When Ethan Caldwell walks through the door of the gym, I notice all female eyes turn to watch him. He isn't that famous yet so I'm not sure if it's just his good looks or the fact that this is LA and everyone knows all the actors before the rest of the world. He smiles when he sees me in reception and brushes his fringe from his eyes. I'm sure there was an audible sigh from said females as he does this.
"Hello, Wanda, what dastardly deeds will you have for me doing today?"
His accent does make your pants gooey. "I thought we would perform some kick boxing moves and then go out for a run, so pretty much all cardio today."
"Sounds great," he says not looking too sure.
I have sectioned off a selection of bags for him to work on. We begin with a warm up on the rower then work on the bags. We start with some front snap kicks followed by sidekicks and a roundhouse. I make him put on his gloves and show him some strike combinations – thank you, YouTube!
Ethan is really working hard and seems to be enjoying his session, which is a relief. After forty minutes, we head outside for a jog through Runyon Canyon Park.
"You were pretty good in there," I remark as I look up through my sunglasses.
"Thanks, I enjoyed it actually."
The main trail in the park is called Inspiration Point, it's peaceful and the sun in November is heaven. We carry on at a gentle pace in silence until some guy from the other side of a tree calls out 'Nick' and Ethan turns sharply. I look at him, his face is crumpled and he whips off his sunglasses to peer at the man calling. The guy doesn't notice Ethan and greets another man – Nick, I assume – and walks in the opposite direction. Ethan gives me a short grin and increases his stride.
I choose to ignore the incident until we stop to stretch. "Did you think you knew that guy earlier?" I ask as casually as I can.
"Auch no, he just interrupted my thought is all."
"Oh, only I thought maybe Ethan wasn't your real name." He doesn't say anything so I add, "Or maybe you have some skeletons in your proverbial cupboard and one escaped?" I say this with humour but Ethan doesn't look amused.
"Listen, Missy, you are here to train me and get me in great shape for this role. You do not need to know my background, my family history or what I had for breakfast. You just need to work on keeping me fit, got it?"
I may have hit a nerve. I should just say yes sir and carry on with my job but my brain fart filter is not working and I add. "Actually I do need to know what you had for breakfast." I freeze in the hope he bursts out laughing; it was rather funny after all. Instead he wipes his hand over his face, takes a deep breath and says, "Let's just finish our workout shall we?"
Touchy bastard. I take him through his stretches and we power walk back to the gym in silence. Ethan gets into his car and I decide to act like nothing has happened and smile before asking "Monday at 5am okay for your next training session?"
Ethan's brow creases in thought. "I'll check where I'm going to be and let you know."
"Okay. Don't forget to stretch over the weekend."
Ethan nods before closing his door and driving off.
Saturday 2nd November
Dinner with RoloI'm getting ready to meet Rolo for dinner and decide to not worry about what to wear and stick with jeans and a decent T-shirt. Rolo has great fashion sense so I look again at my outfit and add a Trilby.
Rolo turns up wearing drainpipe trousers in light grey with a white T-shirt and a waistcoat. His shoes are very pointy and bright red. Jared would love his wardrobe. The cab arrives and takes us to Ralf's bar and grill.
On entering the restaurant, a cloud of mouth-watering smoke hits my nostrils. There is a BBQ pit to one side of the restaurant and booths on the other. Families are chatting whilst tucking in to ribs and there is calypso-style music playing in the background. My tummy is rumbling and I feel myself turning back into British Wanda, with her penchant for bad food and alcohol. We are shown to a booth and the waitress – or perhaps they're all called waiter here – comes over with some menus.
"I need to ask you something," Rolo says looking serious.
"Okay, what's up?" I lean in slightly.
"Are you going to tell Kristen what I eat tonight?"
I lean in further. "What happens in Ralph's stays in Ralph's." We exchange nods and get stuck into the menu.
The first cocktail goes down in about six seconds with half a bowl of popcorn so we order another cocktail with ribs, chicken and a side order of coleslaw and sweetcorn.
"So how was the lovely Ethan Caldwell today?" Rolo asks before downing the last of his cocktail.
He called him lovely. Now that's just thrown me again. Oh sod it; I'm just going to ask. "He's fine. Rolo, I need to ask you something."
We both lean in again.
"No, of course not," Rolo says gently and smiles.
