Chapter Twenty-Three
Ezra
“So, I see you barely have time to meet up with me anymore. Damn, Ezra. You get a new relationship, and you just forget about all of your old ones. Make new friends, but keep the old. I know you’ve heard that song before.”
I laughed at Jeff as we sat in the locker room, drinking our pre-workout shakes before we hit the gym for our 9 am training session. Two weeks had passed since I took Hannah on a surprise date to the set of the movie, and there was only one week left before filming began. I had spent the last week memorizing my script so that I could impress the director and help keep the ball rolling. Hannah said she was doing the same thing. I wanted both of us to knock this shit out so that the opportunities would keep rolling in. I didn’t want this to be our first and last rodeo together.
“Whatever, Jeff. I still got time for you, bro. You see I’m here right now, don’t you?”
“Yeah. For the first time in what? Almost three weeks? I can see you have still been coming in here because you haven’t lost any of your gains, but damn, brother. You’re about to start filming in another week, and shit, I know once that starts, your ass is going to be too busy to do anything.”
“Yeah, I know. Shit. Oh, and I didn’t tell you this, but we are shooting some of the movie in New Zealand in a month.”
He swallowed a swig of his drink. “New Zealand? No shit?”
“No shit.”
“Is that where you can like… smoke weed and shit in public and it’s legal?”
I laughed. “Nah, bro. That is Amsterdam. Amsterdam is where you can get blazed in public and not have to worry about the police fuckin’ with you.”
“Oh,” he took another drink. “Well, shit, we need to go there. You need to get cast in a movie in Amsterdam or some shit. I will take a fucking two-week vacation and go with your ass out there. Shit.”
“Shit, I would go out there and probably not even come back. I haven’t smoked weed in a while, but if I knew I could do it and get away with it, then I’d do it all the time.”
“I hear ya’.” He finished his drink. “Well, shit, these weights ain’t gonna lift themselves. Let’s get out there and get to it.”
I swallowed the last few drops. “Yeah, man. But, just give me a minute. I’ll be out there; I just need to make a phone call.”
“Hmm, let me guess. Hannah?”
I laughed. “Yeah, you know it.”
“You are one pussy-whipped man, you know that?” he said, chuckling.
“Yeah, I’m not even going to deny it.”
He walked out of the locker room as I placed my bottle in my locker and grabbed my phone. Hannah and I had been going over our script together for a while now, and I knew she was just as ready to get this movie going as I was. “Hello?”
“Hey, sexy. How are you doing?”
“I’m good,” she said softly. “Just laying down. I stayed up late last night reading through the script. I believe I just about got everything down. I’m still a lil’ nervous about the sex scenes though. With the cameras and things like that.”
“I told you, babe, you just can’t think about it. I know that’s what happened when we had sex in the mansion. You may have seen them while we were doing our thing, but you didn’t think about them. It will be the same way on set. Trust me.”
“Yeah,” she said, hesitantly. “Yeah, that is what I am hoping.”
“Hey, how about this? Let’s go to lunch tomorrow. I’ll take you out anywhere you want to go. Anywhere. McDonald’s. Wendy’s. Burger King. Wherever you want to go, baby. The world is yours.”
She laughed. “Oh gee, thanks. I’ve never had a guy just splurge on me like that. You think I can get my meal super-sized?”
“Baby, you can get it super-sized, double-sized, whatever size you want. You deserve it.”
“You are so silly, but all right. It’s a date. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon?”
“No question.”
“OK. Talk to you later.”
“Bye.”
Just as I hung up the phone, Jeff walked back into the locker room. “Goddamn it, man, are you done in here? I’ve warmed up three times already, and this pre-workout is kicking in hard. I’m ready to fucking run through a goddamned brick wall.”
I tossed my phone in my locker and shut the door. “All right, bro, stop your bitching. I’m ready.”
“Bitching, huh? Shit. I’m going to wear you out today, bro. You’re not going to fuck anything but your bed for the next few days. You can bet your ass on that one!” He draped his arm around my shoulder, and with that, we headed to the gym. He was right, though. By the time we left the gym, I could barely walk. As soon as I got home, I flopped onto the bed and didn’t move again for the next five hours.
My doorbell rang as I laid shirtless on my bed. My legs were like jelly, but at the thought of it being Hannah, I pushed myself up from my mattress and eased down the stairs, bracing the walls in the hallway for support. It rang impatiently a few more times on my way. “All right, all right, I’m comin’,” I said, inching closer to the door. When I opened it, she stood on the other side with one hand on her hip and her lips pursed together. The smile on my face faded away like makeup smeared from rain. “What do you want, Tanya?”
