Page 95 of Out of the Gold

“Hey there, Doc.”

“Mark! Surprised to see you here, dude.” I shake his hand and make my way to an elliptical.

“Yeah, figured I should do something to eradicate last night’s debauchery.”

I chuckle as I start on the machine. “How was the yacht?”

“It was fucking amazing. Too much to eat and drink. The pasta!” He rubs his belly before hitting the weight bench. “Only thing that sucked was Sophia wasn’t there. And where were you? I thought you were going to go?”

“My sister showed up unexpectedly, so I went out to dinner with her.” I keep the rest of my night to myself, honoring Melody’s wishes.

“Sweet.”

He does his reps while the incline pushes me harder. Deciding twenty minutes of cardio is enough for today, I do the cool down and head toward the pull-up bar. Mark’s now at the rower.

“You didn’t happen to see Sophia while you were out, did you?”

I shake my head.

“I don’t know what it is about her, but she has all my attention. I turned down a couple of women last night. What’s wrong with me?”

Resting between sets, I reply, “Sounds like you got it bad.”

“It’s probably because she’s been dissing me. If she deigned to talk with me, I’d be on to another woman by now.”

Hand on the bar, I reply, “I don’t know. She might be the one for you.” I begin this round while stifled outrage comes from the rower.

“And what would you know about finding ‘the one’?” He heads over to some boxes and jumps.

Dropping from the bar, I consider my words carefully. I know a ton about it now, all because of Goldie. “Oh, I don’t know, Mark. Seems to me it happens when you least expect it.” I shrug. “From what I’ve observed, you know.”

He huffs, and not simply from exertion. “Whatever. Are you ready for today’s shoot?”

In between exercising, we discuss the upcoming scene and make a few minor changes to our approaches. We’re starting to film the movie’s climax, where I’m going to manipulate his DNA so it attacks itself and kills Mr. A. We’re both more than eager to wrap up and get back to our real lives.

I clap his back. “I’ll see you on set. Need to go shower and get over to my trailer for costuming.”

He smirks. “Put in a good word with Melody for me. She’s Sophia’s best friend and the only shot I have at getting to her.”

“I’ll try.”

Returning to my room, I shower and dress in record time. Soon, I’m in my trailer grabbing a specialty water. The door opens and a grin crosses my face to welcome my dresser. A brunette walks in instead of the gold I was expecting.

“Lindsay,” falls out of my mouth.

“Hey there. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with you today before I have to head back to Switzerland bright and early tomorrow morning.”

Tamping down my disappointment that Melody isn’t here, I invite my sister in and offer her a water. She holds up her coffee cup.

“So, this is where you’re transformed into Doctor Manipul8?”

“Yeah. Melody does a great job, even if it takes two hours to get me into the suit.”

“Two hours is a crazy-long time.” She wanders around the trailer, touching the bottom half of the costume draped over a chair. “It seems weird that they couldn’t have made the leggings like normal pants. No one else I know ever has to get their pants sewn on them.”

I chuckle at her words, which resemble my initial griping. “I know what you mean. But these fit me like second skin yet don’t look like women’s tights.”

She smiles. “I guess there’s something to be said for that.” She wanders to the back and opens the closet door where the bodysuit part hangs. She takes out the hanger. “This is some fine workmanship, Charles.”

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