Oh my God he knew I was going to ask if he was gay! Now I feel awkward, what do I say? "Oh, I didn't think you were, so why does Kristen think you're gay?"
Rolo sits back in his chair; he looks confused. "What are you talking about?"
Oh poop. This isn't going as planned. "What did you think I was going to ask you?"
"I thought you were going to ask me not to tell Kristen what you eat tonight."
"Oh. Sorry, I just wanted to ask you straight out if you are gay only I didn't think you were even though you dress great and I don't know why Kristen thinks you are, not that I care whether you are or not, did I tell you my brother is gay and It's just that—"
"Wanda, take a breath girl, you'll give yourself a heart attack."
I take a breath and slump back in my seat. "Sorry."
"And to answer your question, no I'm not gay."
"Yes! I knew I was right."
"But, I do pretend to be gay sometimes."
Okay, now I'm confused. I narrow my eyes and wait for an explanation.
The waitress brings our food and drink. It smells wonderful. She smiles, says 'enjoy your meal' and I look back at Rolo who shrugs his shoulders.
"When I first became a make-up artist, every male in my class was gay and I always felt left out when we had nights out. I wasn't manly enough that the girls wanted to be with me so I spent quite a bit of time alone. Then when I started working, the whole industry seemed to look down on me somehow because I wasn't gay. It was as thought they were suspicious that a heterosexual would take up such a career. Like I was going to change my mind and run off to be a builder or something, so I pretended to be gay. As you have pointed out I am stylish and flamboyant," he says indicating his waistcoat, "so it wasn't hard and I landed more jobs."
I sit and stare into his big blue eyes. His fair hair shaved on one side does make him look the part. "This is the most bizarre place on earth," I say shaking my head. "Let's eat."
We devour the entire meal and order another cocktail. This time we go for something called a Malibu Babe, which is pink, creamy and could blow the socks off a sweaty runner.
"So tell me about young Ethan Caldwell," Rolo says, pushing his plate to one side.
I can't decide whether I should talk about him or not but I've had three cocktails and my resolve is low. "Well I think his name is not Ethan Caldwell for a start."
"Why do you think that?"
"Well we were jogging along the hiking trail and some guy called out Nick and he turned around." I'm expecting a look of shock on his face but he just crinkles his slightly snub nose. He is obviously waiting for something more interesting. "He could be an axe murderer or something."
Rolo's nose is still crinkled. "Wanda most people here, especially actors, change their name to try and boost their career. It's hardly front page news."
I'm slightly deflated by his reaction but I carry on. "Well, why does he get so defensive whenever I ask him about himself?"
"Maybe he doesn't like talking about himself; not all actors do." We look at each other for a second before we explode with laughter.
"Okay that was funny. Oh and the other thing is, Alison from the gym keeps trying to find out more about him by asking me stuff. She said she thinks something is pretty dodgy about that boy."
"Alison said that?"
"Maybe not in those words but it was along those lines, yeah."
"Then you know what you have to do don't you?"
"What?" I ask taking a sip of my Malibu Babe.
"You need to steal his phone or his computer and have a root round. There's bound to be something in one of them."
"That would be a great idea but I don't think I even care. Let's just forget about Nick or whoever he is and enjoy our evening."
"Shall I Google Nicolas Caldwell?"
"Ooh yeah, great idea."
I take my drink and go and sit next to Rolo who is having trouble poking his letters correctly. We wait in silence as the magic of Google reveals ... nothing. Nothing we didn't already know anyway.
"I suppose if he changed his first name he could have changed his surname too?" I suggest.
"To what though?"
"Dunno, we will have to go to plan B and I will steal his laptop when I'm training at his house next week."
"I thought you trained him at the studio or in the gym?"
"I go wherever he tells me, baby."
"Why don't I come as your assistant?"
I narrow my eyes at him. "I don't think personal trainers have assistants."
"Tell him I'm trying a new make up and need to check how well it stands up to sweaty fight scenes."
"Do you think he'll go for that?"
"He's an up-and-coming star they love all the attention, even when most of it is people who need something from him blowing smoke up his ass."
I sit back in my seat and twist my glass around. "I think there may have been smoke coming out of his arse the other day on the trail when I asked him about Nick."
We both fall into each other laughing.
"So that's sorted," Rolo says. "Shall we have another drink?"
"Thought you would never ask."