“How come no one knows this about you?” Juno asked, tracing her fingers down the olive skin of his torso. “In my research on you for the feature, your real name never came up.”
“Maybe my team was good at constructing that image,” Felipe shrugged. “I bet you didn’t know that Helen Mirren’s real name was Ilyena Mironov.” Juno looked at him like she couldn’t decide whether he was kidding. “Or that Ben Kingsley’s real name was Krishna Bhanji. A lot of actors are told they won’t get anywhere if they sound too ‘ethnic.'” Juno grimaced.
“It’s not all bad, corazόn,” Felipe said, brushing his fingers across his lover’s collarbone. “I didn’t legally change my name like a lot of actors do. What started in racism turned out to be great for my privacy. One time, a cop pulled me over, looked at my license, and told me I look like that action hero. I told him yeah, I get that a lot.” Juno grinned as Felipe went on.
“Plus, Nico’s last name is also Cifuentes so I don’t need to worry about LA paparazzi tracking him down at school.”
“Nico…” Juno remembered, regret heavy in her voice. “I need to tell him I’m sorry for stopping my visits without even warning him.” Felipe was heartened to know it hadn’t just been his imagination that his little boy and the love of his life had developed something of a relationship over the last while.
“Come with me to pick him up,” he suggested. “He’s at a birthday party now and I have to get him in an hour.”
“A whole hour?” Juno asked, lowering her mouth to Felipe’s nipple and making him flinch when she gently tugged on it with her teeth. “What are we going to do until then?” Quick as a whip, Felipe flipped Juno over onto her stomach and covered her body with his own, his stiffness already pressing against her fleshy bottom.
“I don’t know,” he casually said, reaching around to stroke her breasts with his thumbs. He reveled in Juno’s moans as he pinned her squirming legs with his own. “Maybe I can throw out a few ideas and you tell me what works for you?”
***Epilogue, three years later***
“It’s gonna be weird being on the other side of this,” Juno told Felipe as their limo neared the venue and they saw roaring crowds lining the streets of downtown Toronto. “I’m used to asking the questions.”
“You’ve already been on the other side of this, sweetie,” her husband reminded her. “But now that this is our second movie together, just brace yourself for more attention coming your way.”
Since the film based off Juno’s short story wasn’t an action film and didn’t have many characters to cast and direct, it had been a fairly straightforward picture to make. Hibiscus Films was able to release it within two years of End Code, not hiding the fact that its star, Felipe, and its writer, Juno, were engaged.
The initial buzz around that gossip gave the film an edge at the limited number of theatres it was released in, but Felipe had been right–Juno’s original plot gave the movie staying power, leading it to ultimately draw $70 million in revenue on a shoestring $5 million budget.
“Ungh, baby, why do you keep your ringer on overnight?” Juno groused to Felipe early one January morning. It had been about four months since her screenwriting debut rocked the box office, and two weeks since they’d eloped. Felipe’s phone was exploding despite it still being dark out.
“It’s the morning of the Golden Globe announcements,” Felipe told his new bride, ruffling Juno’s hair before reaching for his phone on the nightstand. “And since Nico is with Chelsea, I can’t just switch it off in case there’s an emergency.”
“I know, but it’s our honeymoon,” she complained, pulling the duvet over her head. “If it doesn’t have to do with eating, sleeping, or fucking, I don’t wanna–”
“Oh my god, corazόn, look at this!” Felipe exclaimed. Their first movie together had netted Juno a nomination for best screenplay. She sat straight up in bed and scrolled through her husband’s texts, bewilderment splashed across her groggy face.
Then she reached for her own phone, which had similarly exploded but had been on silent all night long. When the ceremony came around, Juno begged Felipe to not drag her to LA but he ironically insisted as it was their first movie together. She was relieved when she lost, and even more relieved when the film fell short of an Oscar nom.
“Thank god we get to stay home,” she said that morning as Felipe chuckled, marveling at how she was even more of a recluse than he was.
Juno had had more time to write their second film together as she’d quit her job at GTA Life. That bio-pic–about Emiliano Zapata and starring her husband–was the premier they were now headed to at the Toronto International Film Festival.
TIFF banners hung from every building within a city block’s reach, and Juno drew a few slow breaths to calm her nerves. Felipe took her hand as he always did when they stepped into the throngs at work events, opened the limo door, and escorted her out.
She tried to resist the urge to squint at camera flashes shooting like lightning around her, still not used to plastering on a smile the way Felipe could. But at least this time she knew the drill. First, however, they’d have to slowly walk the red carpet and talk to the press.
Felipe had correctly predicted that she would have more questions directed toward her. Juno looked over at him before answering the first time, but he simply shrugged and smiled, reveling in the attention his talented wife was getting. He went over to the public’s area to take pictures and sign autographs to avoid stealing her thunder while she finished talking to several media outlets in the press line.
“One last question, Ms. Delfina,” the final interviewer called out, as Felipe came back shortly before they were due to go inside the theatre.
“The first time we saw you both together at the Toronto premier of End Code three years ago, there was already speculation that you were an item. Did you actually meet writing your first screenplay at that time, or did you know each other before that?”
Juno tossed a grin at her husband as she squeezed his hand and turned to go inside with him. Then she winked at the interviewer as she stepped away.
“Both.”
***END***