Role of a Lifetime
By: Kenneth Kirk
(© 2021 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

kkirk@tickiestories.us

Chapter 14

That first night in the lakeside cabin, I slept like a newborn.  When I awoke, I felt as fresh and renewed as Spring.  I was happy – exhilerated.  After some stretching, 100 sit-ups, and 100 push-ups, I luxuriated in a hot shower for longer than necessary.  I dried myself and went onto my balcony to greet the morning.

The air was chilly, but the sun held the promise of warmth and happiness.  While I was enjoying the morning view of the lake and the mountains, Brant stepped onto his balcony a few yards away.  He glanced toward me and giggled when he saw me.

“Gorgeous morning to you,” I said.

He wiggled his eyebrows at me.  “It’s starting off quite gorgeous, I would say!”

“I think you have a one-track mind.”

“Perhaps, but I think you bear the responsibility for it.”

“Just bringing out your true nature.”

He laughed.  “Get some clothes on.  It’s time for breakfast!”

“And coffee!” I yelled as I wiggled my butt at him and went back into my room.

Five minutes later we met in our living room for a couple of energetic good-morning kisses, then went next door.

Gianni had a full pot of coffee ready with a stack of mugs on a tray and all the trimmings, so we were placated for the lack of coffee in our quarters.  David greeted us as he poured over his laptop while awaiting breakfast.  Tammy popped down the stairs before we had our coffee doctored to our liking and the room became a little noisier with the kitchen sounds and our conversation. 

Gianni produced a platter loaded with pork sausage patties and pan-fried steamed potatoes to accompany a smooth cheesy egg souffle that was heavenly.  We also had homemade biscuits with honey and various jams to round out the meal.  Over breakfast Brant and I shared a bit about the beauty of the nighttime sky and encouraged everyone to get out to see it tonight.

After breakfast, we cleared the table and refilled our coffee while Gianni set about cleaning up the kitchen.

David, Tammy, Brant, and I moved into the living room where we sprawled on the couches and overstuffed chairs to begin our discussion of the plans for the day/week.  This morning, we would simply do a table read of the scenes we would film on location before taking a tour of the set (the cabin Marty and Aaron are staying in during the movie), which is half a mile further on the dirt road.  Wednesday through Saturday, we will go to the set and block out the scenes to be filmed there.  David and Tammy will spend some time prowling around nearby wooded areas to look for spots for the outside scenes.  By next Tuesday, the goal is for us to have identified the wooded sites we will use and have blocked out all 32 scenes.

Our first scene will be filmed Tuesday evening and it will be a romantic scene leading up to sex.  Brant was thrilled and, if I am truthful, so was I.  Tuesday morning will be taken up with transporting equipment to the set and getting everything in tip-top shape for filming to begin.  Brant and I will have all day to rest and rehearse so we are ready for filming after sunset.

We finished this meeting at 9:30, just as Gianni took his mid-morning break.  We got fresh coffee and moved to the dining room table for our table read, which was actually two read-throughs of all the scenes.  The script writer, Harold Gillespie, joined us via Zoom (I guess the cabins aren’t as remote as they look) so he could determine where the dialogue might need some rewrites.  It was exciting to hear the lines spoken aloud by Brant and me as we tried to add some feeling to the words.  Although a couple of spots seemed a little clunky, all in all, the scenes flowed naturally and felt believable and emotionally honest to all of us.  The script gives us a lot to work with, so we’d better not screw it up!

After our table read, Brant and I checked our email while Harold, David, and Tammy caucused on the Zoom call and Gianni began quietly preparing lunch.  I sent an email to Mom and Dad to let them know we’d arrived safely and to tell them how lovely the place is.  I responded to emails from Andrew, who is beside himself with jealousy that I am spending 2 months in a remote cabin with his idol Brant Kimber, and from my agent Joan Hawkins, who was just checking in to make sure my needs were being met on set.  I giggled as I thought that some of my most critical needs had not yet been met, but that I expect that to happen soon.

