Fat Funny Famous

Chapter 13

"I want a shower."

"Do you? Really? When you could just stay here in bed with me?"

"Well, I should have a shower."

"I like the way you smell."

"Gross! No, you don't."

"I most certainly do. Your scent, it's addictive." Erik buries his head in the crook of my neck and inhales. "I don't know if it's pheromones or atoms or your essence, I just know I can't get enough."

I giggle, throwing my arms around him, relishing in the simple pleasure of running my hands down his back. "So, what do you want to do today?"

"This," he says, continuing to nestle against me.

"You know we have to go back to reality next week."

"All the more reason to ignore the world today."

"We're pretty good at that," I admit. We've been holed up in our own private world for six weeks now, but it feels like it's only been six days. When we wrapped on set, we were told to go to ground while the edit of the preview was created for the test audiences. The studio didn't want either of us appearing anywhere, so we've taken them literally, renting a boutique farm stay in the rolling hills of the Sunshine Coast, miles from anyone who knew us.

The farmhouse has been meticulously renovated, retaining its vintage vibes while incorporating all the modern necessities like Wi-Fi and a hot tub. Out every window, there is nothing but calm countryside; no other buildings or roads or people in sight. Once a week, a delivery truck rolls up, dropping off food, supplies and wine. Other than that, we haven't seen another human since we've arrived. It's bliss, a world of our own creation, a secluded bubble of sex and love and discovery.

We haven't been bored, not for a moment. When we make it out of bed (which isn't often), we play board games, take long walks, soak in the hot tub for hours, cook extravagant meals, and speak about everything and nothing.

The sex has been wild. Doing the maths, we've made love on average three times a day – five times was our record, and we were so spent afterwards, we slept for 14 hours straight – so our total is well over a hundred by this point. We've had gentle sex and experimental sex, rough sex and lazy sex and everything in between. We've made love in every room, on every surface: the kitchen bench, the porch swing, the uncomfortable occasional chair in our bedroom with inconveniently placed armrests. I keep waiting for our libidos to cry uncle, but so far, it hasn't happened. Sometimes we only have to look at each other with a lifted eyebrow and we're off again.

Even now, we've just made lazy morning love, both of us still half-asleep as we reached for each other, but I can already sense my needy body calling for his again. "Will it always be like this?" I say dreamily, tracing my fingers along Erik's chest, around his nipples and along his naval.

"If I could freeze time, I would keep us here forever," he replies, his hands warm against my back. "But unless we want to become hermits, we'll need to figure out how to make our relationship work with our lives."

"What does that look like for you?" I ask, genuinely curious. "I mean, what's a normal day in your life like right now?"

"I travel a lot. I take the acting jobs that interest me. I live in hotels and go where the work is. I love going out and trying new food and meeting new people. What about you?"

"I'm kinda the opposite? I'm a homebody – I love doing theatre roles because I spend months in the one place, bonding with people, and then if I do another role with the same company, there's often the same people there again and it feels like coming home. I spend a lot of time with Vin and my family, just chilling and making food and watching movies..."