Dangerous Liaisons

6. Coupling

"You've come!" Keira cried excitedly when she spotted the two men in the crowd. They had just arrived at Keira's party and were looking for the host when it found them. She hugged Orlando tightly.

"Hi! It's been ages. I'm so happy you've come." She said with a huge smile on her lips.

Orlando answered her smile. "Happy Birthday, sweetie."

"Thank you! And Johnny, so happy to see you again. Great that you've brought him." Keira said, hugging the older man.

"Thanks for inviting us. Oh, and Happy Birthday." He smiled.

Orlando excused himself and left them, as he had seen someone he knew. Keira looked at Johnny. "So, anything new between you two?" She winked. She really liked the idea of the two men becoming a couple.

Johnny shrugged. "I think we're getting closer." He smiled. "What about you? Has Jack turned up already?"

She blushed. "Yes, he's here. But I don't know what to do or say."

"Do you want me to talk to him? I could try to ask him how he feels about you." Johnny suggested.

"What? You want to tell him that I love him? No way!" Keira protested.

"I'm not going to tell him that unless you want me to. No, but I could try to find out if he would consider you as his future girlfriend without making it obvious that you want him."

Keira looked sceptically, then nodded. "Alright. And I'm going to talk to Orlando in the meantime. Look, there he is!" She cried out excitedly when she saw Jack standing at the bar and pointed at him.

"Alright." Johnny said. "Meet you in a few minutes." Then he headed straight to Jack.

When he arrived at the bar, he hit the other man slightly on the shoulder in order to get his attention. Jack turned his head and saw Johnny. "Hey! You're here? Great to see you."

Johnny smiled. "Hi, how are you?"

"Phantastic, and you?" Jack answered.

"Great too." Johnny said leaning against the bar and taking a look at Keira. "Doesn't she just look ravishing?"

Jack turned his head to look at Keira and slightly blushed. "Gorgeous..."

Johnny saw the blush on his friend's face and grinned. "Jahack, is there something you want to tell me?"

"What?" Jack asked, quickly taking a sip of his beer.

"Could it be that you fancy our little Keira?" he asked teasingly.

"What? No!" Jack protested but the red colour in his face said something different.

"Oh come on, you can tell me. Don't think I can't see the look of love on your face."

Jack sighed and stared at his shoes. "Yes, I might be a bit in love with her, so what? She's young, beautiful, smart, funny, perfect... It's not like I had any chance."

Johnny shook his head. 'If you only knew.', he thought. He had promised to Keira that he wouldn't tell Jack that she loved him, but it would make it all so much easier for them.

"Go to her and tell her." Johnny ordered.

"No, I can't. Are you out of your mind? Really, I can't. It's better she doesn't know because she'll reject me anyway." Jack sighed sadly.

"And what if I tell you that you've got very high chances?" Johnny asked.

Jack looked at him. "What? Do you know something I don't?" Suddenly, he was very attentive.

"Don't let her know that you know, but she's madly in love with you." Johnny winked.

"You mean... really?"

"Yeah. She's crazy about you, but too shy to do something about it. Come on. Dare to make the first move."

"You really think I should?" Jack asked with a look of insecurity.

"Yes! What are you waiting for? Come on, don't be so shy, you really got everything a woman - or a man - could possibly want, trust me." Johnny laughed

"Alright." Jack said. "But first I need another drink."

~ * ~ * ~


Meanwhile, Orlando and Keira were having an other conversation.

"So, Orli-Poo, how you've been?" She asked him.

Orlando rolled his eyes at the nickname, but smiled. He couldn't be mad at his younger co-star. "Actually, I'm fine. What about you?"

"Well, you know me, nothing can bring me down, so I'm always great." She explained. "So, how's your love-life, darling?"

Orlando shrugged. "Well, nothing new. I told you I'm with Kate and I'm very happy with her." He looked in his glass, then emptied it in one swallow. Why didn't that sound as convincing as he wanted it to sound and as he felt it?

Keira frowned: "Something you want to tell me, Poopoo?"

Orlando sighed. "Orli-Poo's okay, but not Poopoo, please."

Keira grinned. "I'm sorry. So, what's troubling you, love?"

Orlando was looking at her, not knowing if he should tell her what was going on, but he didn't even exactly know what was happening, so he didn't know what to tell her. "I... nothing. I don't know."

"Don't hit me, but could it be that this has anything to do with... Johnny?" She asked carefully. Of course, she knew that Orlando would never hit her but she said it anyway.

Orlando looked at her. "What makes you think that?"

Keira shrugged. "I don't know. So?"

"Oh Keira, I don't know." He answered with a desperate look on his face. "I really don't know. It's... eversince he's staying at my place, I don't know, maybe it's just that I haven't seen Kate for quite a while, but I somehow, I don't know, I don't think about her every night like I did before and I don't miss her anymore. How is that possible? I mean, I love her and nothing's changed between us, but... God, I'm so confused!"

