Victor, going for a long hug.
Soon there would be kisses, but right now he wanted the hug.
“How are you doing, baby.” It was quiet.
A sigh. “I get the emails from Mom and it’s always this jolt. This, not exactly a surprise, just oh yeah, Pop’s not there anymore. She’ll never be telling me what he said or what he did. Once in a while there’s a hint. Like, I went this place your father used to go, I saw his friend so-and-so, we had a good talk. I don’t know how she does it.”
“It was that way for me, for a while. Tía Susana would write to me and there was nothing about Mama and I’d be like why, and then I’d remember.”
They were quiet for a minute. “I hope we make it for fifty-four years.”
“I would literally be one hundred years old.”
“So?” Victor leaned back a little to smile at Andy. “It’s a nice round number.” Andy was gazing at him with something like sadness. Victor’s smile faded. “I know. We’ll never have enough time. Infinity wouldn’t be enough time. I’m sorry I ever wasted a second
