Page 81 of Kissing Games
‘I do, Caro. For the first time in years, I’m being truthful to myself and to you. I should never have got back with you after you married Gareth. I did the wrong thing. But now I’m doing the right thing. And I’m choosing to be happy.’
He heard her huff. ‘You’ll be back,’ she said, her voice hard. ‘You’ll be begging for me to take you back.’
She ended the call and Charlie stared at the screen. He blocked her numbers, her email, and deleted her as a contact. He closed his eyes, exhausted. But he didn’t feel relief. Just emptiness. He dialled Mack and left a message.
‘Hi, mate, it’s me, your favourite dickhead. Just giving you a heads-up. Caroline wants to get back with me. I finally grew a pair and ended it for good. I’ve blocked her number, so if she calls you with some bullshit about getting in touch with me, don’t tell her where I am. I’ve also spoken to Tab and started building bridges. Yeah, I know, I’ve had a personality transplant. Anyway, I’m done here in a few days and want some work to take my mind off the misery that is my shitty life. Don’t care what. Don’t care where. Cheers, mate. Speak soon.’
He then rang his sister and left a message, letting her know what had just happened. Telling Mack, telling Tabbie, made it more real. It helped draw the line under his life with Caroline. He turned his phone off and headed back to the castle. He wasn’t going to harass Valentina to try and make her see his point of view. He was going to respect her wishes and leave her alone. She had enough to deal with. Right now he wanted to puke out all the pain in his guts. He didn’t know whether to achieve this by drinking a bottle of whisky or by punishing himself in the gym.
Either way, he wanted it to hurt.
The gymin the castle basement was empty. Five minutes into his warm-up, he heard footsteps outside and tensed.
Valentina?
Brad Bauer strode in with his assistant, Crystal.
‘Hey, man!’ said Brad excitedly.
As Brad pumped his hand up and down, Charlie bit back a sigh. This level of positivity was not what he wanted. Or any form of interaction with another human.
‘Wanna work out together? My trainer ate dinner with His Holiness last night and now he’s sick. Can you spot for me?’
Charlie shrugged. ‘Yeah sure, no worries.’
He had nothing else to do and lacked the motivation to feel pissed off just because he didn’t like a film Brad made years ago. Right now he wanted to move on from everything in the past, and that included disliking Brad for no good reason. As they started training together, Charlie’s mood lifted. Brad was the most enthusiastic man he’d ever met. He was like a puppy that had accidentally eaten a bag of ecstasy and amphetamines. He bounded from exercise to exercise, always wanting to do more, slapping Charlie on the back and whooping. When Charlie suggested improvements to his form, he lapped it up, listening intently and taking it to heart. He may have been a Hollywood pretty boy, but he knew how to work hard.
After an hour, both men were sweating and pumped, and for a few brief seconds of intense pain during each set, Charlie’s mind was free of Valentina. Crystal had left them to it at the beginning but returned with an enormous camera, which she handed to Brad.
‘Sweet. Thanks, babe.’ Brad turned to Charlie, who was leaning on a rack, breathing heavily. ‘Man, your physique is sick. Can I get some shots?’
What the fuck?
Brad put the camera to his face and snapped away. ‘Yeah, that’s the look. Perfect!’
Crystal gave Charlie an enthusiastic thumbs up.
‘What do you want me to do?’ Charlie asked, feeling awkward and no longer at home in his own body.
‘Just be yourself, man,’ Brad replied over the sound of the camera shutter firing off like a machine gun.
‘That never ends well,’ he mumbled.
Brad laughed. ‘You’re funny. Don’t sweat it. The Bradster’s here. I got you.’ He moved him like a mannequin. ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s it. Sweet!’
Charlie gave up any hope of resistance and entered the twilight zone of Brad Bauer’s flow state. Within twenty minutes, the lighting in the gym had been tweaked and Charlie was topless with his shorts pulled dangerously low.
‘Man, that dragon,’ whistled Brad. ‘I gotta get me one of those.’
Brad paused, looking off into the middle distance, as if having a petit mal. Crystal whipped out her phone and held it to his mouth. ‘Fight ClubmeetsEnter the Dragon. Jerry on script development, Pam on co-prod with the Chinese. Schedule meeting to discuss in ten days.’
Brad blinked, then turned back to Charlie with a grin. ‘Okay, man, look at me like you wanna rip my guts out.’
Charlie’s jaw tensed. Given the right circumstances, this acting lark was easy.
When Brad finished photographingevery inch of Charlie’s body not covered by clothes, he clapped him on the back with a final ‘whoop!’ and they went their separate ways.
Charlie paused on his way past Valentina’s room but didn’t knock. He showered and went to the catering truck, hoping to catch a glimpse of her there. Even if she wouldn’t talk to him, he wanted to see her, to know if she was okay. Shauna was ahead of him in the queue and left with two plates covered in foil. Was one for Valentina? His chest felt so empty. His heart yearned not only for Valentina, but what she’d brought to his life. He’d been the best version of himself when he was with her. It wasn’t even that he was being someone different. With her, he could be the real Charlie, the one usually hidden away under layers of anger and pain.
