Star drowned out the three men, pulled out his cell phone, and opened the search engine, ignoring the fact that it seemed to have a weird name. He typed in Anubis Ahket. Just as the man's name and picture popped up, but before he could read any of the information cited, Tanner touched his arm, startling him.
“Star.”
“What's up?” he said, looking away from his phone, noticing how flushed his friend's face was.
What the hell happened in a couple of seconds?
“Um...I promised to spend time with you, but I miss sleeping between my guys. So you don't mind if I...”
Star put a hand up, stopping anything he had to say. “It's all good.” He smiled. He was about to say they could drop him off, but from how the two other men pawed at Tanner, he knew he was standing in the way of his friend having a fantastic night. “I can take a cab back to your place.”
Tanner beamed. “Thanks, dude. You are the best.”
Star nodded. “It's no problem. I just...I, uh...I need the key to your place.”
“Oh, sure.” He reached into his pockets and pulled out his keys, placing them in front of Star. “I'll call you tomorrow to meet up and tour the lots during my lunch break.”
Less than twenty minutes later, Star said goodbye to his friend and his lovers. Then, since he wasn't ready to return to the apartment alone, he walked around briefly. He noticed he wasn't far from the partially built bridge he'd seen earlier, so he headed in that direction, ready to take in more of the city alone.
* * *
“So you gotAzazel to cancel the deal he and I made?”
Anubis heard what Sobek said, but he didn't respond. For the life of him, Anubis's thoughts were occupied. Earlier, when he and Sobek walked into De la Lune Noire, the best French restaurant in the city, he felt intensely unfamiliar eyes on him.
Anubis knew he was good-looking, so he was constantly being gawked at, but those eyes felt different, and he could not find the words to explain it. But when he scanned the restaurant, no one called out to Anubis, and he wondered if he was imagining things. However, he recalled how his eyes stayed on the most magnificent creature he'd ever seen in all his lifetimes—fair complexion with striking red-orange hair that would be hard to miss in any crowd.
Unfortunately, the beauty had their head down, because Anubis wanted to see how expressive their eyes were. Anubis had noticed that the beauty was sitting at the same table as Tanner, Azazel's assistant, and was about to go over and speak to him so that he could get a better look at the one that caught his eye. However, Sobek had pulled him away in need to fill his belly.
“Anubis.”
He looked up when Sobek called his name once again. “What?”
Sobek furrowed his brows. “What's on your mind? You seem distracted and didn't hear my question.”
“Don't mind me. I was thinking about one of the three scripts Azazel gave me.” He leaned back in his chair, cleaning the corners of his mouth with a cloth napkin before putting it on his half-eaten meal. The server came over immediately and removed his dish, replacing it with a warm cloth to clean his hands.
“Really?” Sobek sat back in his chair, called for the server to take his unfinished meal away, and was given a warm cloth. “Tell me about it.”
Anubis waved his left hand, enacting a magical barrier around him and Sobek so that their conversation remained private. “An FBI agent has a one-night stand with a doctor who gets pregnant. It's a simple setup, but I see this as a crime TV series rather than a movie, with the couple getting into many coincidental hijinks and solving mysteries. I'm thinking of directing and acting in it.”
“Will this be your acting debut?”
“I’ve acted before, Bek. But I have something else in mind.” Anubis planned on waiting until the witching hour when most of Valleywood's residents were asleep and the magic was at its strongest to cast his spell. The name Michael Schultz would disappear overnight. Anubis planned on inserting a few more suggestions, with clips of him acting in a couple of television shows he directed, just to give a face to the name Anubis Ahket.
“What's your plan?” Sobek asked.
“For now, stick mostly to television and stage.”
“So, you won't direct movies anymore?”
“Of course, I will. But for now, I need to keep my name out there. I know I could just come out and tell the world I'm Michael, but I'd rather not answer questions. I’ve worked on too many projects and cultivated friendships with that name, not only with people in the industry but with fans who grew to love my work. The press and gossip blogs will have a field day trying to dig into every aspect of why I used a fake name all these years. I’m sure they’d find some way to pull Horus into this with some bullshit like I’m jealous of him. Fans will feel that I’ve lied to them all these years, and they would be right, so to avoid all of the craziness, I’ll use magic to fix the problem.”
“You’ve been thinking of doing this for a while, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, but you were one step ahead of me when you made your deal with Azazel.”
Sobek sighed. “When I spoke with Azazel, I didn’t think of some of the things you mentioned. You realize once you do this, everyone will know you own After Life and VikVok?”