After Gianni’s Cream of Broccoli Supreme soup and Summer Supreme salad, I realized I need to be careful how much I eat as there will be nothing hiding any fat that develops over the next two months.  Once the table was cleared, Gianni met with Brant and then me for about 10 minutes each to create a list of our culinary likes and dislikes so he could personalize the menus to appeal to us.  What a thoughtful and caring dude he is!  Staring at the beautiful chef across the table as he questioned me and recorded my answers, I realized I might be falling in love with Brant, but that didn’t affect my appreciation for other sexy men.

The half-mile drive down the primitive road took at least 5 minutes and shook our bones severely a time or two.  The cabin we would use as our set was what you might call shabby-chic, but it was in a lovely clearing and was perched just above the lake with the front porch only 20 feet from the low cliff face.  In addition to the porch, the cabin had one bedroom, a front room with couch and a couple of chairs, a small but decent kitchen, and a minimal bathroom opening off the kitchen and living room.  Connected to one side of the house was a storage room accessible only from outside.  I guessed the cabin was about 600 square feet altogether and was probably built in the 1940’s.

David and Tammy snapped a lot of pictures while Brant and I wandered around the property, finally sitting on the ground above the cliff to enjoy the lake view.  We decided this would be a perfect spot for one of the outdoor sex scenes.

Back at the headquarters cabin, we debriefed about the layout and condition of the remote cabin, which David felt was perfect for the plot.  “We’ll add a couple of lines to the script to show that you guys aren’t impressed with it, but it will work well for our needs.”

Gianni served us parmesian-crusted Tilapia, rosemary potatoes, green beans Italiano, and a side salad of summer greens with apple compote for dessert.  Aloud, I vowed to my compatriots that I would be jogging each morning at 6:30 beginning the next day.  After dinner, everyone joined Brant and me to walk to the pier to check out the night.  They all agreed it was a stupendous way to end the day and should not be missed.  Brant and I finished our bottle of Riesling on my balcony before coming back inside.  I could tell from the log in his pants when we kissed goodnight that he was finding our commitment to be celebate except on set a bit challenging.  In all fairness, I was finding it a challenge, too.  I couldn’t help but remember how good Brant’s log felt buried in my fireplace a couple of weeks earlier.  Although only a week away, our first planned scene seemed a very long time to come.

Brant and I started jogging the next day.  Tammy joined us for about half the distance and then returned on her own.  We took the road back toward the highway and then found some trails through the woods, but thought they were a little trecherous with roots across at random points and occassional washed out places and unexpected rocks.  After that day, we went all the way to the highway and then ran alongside the road for a couple of miles before returning.  So early in the morning, the highway had very sparse traffic.  After the first day, we moved our start time to 6:00 so we could get a better workout before breakfast. 

Brant and I demanded a set of weights be provided so we could maintain our physiques for such revealing roles.  A premium set of barbells arrived on Thursday with Gianni’s first resupply delivery.  We put them on the back porch of the main cabin so anyone could use them.  We would take them down a few steps to a concrete patio when we did our workouts.  They had also included a bench so we could do bench presses, too.  It wasn’t Gold’s Gym or even LA Fitness, but it was adequate to keep us toned and pumped.

 Some of the camera and sound equipment also arrived and was taken directly to the remote cabin.  So far I was impressed with the efficiency of the studio in moving people, equipment, and supplies to a pretty remote location.

Even in such a pristine and natural place, we quickly developed a fairly rigid urban-style daily schedule:

·                    6:15  Alarm

·                    6:30-7:30    Jogging

·                    7:30-8:00    Shower and dress

·                    8:00-8:30    Breakfast

·                    8:30-9:00    Staff meeting

·                    9:00-Noon  Rehearsal at Cabin

·                    Noon-12:30Lunch brought to the Cabin by Tammy

·                    12:30-4:00  Rehearsal at Cabin

·                    4:00-5:00    Workout with weights

·                    5:00-5:30    Shower and dress

·                    5:30-6:30    Free time; Emails, reading, sit by the water

·                    6:30-7:00    Cocktails in the living room

·                    7:00-8:00    Dinner

·                    8:00-10:00  Free time; nightly walk by the lake, usually wine on the balcony, sometimes poker or another card game

·                    10:00          Bedtime

Once filming began, most time shown above as rehearsal time became filming.  The schedule changed significantly when we had evening filming or early morning filming (rarely).  Brant and I had plenty of time to maintain our physiques in spite of Gianni’s spectacular cooking.  There was time to hang out a bit with others and also for Brant and me to continue our almost nightly romantic walks by the lake and talks on the balcony.