Keira raised her eyebrows. Wow. She didn't expect Orlando to tell her that much. But at least, she had some good news for Johnny.

"Shh, calm down, Orli-Poo. It's alright." She tried to calm him a bit. "So, you think that Johnny's the cause for your confusion?"

"Who else? Yesterday... we... no, nothing." He said, looking at his shoes. He couldn't tell Keira that.

"What, yesterday?" Keira asked curiously. She really hoped to hear a bit more about it.

"Nothing." Orlando replied.

"Come on, Orli-bear, you know you can tell me everything." Keira asked, using her cutest puppy-look to convince him.

Orlando thought about it for some seconds, then took a deep breath and started explaining: "I came home and Johnny was sleeping on the sofa and somehow... I was overwhelmed of how... beautiful he is." He stopped, not knowing how else to explain the scene from the day before. "And... I was in trance or something because when Johnny woke up, I was suddenly sitting beside him and... touching his hair. Keirie, please tell me, you've got an explanation for all that. I've tried to avoid Johnny, but this afternoon, he put his arm around me while we were watching a film and I didn't push him away. I don't know what's happening to me, he's my friend and I've got a girlfriend and I've-" He suddenly stopped because Jack Davenport had just joined them.

"You've got a girlfriend?" Jack asked. "Still Kate?"

Orlando nodded, looking uncomfortably away. How much of their conversation had Jack overheard? He hadn't been very careful about the location where he told Keira all this, there were people all around and anyone could've heard it.

Keira looked at Jack, then turned her head to look at Johnny who was sitting on a chair by the bar winking at her. The bastard! Had he told Jack something?

"Well um... I... I was wondering if you'd like to dance with me?" he asked Keira shyly. Both of their heads turned dark read and when Keira eventually found her voice back, she stuttered, trying to explain to Orlando that they were going to continue their conversation later. Then she smiled shyly at Jack and nodded. "Yes, I'd love to."

Orlando looked at his two friends with a frown. What was going on there? Had he missed something. He had to grin at how embarrassed both of them were. Then he decided to leave the two lovebirds on their own and headed to the bar, not immediately seeing that Johnny was sitting there. When he was already halfway there, Johnny turned around to face him and Orlando panicked changing his direction to run rather than walk to the loo. Johnny frowned. He swallowed the rest of his drink, then followed him to the bathroom.

When he entered it, he called softly: "Orlando?" He took a look around. The bathroom was empty. He analysed the cabins and realized that one of them was locked. "Orlando, are you there?"

He didn't get any answer but his feeling told him that it was Orlando who had locked himself in there. "Something wrong?" When Orlando still didn't answer, he continued: "Honey, do you think I don't notice that you're avoiding me?"

"I'm not." Said the soft voice on the other side of the door.

"Can you unlock the door, please?" Johnny asked.

"It's not locked..." Orlando whispered.

Johnny pushed down the doorknob, then opened the door a bit to see his friend sitting on the floor his head on his knees. He was so sorry to cause the young man such misery. Those feelings were new for him, the only one he'd always been caring about was himself.

"Orli? What's wrong?" he asked starting to worry about him.

Orlando took a deep breath, then raised his head to smile at Johnny. "Nothing's wrong, I'm fine. Let's go back inside." He got up and quickly passed Johnny heading for the door. Johnny was frowning in worry. Orlando was trying to hide it as well as possible but it was obvious that there had been some tears in his lover's eyes. Why didn't he tell him what was going on? He could imagine that he was involved but he wanted Orlando to talk to him. The young man had always been good at hiding his feelings. The only one he had always talked to at the set of Pirates was Keira. Of course, Keira! He had probably told him, what was bothering him, so he just had to ask Keira about it and he knew what was going on. When he looked at the door of the bathroom, Orlando had already disappeared.

When Johnny got back, he saw Jack and Keira on the dancefloor kissing. He smiled. He had always been great at bringing people together. And if the love was there, the rest wasn't very difficult. He looked around in order to see Orlando, but he couldn't find him. He wanted to leave the party in order to drive around and look for his beloved Orlando when someone tipped him on the shoulder. He turned his head and was relieved to see Orlando standing there, offering him a glass of beer. He smiled and accepted the beer. Then he looked at Keira and Jack. "Aren't they cute?"

"Yes. They are." Orlando smiled.

"Yep. And it's all due to me." Johnny sighed happily.

Orlando looked at him. "What, really? How?"

Johnny grinned. "Keira told me, she fancied Jack, I found out that Jack returns her feelings, so I just helped them out a bit."

Orlando smiled. "That's nice of you." He looked at Johnny with admiration, then suddenly when he realized that he was staring, turned his head to look at the new couple.

Johnny smiled too. For a few seconds, he considered putting his arm around Orlando, then changed his mind. 'Not in public. Maybe there'll be opportunity for that later.' He thought.

When he had emptied his glass, Johnny took a look at his watch. "So, what do you think? Time to go home?"

Orlando drank the last drops of his beer, then nodded his head in acceptance before they left and went back home.

Tbc...