Jake nodded. He took another look at the view outside, another scan of his instruments, and then looked back at Greg. “Mindy is very seductive,” he allowed. “Trust me, I know.”
“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you about this,” Greg said. “You have experience with her.”
“And she does give a hell of a blowjob,” he said, a strong hint of nostalgia in his tone.
“I have never had a better one,” Greg admitted.
“Did she put her fingers up your ass?”
“What?” Greg asked, appalled. “No! That’s disgusting! She didn’t do that to you, did she?”
“Uh ... no, of course not,” Jake said. “Anyway, she gave you a blowjob. That’s not so bad, is it? I mean, technically, it’s cheating, but...”
“That’s not all we did,” Greg said.
“It’s not?”
“No. The next night ... well ... she got me a little drunk again and we started talking about ... well ... about other things that Celia won’t let me do, and ... again, I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but I ended up ... you know ... performing anal sex with her.”
Jakes eyes widened almost comically. “You ass-fucked Mindy Snow?”
“I’d never done that to any woman before!” Greg cried, as if that was a valid defense. “I’ve always wanted to try it, and ... and ... she offered, and I was drunk, and so ... I did it.”
“Jesus, Greg,” Jake said.
“Didn’t you ever do that to her?” Greg asked.
“Of course I did,” Jake said. “Multiple times! Mindy takes it up the ass like a champ. She loved it! But I wasn’t married when I backdoored her. You were!”
“I know,” Greg said miserably. “And, in truth, it wasn’t even all that enjoyable. The friction was almost unpleasant. And the mess afterword...”
“I’m sure Celia will be happy to know you didn’t enjoy your Mindy Snow buttfuck all that much,” Jake told him.
“A valid point,” Greg allowed.
“Is that all?” Jake asked.
“No,” Greg said miserably. “There was one more incident.”
“You fucked her?”
He nodded. “On the last night,” he confirmed. “She came into my room and basically raped me.”
Jake raised his eyebrows again. “Raped you?”
“Perhaps a poor choice of words,” he said. “She was very aggressive—again, something that Celia does not typically do—and I responded. I allowed her to do it.”
“And that was the end of it?” Jake asked.
“That was the end of it,” he confirmed. “We’ve seen each other multiple times at the promos since then, but she hasn’t even been flirtatious with me. She’s back to being a staunch professional.”
“Interesting,” Jake said. “Usually when Mindy gets her hooks in someone, she doesn’t let go until she gets whatever she’s after.”
“Maybe having sex with me was what she was after?” Greg theorized.
“Maybe,” Jake said doubtfully. “But that’s not the Mindy I know.”
“Then what is her game?” Greg asked.
“Only Mindy knows that,” Jake said. “Did any of this happen in a place where she might have had a photographer stashed? Her friend Paul Peterson, perhaps?”
“No,” Greg said. “All three times it was in my hotel room. Unless she somehow managed to get him into my suite ahead of time...”
“I wouldn’t put anything past her,” Jake said, “but if getting blackmail pictures was her game, I would think she would have just had you come to her room instead. You would have gone there, wouldn’t you?”
“Probably,” Greg admitted.
“It must be something else then. Or maybe you’re right and she just wanted to bone you. She does have quite the sexual appetite and you are a good-looking guy.” He shrugged. “It still seems too simple though.”
“I truly hope this ordeal is over and done with,” Greg said.
“For your sake, I hope you’re right. Tell me though; why did you feel the need to tell me all this?”
“Because I needed to talk to someone,” Greg said miserably. “This is eating me alive.”
“And you know that Celia would not tolerate another incident of this sort,” Jake said. “Particularly not with Mindy Snow, the puta of all putas.”
“That’s part of it as well.”
“How do you manage to keep Celia from knowing about this?” Jake asked. “She is of the opinion—and I would have agreed with her until just now—that you would be incapable of hiding infidelity from her, that your guilty conscious would give you away as easily as a signed and notarized confession.”
A miserable smile formed on Greg’s face. “That’s the irony of all this,” he said. “Mindy herself taught me how to conceal it from Celia. She reminded me that I’m an actor. All I have to do is act; put myself in the character of the Greg Oldfellow who has not had sex with Mindy Snow. So far, it seems to be working.”
“Mostly working,” Jake told him.
“What do you mean?”
“Celia knows something is off about you,” he said. “She’s mentioned it to me on several occasions and she even pins the start of it as when you returned from the cross-country premier trip.”
Greg’s eyes widened in alarm. “What did she say, exactly?” he demanded.
“She said, and I quote: ‘It’s almost like he’s playing a role for me, putting on a false face’.”
“Wow,” Greg whispered.
“In your favor, however, I did actually ask at one point is she thought that something might have happened between you and Mindy, and she thought the idea ridiculous, once again repeating her assurance that there is no way you could pull off a secret like that.”
“Thank God,” he said.
“I suppose,” Jake said, making a check of his instruments again. Everything remained exactly as it should. “What are you going to do now?”
“Now? I’m not going to do anything now. I just needed to get this off my chest. Like I said, it’s eating me up inside. Here I am, at what should be one of the best times of my life; I have a hit movie that’s blowing up the box offices and will undoubtedly be nominated for multiple Oscars next year and maybe even win a few; I have a beautiful wife who is making almost as much money as I am; yet I’m popping antacid pills like they’re going out of style and drinking far too much alcohol.”
“And did talking to me about this help any of that?” Jake asked.
“I don’t know,” Greg replied. “I think maybe it did, assuming you’re not going to tell Celia about this conversation.”
“The bro code prohibits me from doing that,” Jake said.
“The bro code?”
“The unspoken rules of male friendship,” Jake clarified. “We don’t rat each other out about stuff like this.”
“Oh ... I see,” he said. “The bro code. I like it.”
“That same bro code, however, also prohibits you from telling Celia that I know about you and Mindy if she should find out by some other means. Remember, I have to keep working with her for the foreseeable future.”
“I understand,” Greg said. “And I will comply.”
“Excellent,” Jake said.
Deer Valley Airport was a large, general aviation facility fifteen miles north of the Phoenix city limits. Jake had never been there before and was unaware that it was one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world, averaging more than a thousand takeoffs and landings every day. He found this out when he had to circle in the landing pattern for nearly thirty minutes before he was cleared to touch down on Runway 25R.
He was directed to a parking area nearly a half mile from the operations office. After tying down the Chancellor and making sure it was locked, Jake and Greg took their baggage in hand and made the hike. Fortunately, the weather was pleasant. Late November is one of the more pleasant times of the year in the Phoenix metropolitan area.