It was real life for us, but I knew it was not normal reality, which made me appreciate it all the more.

We all welcomed the crew that arrived late Monday afternoon to provide the expertise that would allow us to begin filming.  I was particularly pleased to see Rachoud back.  His often wicked sense of humor was a welcome addition to our little tribe in the woods.

The crew brought a ton of equipment with them and more arrived in the panel truck that replenished our food supply that day, too.  All the time we were on location, two burly guys would do the delivery, usually arriving around 4 in the afternoon each Monday and Thursday.  They would unload the truck and sometimes nap for a bit on the pier before dinner.  Gianni included them in the dinner, but they were not able to join us inside since they were not in our quarantine bubble.  We had to all mask up when they were nearby, but most of the time they were separated rather naturally from the others on the crew.  Usually they had dinner at a table on the back porch of the big cabin.  Brant and I laughed about how romantic it was for the two delivery guys to eat on the porch overlooking the lake as the twilight deepened into night.  I doubt any of them thought of romance on those evenings, but it created a cute fantasy for me.  The guys would leave quickly after supper to drive down the mountain an hour and a half to Redding where they had a standing motel room on Mondays and Thursdays.  Oooh, that could be the plot of a good story on TickieStories.com!

Saturday nights, Gianni prepared a high-end meal such as steaks prepared on the grill or lobster or chicken kiev or rack of lamb.  Tammy or Rita would assist on these feast days.  After dinner, we would usually gather in the living room to screen a new movie or one of our own such as Royal Sex Wars.  Brant hated watching himself with such an audience, but of course, he loved the good-natured ribbing and the screams from the girls when he took off his shirt.

“Not that you haven’t all seen me shirtless before,” Brant commented.

“But never often enough!” Tammy added quickly.

Sunday was our day off.  Mostly, people hung out alone or in small groups except for meals.  Sunday night was Gianni’s time off, but we would gather in the kitchen to make sandwiches or clean out any leftovers in the fridge.  The funny thing was that Gianni was right there with us, but a stranger would not have guessed he was the chef; he was just one of the gang.  I liked this time with him when he was not in his assigned role.  He was a peach of a guy and one I could imagine being friends with in the big world, regardless of his sexual preference, which none of us had yet deduced. 

The entire crew was aware, of course, that the movie plot was highly sexual and that Brant and I were naked and sexual together a lot.  They’d all signed non-disclosure agreements and had probably been briefed that we were performing our sex scenes using strong method acting.  It was strange because I never felt at all uncomfortable or exposed about it.  We were often treated like a couple by just about everyone, which was cool.  We were often observed by someone as we held hands or even kissed.

During the second week of filming, I began noticing that young Cole (the sound technician) and Valerie (the prop girl) were starting to spend some time alone together.  A couple of times Brant and I ran into them walking by the pier or saw them sitting on the porch of the far cabin together.  Within a week or so, it was obvious that Cole was very smitten by the beautiful Valerie, although she didn’t seem quite as enthusiastic for him.  Time will tell, I thought.

Seeing Valerie and Cole together reminded me that the two people in any relationship do not love each other with the same depth or intensity.  One always loves more, one less.  I wondered about Brant and me.  At first I assumed I would have to love him more since I really am attracted to guys.  But, sometimes he said such penetratingly tender and loving things, I couldn’t be sure.

On Monday night when the crew arrived, Brant reminded me that we would be filming the first sex scene in about 24 hours.  Oh, fuck, was I looking forward to that!

To be continued...

Posted: 09/17/2021