[Apologies: chapters 5 and 6 were published out of sequence - this was originally Ch. 05, so please check out the new Ch. 05 Just Business for the bit you may have missed.
Aidan's marriage has been shattered by his wife's cheating. Unable to cope with the thing she did, he boarded a plane and put as much distance between them as possible. He finds himself in Australia, making new friends in Sydney, including a pair of mates on a road trip around their vast, empty continent. He's also met Kat, sharing her bed, the first time in many years that he's been with a woman who isn't his wife. Now, he's working for Mara Fey, the Hollywood A-Lister and one of the most famous women on the planet. Meanwhile, Rosa had cut off all contact with him, leaving Aidan more lonely than ever.
The background to Aidan's story can be found in
Oxygen Games
by oneagainst, continued here with permission.]
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EXPOSURE
Aidan is scrolling through his messages in the back of the cab to Mara's place. She'd booked it for him, an expense he wouldn't have allowed himself. It's about spending time effectively, she had told him, using money to get more out of the day. Time itself has a cost.
Aidan's just happy to be getting paid on a regular basis, using the sessions with Mara to build up the bank account he's set up, to pay for a place on his own out of the backpacker hostel, somewhere modest that he can lock the door on a night and not have to deal with interruptions down the hallway after midnight. It also means that he's no longer dipping into his joint credit card with his wife.
He'd gone through the transactions last night, found himself scrolling through the entries looking for his payments. Instead, he had found himself piecing together traces of her life since he'd left: where she got coffee, where she went out, how often. Rosa would be able to do it too, tracking him. It hadn't taken Aidan posting the picture of Sydney Harbour at sunset, on the ferry with Kat, to tell his wife where he was. No, the finance trail had already been informing her in detail of his movements. Mara's weekly salary was at last freeing him of all that.
Ant had messaged again overnight. Aidan reads it and responds with a picture of himself on the sand at dawn after a run. Ant comes back straight away with a single line: 'Fuck off.' Aidan laughs to himself.
The next message is from Kat, giving him details of when she lands. They have been messaging consistently and as usual the latest is a statement of the facts: time and date and flight number. She's up from Melbourne for work, with a casual invitation to get together tomorrow tonight after she's done. Kat's keeping it light and easy, studiously not over-committing, leaving Aidan to read between the lines.
There's nothing from Rosa. It's been nearly a month since the disastrous phone call on the beach. Aidan looks at the two messages he's sent since saying that they need to talk, to no reply. Rosa is on radio silence after the outburst on the phone and it still rankles Aidan's guts that somehow she's found a way to justify blaming him. He has built up an image of his wife, seemingly living her best life in her social posts after moving on from the fact of her husband leaving her. The narrative is clear to him, that this is all on him for quitting. Seeing a picture of his wife's beautiful face up close in a post in her exercise top, smiling, felt like a stab in the heart. Aidan knows he has to get past this. It was always going to be hard: watching her from a distance, feeling those feelings but no longer with the right to do anything about it.
Aidan looks up and frowns.
"Hey, I think it was a right turn back there," he tells the driver.
"Not according to the booking," the driver replies.
"Uh, where are we going?"
"Palm Beach, sir. Isn't that where you wanted to go?"
It's odd, but Aidan shrugs. "I guess," he says and sinks back into his seat.
They drive for a while, threading their way up the peninsula until they're on a winding road that hugs the coastline. There is a wide turn and the cab comes to a halt. A woman in dark glasses and a baseball cap is leaning up against a tree. Aidan gets out and heads over to her.
"Hey," he calls.
Mara nods back, "Hi."
"So, change of plan?"
"I thought a beach run today, just for a bit of variety. What do you think? Get us out of the house."
"Sure. No problem."
Mara smiles and picks up her day pack, leading them towards the sound of the sea.
"You're not worried about being seen?" Aidan asks, but Mara just smiles and taps her shades.
"I'm in disguise. It's foolproof."
Aidan can see that she's wearing makeup. It's not much, but it highlights her delicate features. Behind the dark glasses, he can see she's applied a little mascara too, accenting her wide eyes. There are other changes as well, but they have taken longer. Her shoulders have become more defined over the last few weeks with the strength training regime Aidan's been putting her through. She's lost a little weight too. Walking behind her down to the beach, he casts his eyes over her body, noting the shape of her legs and the degree of toning in her thighs. Mara's working hard under Aidan's tutelage and the results are beginning to show.
She drops her bag in the sand and unzips her hoodie, revealing a tight exercise vest in a pastel blue that goes well with her running shorts. Aidan looks her up and down.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asks.
"Why?"
"You're going to get noticed."
"What makes you think that?"
She's grinning now, waiting for him to say it.
"Come on. Don't make me lay it out for you."
"Lay what out?"
She's determined to have her way, he can see.