“Oh, it is good to see you too, Ezra.” Her eyes drifted to my chest for a moment, then she barged past me and invited herself into my home. “Where are your little whores at? I know they are in here.”
I spun around with my hand still on the door so she would know not to get comfortable. “What do you want, Tanya? And how the hell are you just going to invite yourself in like this is your place? At least give me the same respect I give you at your home.”
“Blah, blah, blah,” she said as she stood near the couch. “I am here to talk to you about the boys, that’s it. And you might want to put a shirt on. I’m not in the mood to look at random scratch marks from your whores, Ezra.”
I pushed the door shut and eased closer to her. “No,” I said with a smile. “I’m fine just the way I am. What is it about the boys that you need to talk to me about?”
She rolled her eyes and walked to the fireplace mantle. She looked at the pictures of our boys as if she had never seen them before. She smiled and then swiped the front of the picture frame for dust. She seemed annoyed there wasn’t anything clinging to her finger. “So, your whores are dusting for you, huh? I know you didn’t do it, Ezra. You didn’t dust shit when we lived together.”
“That’s because you were living there, so I didn’t give a fuck.”
“Oh, that’s cute, Ezra. Real cute.”
“Look, if you came over here for some petty ass shit, I don’t have time for it.” I put my hand on the door and just as I started to open it, she blurted out the reason she came by.
“All right, fine. Listen, I don’t know if I want the boys around you while you are shooting that pornographic movie. Tanner already tries to copy everything you do, so if he sees you fuckin’ around with that other bitch, then–”
“Are you kidding me, Tanya? Seriously? You think I would have him around that?”
“Well, I don’t know. You don’t seem to have the best judgment and I don’t want Tanner or Nolan exposed to anything like that at such a young age. So, while you are shooting this movie, I don’t want them around you. Besides, you won’t have time for them. Your attention will be elsewhere.”
“Oh, OK. Is that all you wanted to discuss?”
She looked towards me with her arms folded across her chest. “Yeah, that’s it.”
“OK. Well, you can get the fuck out now and, um, oh yeah, my answer is FUCK no.”
“What?”
“Tanya, I’m not about to cut my time short with them because of what you think will be going on. I love my boys, and I’m not going to have them exposed to anything they don’t need to see. At the same time, I’m not missing out on time that I am supposed to have with them. Did you take your medication today? Because it seems like you skipped your dosage.”
She shook her head. “You are something else, Ezra. I come over here trying to talk to you like an adult and help you see what is best for the boys, but you want to throw a bitch fit because I said that they should stay with me until you are done filming.”
“No, they don’t need to do that.” For the moment, it seemed that the jellylike feeling in my legs had faded away. I had my full strength, and as I spoke, my fingers balled into a fist. I would never lay a hand on her, but there were many times that she pushed me to my limit, and with my boys involved, that was very easy to do. “I know how to handle that, Tanya. This is not my first fucking movie, and with every movie I’ve shot, they have always been taken care of. Always. They love coming to the set, and I imagine that they will love this one even more.”
“What? Please. Do you think I am going to let my boys go with you on the set of a porno shoot?”
“It is not fucking porn!”
“Bullshit, Ezra! I’ve read the damned book! That shit is nothing but written pornography, and now you are about to make it visual pornography. No! I am not going to let you expose my boys to that. They will not follow in your whore-ish footsteps as long as I’m alive.”
“Look, Tanya,” I bridled my anger as my jawbones gyrated inside my mouth. I knew she just came over here to stir up some mess because of her jealousy. She knew that I had finally crossed over and landed a major movie deal and she wasn’t going to be by my side to experience the benefits. This was the only card she could play to get under my skin, and she knew it. More times than not, I knew it as well, but it didn’t matter. She was always able to push my buttons. I pulled the front door open. “We are done here. I am still coming to get my boys when it is my time, and if you think of pulling some bullshit, you better get your lawyer ready. That is all I am going to say.”
She stood quietly in the middle of the front room as the evening sun sent its last rays into the atmosphere. “You know, you can walk through this door now. Anytime.” I looked outside. “But I don’t see your broomstick anywhere around. Did you get a new one?”
She bumped me with her shoulder on her way out. “This won’t be our last conversation about this, Ezra. You can believe that.”
“Sure thing, Tanya. You have a good day and try not to fall off your broomstick. I would hate for you to fall to your death.” I smirked as she rolled her eyes and walked down my pathway to her car. I slammed the door shut, and instantly, the pain in my legs rushed back to my body. “Damn it,” I said, bracing my hand against the door. “I am going to fucking kill Jeff!”