Hibiscus Films by FlynnTalwar

“But you’ve messed up that narrative at every turn,” Juno went on. “And then you even quit smoking and it was like, fuck.” They both grinned, her hair falling forward to brush against his face. Felipe gently pushed it back and tucked it behind her ear, enthralled at getting to touch it for the first time.

“And then what you said just now was the last straw to break the camel’s back,” Juno said, lightly combing her fingers through Felipe’s chest hair. “So in conclusion, I’m sorry. It shouldn’t have taken this much to convince me you’re a real person and not just a smaller, Colombian version of The Rock.”

“Hey, Dwayne Johnson is a really down-to-earth guy,” Felipe protested. “His work in mental health awareness is huge. And he inspired my goatee.” They broke into quiet chuckles again before Felipe held the tip of Juno’s chin and lifted his lips up to hers.

His chaste kisses escalated within seconds of Juno slowly pushing her tongue past his lips, then scraping it against the roof of his mouth. Felipe was giddy with desire, trailing his mouth down past Juno’s jawline, down her neck and to her collarbone. His hands were on either side of her thighs while hers quickly undid a few more buttons on his shirt.

She was panting and squirming against Felipe’s iron-hard cock, still restrained within his suit trousers. Then she pushed her breasts upward toward his face. Felipe groaned as he slipped off the left strap of Juno’s dress, then licked and sucked her stiff, tan nipple.

Juno cried out before catching herself, still not convinced the driver couldn’t hear them. She buried her nose in Felipe’s hair and held on to his shoulders beneath the fabric of his dress shirt, whimpering softly against his ear. Nothing could have turned Felipe on more, and he let one hand wander north along her thigh while still sucking her breast.

“Carter…” Juno breathed when she felt his fingers slowly traverse the leg opening of her panties, just millimeters away from her clit. “Please, Carter.”

No, Felipe’s eyes widened as he realized he’d waited too long to tell her who he really was. I’ll be damned if the woman I’ve wanted all this time is gonna call out the wrong name now, he thought, pulling back. It was a gargantuan task to push her dress strap back up onto her shoulder but he did it, then shifted a perplexed Juno to the seat beside him.

“There’s something I have to tell you,” he started. “We actually–”

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…

“¡manda cojones,” he swore at his phone alarm that alerted him their hour outside the theatre was almost done.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Juno rubbed his chest before doing up a couple of his shirt buttons. “It’s just as well. We wouldn’t have finished anyway.”

“Speak for yourself,” Felipe gave her a weak smile.

“Look, just a little longer at the after-party and we’ll be back here. Tell me anything you want then. Right now, I’m going to fix my makeup,” she said, smiling at his erection trying to tear through his pants, “and you’re going to think about how the Leafs haven’t won the Cup since 1967.”

Juno

I wonder who designated Yorkville as the go-to celebrity spot, Juno wondered as she sat in the darkened lounge of a posh restaurant where the after-party was taking place. Several people had already come up to Carter and congratulated him on his movie, and Juno was getting to feel like arm candy.

As if he’d read her mind, Carter’s hand crept over to hers on the seat of the booth they were nestled in, and they smiled at each other as he held her fingers in his.

“I am literally counting down the minutes until it’s acceptable to make an exit,” he whispered to her. “I had a much better time every night in the last two weeks sitting at home and writing with you than I ever did at any of these parties.”

Juno resisted the urge to lean over and kiss him, especially when Evan and a friend of his walked past. They gave Juno and Carter a small wave as they took their drinks to the booth behind them. Then Carter stood up when one of the film’s producers approached their table.

“I know everyone and their mother has stolen your date from you,” the portly older man smiled at Juno. “But I promise this will be the last time tonight for me.” Carter threw her an apologetic glance as he stepped away, and Juno sipped her drink while looking around the room. Then her ears perked up when she heard her native tongue being spoken right behind her.

I was right, Evan is Thai, she thought excitedly, knowing there were barely 20,000 people of Thai descent living in Canada. And so is his buddy. She was about to turn around and crack a joke in the same language when he kept talking.

“I have to hand it to him, he’s never lacking for gorgeous women,” she heard Evan continue.

“Shhh, she’s on the other side of this booth,” his friend responded.

“So what? What are the chances she understands Thai? Her last name alone sounds like it’s Filipino, if anything.”

Nice try, pal, Juno smirked, now intrigued. I guess that’s the silver lining to taking your South African ex-husband’s surname.

“But I’m sick of this shit,” Evan said more seriously, in what Juno recognized to be a Phuket accent. “Some magazine writer comes along and spreads, and he’s paying her to write a screenplay? Must be sweet to have a nice rack.”

The sudden shock of the statement was only rivaled by Juno’s queasiness.

“And my ass that they’re just ‘friends,'” Evan continued, clearly slurring from his drinks at this point. “He’s been glued to her all night like a bodyguard.

“Well, it’s not who you know; it’s who you blow,” Evan’s buddy acquiesced. “Who did they think they were fooling sneaking out of the showing and then sneaking back in like that?”

“Maybe she’ll be ‘friends’ with us if we offer her a job,” Evan added, which was followed by their raucous laughter.

Their conversation turned to Juno’s dress, hair, and body, but she only heard parts of it as she frantically ordered a taxi on her phone, her tears blurring her vision. She spotted Carter about 10 meters away near the bar, still speaking with his producer, but his back was toward her.

She quietly grabbed her clutch and made her way toward the door, then wiped her face as she stood on the sidewalk waiting for her cab. The mid-September night air would have felt frigid if her skin wasn’t burning hot with rage and humiliation.

Once in the back of the taxi, she sent Carter what she intended to be a final text.

Carter, thanks for the nice night. I took a cab home. What happened between us was a mistake. I will no longer write the screenplay for you, but I will sell you the rights to my story if you want to proceed alone. You can talk to my lawyer, but please don’t contact me again for whatever reason.

Putting her phone back in her purse and taking out a few tissues, Juno quietly sobbed in the back seat for the rest of the ride home.

Felipe/Carter

“Oh, for the love of–” Felipe bit his tongue when he was just about to curse out the milk he spilled across the kitchen counter instead of into his son’s cereal bowl.

“The love of what, Papa?” Nico asked from the table, still in his footie pajamas. Felipe sighed as he retrieved a rag and doused it in soapy water.