"You're going to turn heads. People are going to look."
Mara laughs, having extracted the admission from him.
"You mean I look gorgeous?"
"Uh, yeah. Okay, yeah. You look really good."
Mara pouts and then looks at him over the top of her shades. She gives him a slow wink. He can see she's enjoying herself.
"You flatter me."
Aidan rises to the bait. "Just stating the facts."
Mara doesn't respond, but she's looking at him, grinning, like there's something else she wants to say. Instead, she turns and begins to jog down to the water.
"Coming?" she calls over her shoulder, "I don't have all day."
Aidan follows at a slow jog. He's gotten used to Mara. She's precocious, but he's learned how to manage that by ploughing a straight line and not getting pulled off course. Today is going to be one of those days, he can tell. Mara's buzzing with an infectious energy that seems to have bubbled up out of nowhere. She knows she's going to be a handful today and she's embracing it. Aidan catches up and falls in alongside her.
They run down to the southern end of the beach then turn around. The sand is the colour of red gold, pounded by the incessant waves of the Pacific, heaped up steeply after a recent storm. There are soft patches down by the foaming edge of the water that they have to dig their feet in, and Aidan can feel his calves beginning to burn. The pace is easy enough and he's running elbow to elbow with Mara.
She isn't talking, she's too focused. He's seen how she gets like this, how the Hollywood personality goes on hold as she hunkers down to get the job done. Despite his initial shock and misgivings about being in close contact with one of the most famous people in the world, they have established a rapport and he's been allowed to see the woman behind the posters; in private, there is a side to Mara that he likes.
The beach is long, sweeping in a gentle arc up to a rocky promontory with a white lighthouse on top. Up ahead, he can see a group of people on the beach. One of them appears to be carrying a large silver umbrella.
"Uh, hey, Mara. People."
"Yeah, it's a beach."
"Yeah, I mean, that looks like, uh...."
As they get closer, he can make out more details. There are six or seven of them, gathered around a young couple in a bikini and board shorts.
"It looks like a photo shoot," Aidan observes, "Maybe we should divert."
"You worry too much."
Mara doesn't slacken her pace or turn. They approach the group and now they're close enough for Aidan to see a film camera. They're setting up a shot with the young couple; a woman is fussing with the girl's hair while a man in a hoodie is talking to them both. Aidan keeps his head down as they go past and it looks like they're going to get away with it, since the little crowd are focused on their work.
"Dodged that," he grunts to Mara.
Mara slows her pace, dropping to a walk.
"Mara, hey, what are you doing?"
"I'm puffed. How about we take a break?"
"Yeah, maybe a little way up the beach."
Mara ignores him, heading up the sand. They've come back to where she dropped her day bag off. Mara scoops it up and turns to Aidan.
"Are we done, do you think?" she asks.
"Uh, I guess, if you want."
"Yeah. Let's grab a coffee."
Without waiting, she makes her way up to the grass with Aidan tagging along behind. He feels exposed, acutely aware of the people on the beach behind them and the fact that he has an incognito celebrity with him.
"We can skip the coffee," he suggests, but Mara shakes her head.
There's a café set back from the beach in the grass and a scattering of people at the outside tables. Aidan jogs to draw level with her.
"It's pretty risky. You sure about this?"
Mara smiles and slips her shades on.
"There, happy? I'm completely anonymous again."
Aidan opens his mouth to protest, but Mara isn't interested. She seems fixated on having a coffee and sitting down in the sun. Maybe it's a reaction to hiding in the house, maybe she's gone a little stir-crazy, he surmises. There are a lot of empty tables, it should be possible to contain the risk.
Mara walks up to the counter and slides her shades up. She smiles at the young girl behind the coffee machine. The girl glances at her.
"Just one minute."
Mara nods. "Okay, no rush."
The girl looks again and stops. Mara smiles.
"Just... uh... yeah. I gotta finish this order."
Aidan watches the girl turn her attention back to the coffees she's making. A few moments later, she calls out a name. Aidan can tell that Mara is enjoying the reaction she's provoked. The girl hands the coffees to a middle-aged man and then turns back to them. Her face is flushed.
"Cappuccino please and whatever he's having," Mara says.
"Just the same," Aidan replies.
The girl nods and is suddenly very busy, concentrating on the coffee machine. Mara pays, and when the girl hands them their cups, Mara thanks her. The girl smiles bashfully, but doesn't say anything. Mara turns away, looking for a table.
"There's this difference between people back home and Aussies," she comments, "Watch."
To Aidan's surprise, Mara selects a table in the middle and sits down. She doesn't put her shades back on. There is a ripple of conversation at a couple of nearby tables.
"It's more like in London. You can go into a restaurant, people don't bother you. They all know, and you get nods, but generally they leave you be. It's not like L.A."
