SFX people . . .” He shook his head, his golden hair glowing in the candlelight, and she couldn’t look away. “The show has over a thousand crew members, and they’re all amazing, April. The hardest-working, most talented people I’ve ever met.”
That didn’t sound like a platitude. It sounded like a bone-deep truth.
For the first time that night, April excused herself to the restroom. Once there, she used the facilities, washed her hands, and didn’t leave immediately.
Instead, she dabbed more cold water on her wrists. The back of her neck. Only two of the many places she was suddenly much too hot, even though she knew better. She did.
She stared at herself in the mirror. Red hair. Freckles. Brown eyes behind contact lenses. Round breasts, round belly, round thighs. All normal.
Not normal: the rosy flush on her cheeks, and the slight ache between those thighs.
Because she suddenly wanted him. Marcus. Caster. Hyphen. Rupp. The dim, vain man who was, apparently, neither vain nor dim. Or at least not as vain and dim as he pretended.
He was still gorgeous, however. Still famous.
And only having dinner with her tonight out of kindness, not desire for her company or her body or anything else specific to her.
Well, shit.
GODS OF THE GATES: SEASON 1, EPISODE 3
EXT. MOUNTAINSIDE CAVE – DUSK
JUNO waits inside the entrance, half in shadows, expression calm and righteous. When LEDA ventures within, Juno makes no sudden movements, aware that the woman her husband has wronged—yet another woman he has violated—has no reason to trust her, and may fear the vengeance of a possessive wife.
JUNO
Trust my good will, if you can. I no longer find relief in petty jealousy, and am no longer foolish enough to blame a mortal maiden for the rapaciousness of an all-powerful god.
LEDA
I would not have betrayed you, mother Juno. Not if resistance were in my power.
EUROPA glides through the entrance, armed, shaking with fear.
EUROPA
Whatever tortures you may choose to inflict upon me, you can do no worse than the man you call husband.
JUNO
I no longer call him husband. And if we make common cause, none of us need call him king of the gods for long.
GODS OF THE GATES: SEASON 6, EPISODE 2
INT. AENEAS AND LAVINIA’S HOME – NIGHT
LAVINIA waits by the fire. She’s pissed. He’s been fucking Anna, Dido’s sister. She knows it. AENEAS enters the house.
LAVINIA
Where you have been, my husband?
AENEAS
That is not your concern.
Whatever. He doesn’t need this shit. When Lavinia cries, he walks away.
6
WHILE APRIL VISITED THE BATHROOM, MARCUS REGROUPED.
Somehow, she’d gotten him talking about things he actually wanted to talk about. Worse, doing so in the same way he might with Alex, the one person he trusted without hesitation. Alex, who definitely wouldn’t contact a blogger and say, I think Marcus Caster-Rupp has been fucking with everyone this whole time as some kind of big joke.
His public persona wasn’t a joke. It never had been. But unless he controlled the narrative—as he’d advised her to do earlier that night—his behavior could easily be construed that way. If he chose to shed his persona, it had to be on his terms, and only on his terms. For the sake of his career, but also his own troubled conscience.
When April got back from the bathroom, Well-Groomed Golden Retriever was going to make his triumphant return to the stage, ready to perform his few hard-won tricks. Or maybe he’d simply turn the conversation to her life, her job, and let her do all the talking for the rest of the evening.
In the meantime, he got out his phone and checked his messages. Not those on the Lavineas server, since he wanted time and privacy to read any DMs from Ulsie. But by now, reactions to the showrunners’ ominous message several days before should be all over the cast’s private group chat. And . . . sure enough.
Carah: for the record, I’m not saying a goddamn word to anyone about this season
Carah: saving that for my fucking MEMOIRS, bitches
Ian: whoever hid my tuna, it’s not funny
Carah: hahahahahaha
Ian: give it back, assholes, Jupiter needs protein for this last week of shooting
Summer: I don’t know why we need a new reminder about the confidentiality clause in our contracts each season
Summer: it’s a little insulting
Summer: @Carah: looking forward to reading that, hon
Alex: no one wants your pocket tuna, Ian, you probably just ate it without realizing
Maria: THIS
Alex: I mean, it was like your twelfth serving of fish today, so
Peter: yeah, probably not very memorable, all things considered
Maria: do you